This kind of thing happens more than people realize. No Bueno: A Mexican Navy Ship Crashed Into the Brooklyn Bridge Tonight
Unless it is a container ship that causes a bridge to fall down, as happened in Baltimore, or it is an unusual ship, like this one, people don't pay attention to it.
This incident was a slow-moving disaster, leaving multiple injured deckhands behind. A ship from the Mexican Navy, Cuauhtémoc, crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. Onlookers captured the accident as mast after mast broke off when the vessel couldn’t clear the historic landmark. Sailors at the top of the masts were caught clinging for their lives
The link at the top has some video and still photos of the collision and the aftermath.
Social media was buzzing over this, and the title to this post was "borrowed" from a user on X. People were wondering why the sailors were on the top of the mast. That is how you control a tall ship, with men aloft. Modern safety concerns mean all of the sailors were in safety harnesses. Not something that would have been the case 100 or more years ago.
The video below has some explanation of what may have happened, though there is a lot of speculation on some fronts. What isn't speculated is the tidal current, and nature of the East River, which is covered in the video.
ARM Cuauhtémoc is a steel-hulled Barque, that is roughly 220 feet long, and 39 feet wide, drawing 17 and a half feet. It is a training vessel with 186 officer and crew, and 90 trainees.
Sal Mercogliano at What's Going On With Shipping video Mexican Naval Training Ship ARM Cuauhtémoc Timeline | What Contributed to the Allision? (Allision is the correct term. Collision is what happens when two ships collide. Allision is when one ship dashes against a stationary object, like a bridge.)
If you want more on this, Sal Mercogliano has additional videos on this incident at his YouTube channel.
I'm struggling to understand why and how the Captain and senior officers did not check the clearance height of their tall masts to the bridge? That seems to me to be a VERY critical navigation requirement exact like knowing where the shoreline is so the boat does not run aground. I would think with dead sailors then the careers of the Captain plus senior officers should also have their career killed. "Dereliction of duty" charges.
ReplyDeleteThey were not trying to go under the bridge. They were trying to go in the opposite direction, but got caught in the current, or someone put the engine in reverse instead of forward.
DeleteI'm a bit surprised that they didn't utilize a tug. One was available.
One of those stories I think I heard is that the ship lost engine power. Isn't that what happened in the Baltimore wreck last year? The one in which the Francis Scott Key bridge was hit. I'm getting the feeling that probably happens quite a bit more than we hear.
DeleteBoats collide with stuff everyday. Or pretty often anyway. It only makes news if it impacts stuff not in the maritime industry - like knocking down a bridge in Baltimore, or colliding with a historic bridge in the middle of NYC.
DeleteBarge companies can tell you how much it will cost to train new pilots.
And yes, the Baltimore incident did involve loss of power
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