On Saturday evening, shortly after the Mexican Navy sail training ship ARM Cuauhtémoc departed  New York City’s South Street Seaport, Pier 17, on the East River, something went terribly wrong. The roughly 300′ long, steel-hulled, three-masted bark reportedly suffered some sort of mechanical failure and traveled, stern first, into the nearby Brooklyn Bridge.

The top of the training ship’s masts was 44.81 meters above the water, while the maximum clearance under the bridge was only 39 meters. When the ship’s masts struck the bridge, the top masts were knocked down, leaving the crew stationed in the rigging dangling from safety harnesses amidst the wreckage.

Of the 277 people on board the ship, two of the crew were killed. At least 22 others were injured in the crash, including 11 who were in critical condition and nine in stable condition, the Mexican Navy said in a statement.

The ship had a pilot aboard and was assisted in undocking by a harbor tug. No major damage to the Brooklyn Bridge was reported. Traffic on the bridge had shut down but resumed just before 11 p.m. Saturday, according to city officials. 

The training ship was on a goodwill tour and was supposed to head south and sail out of New York Harbor, with a stop on the Brooklyn waterfront to refuel before heading onward to Iceland.

This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on 6 April, the Mexican navy said.

The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations, including Kingston, Jamaica; Havana, Cuba; Cozumel, Mexico; and New York.

It had also planned to go to Reykjavik, Iceland; Bordeaux, Saint Malo and Dunkirk, France; and Aberdeen, Scotland, among others, for a total of 254 days – 170 at sea and 84 in port.

What caused the collision? 

While it is far too soon to say what happened to cause the collision, there are several likely possibilities.

Currents in the East River

The currents in the East River can run as fast as 5 knots. When the casualty took place, roughly three hours after low water at the Battery, the current near the bridge was flowing northward at between 2 and 3 knots. If the ship lost power, instead of traveling southward downstream, the ship would have been carried northward toward the bridge.

Some other mechanical failure

Numerous videos on social media show the ship traveling stern first toward the bridge.  They appear to show the ship traveling backward at too great a speed to be caused by the river currents alone. 

Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement that Cuauhtémoc “lost power,” while the pilot aboard reported that the ship encountered “mechanical issues.” The ship never fully lost electrical power, as evidenced by the lights on the deck and rigging.

Some observers have speculated that other mechanical failures may have contributed to the crash, including whether the ship’s 1,125 hp (839 kW) auxiliary engine became jammed in reverse.

Videos capture Mexican Navy ship crashing into Brooklyn Bridge

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.