When a tall Mexican Navy ship struck the Brooklyn Bridge, it was piloting in a turbulent ocean. The tide had just turned, and a fast current was climbing the East River, with a 10 mph wind beginning.
Such dangers are easily handled by experienced captains, but narrow, curved channels can be combined from the jagged Manhattan skyline and vortex-like vortexes to create difficult passages.
In the case of the 300-foot Cuauhtemoc, two sailors were killed, and 19 people were injured when the training ship hit the iconic bridge on Saturday evening, defeating three masts of the Domino-like ship as they drifted towards the crowded pier. The cause of the collision is unknown, and an investigation by the National Road Safety Commission could take several months.
However, footage of the collision by a horrifying onlooker shows the ship running backwards into the bridge at full speed, suggesting that the captain has lost control of the engine. There are also questions about whether the tugboat escorts will quickly peel off and be equipped on the ship or whether they should stay on the ship until they head to the sea. Similar tugboat concerns emerged last year when a large cargo ship hit a Baltimore bridge.
Sal Mercogliano, a former merchant mariner who powered multiple ships through New York Port, said that all these “worst scenarios” – the ship’s height, strong currents, strong winds, and the absence of more controlled tugboat escorts, contributed to all the tragedy.
“The cautious thing was to leave two hours before the tide was on, and that would have been the ideal time,” said Melcogliano, who writes a widely-running shipping blog. “But I don’t think they’d imagined their engines pushing them onto the bridge.”
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Still, he said that even more fatal catastrophe was avoided by the ship’s steel rigging, preventing the mast from falling into the water, and the crew remained raised in position, rather than risking falling from a 12-storey height as some members run through the rat lineage.
“We could have been tied up by drowning in the river,” he said. “This could have been worse.”
Mexican authorities told the family of Eimakha Yamillett Sanchez that the 20-year-old sailor died after falling from one of the Quautemoc’s masts.
Earlier on Saturday, Sanchez, who studied engineering at the Mexican Naval Academy, spoke to his mother and excitedly said that his next destination on the ship would be Iceland. Her parents traveled to Mexico City on Sunday to arrange for the return of their daughter’s body, Hernandez said.
A relative and friends arrived at the family’s house carrying flowers. On the patio, a small altar was set up with pictures of Sanchez and candles.
Cuauhtemoc visited New York as part of a global Goodwill tour of 15 countries and set off when he hit the bridge around 8:20pm, temporarily halting traffic above the span.
Mayor Eric Adams said the 142-year-old bridge was spared significant damage, but at least 19 of the 277 seafarers on the ship needed treatment. Two of the four seriously injured people died later.
Cuauhtemoc first sailed in 1982. It is almost 300 feet long, and the main mast is 160 feet tall, about 30 feet higher than the Brooklyn Bridge span.
The ship, which arrived in New York on May 13, retreated from the touristy port on South Street, where it was docked for several days to welcome visitors. It is unclear whether the Mexican captain requested the dock pilots to assist the animals, but port pilots were on board to sail through the port if necessary.
Tracking data from marine traffic and sighting video shows that when Charles D. McAllister, a 1,800-horsepower tugboat, slowly tweaked the ship, the ship returned to the channel, but fell before the ship could spin. A few seconds later, the tugboat tried to overtake the ship as the ship continued to drift in the wrong direction, but it was too late to slurp itself between the ship too fast and the Brooklyn Riverbank.
McAllister Towing, the company that ran the tag and was responsible for the docking pilot, declined to comment.
Following last year’s collision in Baltimore, Melcogliano said port authorities there tightened the rules to require escorts and slower speeds for ships sailing through port entrances past the partially collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. The crash-falling ship, MV Dali, was a 95,000 tonne vessel vessel, about 50 times heavier than the Cuauhtemoc.
Accidents in the Port of New York are rare. This is because large cargo ships and modern warships generally avoid this area due to their low bridge height. However, in July 2026, the port is expected to play host to the largest fleet of history from around the world, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the US establishment.
Melcogliano said investigators would evaluate whether the Mexican crew performed the recommended safety checks prior to departure. It usually involves testing the engine’s propellers, rudders and propulsion six to 12 hours in advance to ensure that everything works well and doesn’t depend on chance.
“It’s not like your car just throwing your shifter,” he said.
On Sunday, the damaged vessel was moored at Pier 35, Lower Manhattan. The flow of people, including people who look like investigators and crews, may see them board or fall off the ship.
The Coast Guard said the damage to Cuauhtémoc is being evaluated. The Coast Guard established a 50-yard safety zone around the ship as investigations were underway by both the US and Mexican governments.
