I had no idea that the Mexican Navy was training to use sailboats in Brooklyn, but there you go.
The clear Act of War someone was looking for.
Their training apparently didn’t include finding out if their masts weren’t multiple feet too tall to fit under the brige before sailing under it. You’d think they would have done more due diligence than a U-Haul rental driver.
I don’t think they planned to be under the bridge. It looked like it was out of control in the videos I saw.
How does this happen? I mean, I assume the East River flows southwest there so, for the river to push the boat into the bridge would mean it would have to be between the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge (not a lot of room in there).
What am I missing? Maybe the tide was coming in and pushing northeast?
I haven’t seen anything definitive in any article I’ve read so this is my guess.
It’s a sailboat but also has engines. I did hear it may have lost power to its engine.
In the video there is a tug boat that seems to be trying to catch up.
No tall ship has any business going north up the East River. The Brooklyn Bridge is one of a series of relatively low bridges over the river. It’s impossible to go up the East River by mistake.
I’m assuming the ship was supposed to dock at the South Street Seaport which is south of the bridge. It lost power and the tug was trying to bring it under control but couldn’t reach it in time.
From the linked article
Crew members were standing on the masts at the time of collision, authorities said, which all snapped and fell to the deck.
Sounds more like “take in the scenery”, not “in an emergency”.
Did they not take on a NY harbor pilot?
What were the tugboat operators thinking?
The hardest thing about watching sailors die is because they’re obeying people who had no idea what they themselves are doing.
The local NBC station stated it was leaving Pier 17 and heading to sea when it had a mechanical failure. Pier 17 is the main pier at the South Street Seaport which is just south of the Brooklyn Bridge. The current pushed it into the bridge. The East River isn’t a true river, it’s a tidal estuary.
Been there on 2 different old wooden sailboats.
The tides are very strong at times as I recall.
There was no tug requirement of course.
South Street Sea Port is very close to the Brooklyn Bridge.
Minor reminder in general, the East River is not a River but a straight. Tides get very weird at times.
Sounds like they were trying to get the sails up, to regain control.
Apparently standing on the masts is a thing they do. Here’s a photo of the same ship
(There are lots more similar ones.)
Is this a regular thing? Everything I know about sailing is from TV/movies, but I don’t remember scenes before with people lined up all over the masts to operate the sails.
Yes, it’s a tradition for sail training ship crews to put on that sort of show. It’s called manning the yards
Yards, not masts. Masts are the tall vertical ones. Yards are the horizontal ones.
I never sailed on a square-rigger. (few these days have). But to the best of my knowledge, to unfurl the sails, you have to send sailors aloft on the yards to do so.
So once you lose motor power, you try for wind power and thus the sailors would have to go aloft.
I sailed on the Clearwater in the East River, the Hudson and Sandy Hook Bay. Also a much smaller sloop, The Rainbow Race. Both Clearwater boats.
On the Rainbow Race, we lost power over by Battery Park and we immediately raised sails to inch along as the winds were low at sunset. Our battery then failed and we resorted to shining a flashlight on the sail so the ferries would see us in the dark. Thankfully we weren’t near the Staten Island Ferry’s route, but the Statue of Liberty Ferry came uncomfortably close and we blew our manual airhorn as it was coming near us. We finally made it to Battery Park in the dark. Lower Manhattan can be surprisingly empty on a Saturday in late October back then at least.
Maybe this will help visualize the area:
The East River is known for having strong tides, this probably contributed to the accident as it reduced the time they had to get the ship under sail power.
The first few times I watched videos of the incident I was looking at different things. I didn’t even notice that the ship was going backwards.
Watching a few videos, it looks like the wind was working against the ship also.
I’m reasonably sure they couldn’t have done an emergency anchor drill as the water is deep there as far as I know and they were moving fairly fast for it to catch. Though I wonder if they at least tried.
The bridge was closed briefly and reopened. A more thorough inspection will take place, but damage from 3 mast tops should be minimal.
The NTSB will be investigating everything about this accident.
They got lost after they couldn’t find the Gulf of Mexico on the map.
East River is not a river, it flows both ways between 2 tidal areas that have tides almost 180 degrees out of phase. This leads to some very strong currents.
Next stop was supposed to be Iceland, I imagine now it will be repairs and back home instead. Possibly towed home for repairs, but that is a long tow.
ETA: I added a note to @Whack-a-Mole’s post as kanicbird’s was the third reply about the East River not being a river.
By the way, if you look at old maps, you might see on the west side of Manhattan, the North River listed, a no longer used name for the Hudson River.
The Harlem river is the third piece that makes Manhattan an Island. It is also a strait.