Mexican Navy Sailing Ship Crashes Into Brooklyn Bridge, Killing 2 Crew Members
There were 277 people on board when the ship drifted directly into the underside of the bridge on Saturday night, the authorities said. At least 22 were injured, half of them critically. [end quote]
There is video at the link.
Thank goodness this was a lightweight mast hitting the bridge deck because there was traffic on the bridge. Thank goodness the Brooklyn Bridge towers are solid stone.
There were several videos posted on YT. The ship appeared to be drifting stern first. That brings the musical question, “why didn’t they drop anchor?”, or did they try that, and the current prove too strong? Ironically, a tug was motoring right past the ship as it hit. Seems the tug could have tugged on a line to arrest the ship’s drift.
One of them must have been on the engine room telegraph.
This piece includes some video of the ship, that shows it making a wake, as it backed into the bridge. At that time, tide and wind were pushing it toward the bridge, but you can’t make a wake, going in the direction of the tide, unless you are moving faster than the tide. And the flag shows the wind was not all that strong. Immediate takeaway: the ship’s engine was running in reverse, pulling it into the bridge.
The video I saw had a tug boat along side the Mexican ship just before the crash. It’s common practice for large ships operating around New York to have tug boat escorts in case of an emergency like loss of steering. I wonder who screwed up? – it might not be the Mexicans.
The video explains that. That tug was the one helping the ship out of it’s berth. The ship was berthed bow toward the shore. As the ship backed out of the berth, the tug was holding the stern in line, so the current would not swing the stern toward the bridge. When the ship was clear of the berth, the tug switched to pushing on the bow, to help get the ship turned toward open ocean, and away from the bridge. As the ship motored, backward, into the bridge, the tug stayed close, to render assistance, but, protocol says it’s up to the harbor pilot on the ship to ask the tug for a tow.
But, as stated above, it appears the ship’s engine was still going astern, when it hit, so there was more going on that not asking the tug for a tow. It’s questionable that the tug could have rigged a tow line in time anyway, given the speed that the ship was making toward the bridge.
