cruise ship hits boat

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Cruise ship rams into tourist boat, dock in Venice leaving several injured

Cruise ship hits boat in Venice, injuries reported

The cruise ship owner said that there was a mechanical problem when trying to dock.

Several people were injured in Italy after a towering, out-of-control cruise ship crashed into a tourist river boat and dock Sunday morning in Venice as tourists ran in panic as a ship's horn blared.

The collision happened around 8:30 a.m. on the Giudecca Canal, a major thoroughfare that leads to the city's famous Saint Mark's Square.

The northeastern Italian city is a tremendously popular site for both tourists and cruise ships, especially during the summer tourist season.

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Videos of the crash posted to Twitter show the cruise ship blaring its horn as it rammed into the much smaller river boat as dozens of people ran away in panic.

Some people can also be seen jumping and falling from the river boat as it is hit by the cruise ship that was apparently unable to halt its momentum.

Medical authorities said that four female tourists — an American, a New Zealander and two Australians between the ages of 67 and 72 — were injured falling or trying to run away when the cruise ship rammed into the tourist boat, the River Countess.

Elisabetta Pasqualin told the Associated Press she was watering plants on her terrace when she heard warning sirens and stepped out to see the ship "advancing slowly but inevitably towards the dock."

"There was this huge ship in a diagonal position in the Giudecca Canal, with a tugboat near which seemed like it couldn't do anything," she said.

The MSC Opera cruise liner stand by a tourist boat following a collision in Venice, Italy, Sunday, June 2, 2019. (Vigili del Fuoco via AP)

Pasqualin said the bow of the ship crashed hard into the bank with its massive weight crushing a big piece of it.

"Sirens were wailing loudly; it was a very dramatic scene," she said.

The cruise ship's owner, MSC Cruises, said the ship, the MSC Opera, was about to dock at a passenger terminal in Venice when it had a mechanical problem. Two towboats guiding the cruise ship into Venice tried to stop the massive cruise ship, but they were unable to prevent it from ramming into the river boat.

"The two towboats tried to stop the giant and then a tow cable broke, cut by the collision with the river boat," Davide Calderan, president of a towboat association in Venice, told the Italian news agency ANSA . Calderan added the cruise ship's engine was locked when the captain called for help.

SIGHTSEEING BOAT SINKS IN BUDAPEST'S DANUBE RIVER; AT LEAST 7 CONFIRMED DEAD

The cruise ship was built in 2004 and has a capacity of 2,150 passengers and weighs 65,591 tons, according to Sky News .

In this photo released by the Italian Firefighters, the MSC Opera cruise liner, a towering cruise ship, strikes a tourist river boat, left, Sunday, June 2, 2019, in Venice, Italy, injuring at least five people. (Vigili del Fuoco via AP)

According to its sailing schedule, the cruise ship left Venice on May 26 and traveled to Kotor, Montenegro, and Mykonos, Santorini and Corfu in Greece before returning Sunday to Venice.

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Following the accident, calls for banning cruise ships in Venice, long a source of contention in the over-extended tourist city, were renewed. Danilo Toninelli, Italy's transport minister, said that "today's accident in the port of Venice proves that cruise ships shouldn't be allowed to pass down the Giudecca anymore."

Toninelli added, "After many years of inertia, we are finally close to a solution to protect both the lagoon and tourism."

The incident also came days after a cruise liner collided with a pleasure boat on the Danube in Budapest, killing 7 people and leaving 21 missing and presumed dead, according to Reuters .

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Venice cruise ship crash: Four injured as MSC Opera liner hits dock and tourist boat

Four people have been injured in the smash, italian authorities say, article bookmarked.

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A towering cruise ship has crashed into a dock and a tourist river boat on one of Venice ’s busiest canals.

Four people were injured in the smash, Venice port authorities reported.

It happened on the Giudecca Canal – a major thoroughfare that leads to Saint Mark’s Square – on Sunday morning at 8.30am.

Video of the crash shows the 80-metre cruise ship apparently unable to halt its momentum, blaring its horn as it ploughs into the much smaller river boat and the dock as dozens of people run away in panic.

“Some scared passengers dived into the water, while others fled the boat,” Venice resident Ida Ossi told local media .

Venice cruise ship crash – in photos

Previous reports suggested that five people had been injured, but Venice port authorities later confirmed only four had been. They were taken to the hospital, but none of them sustained serious injuries. Their nationality is not known yet.

Davide Calderan, the president of the company that owned the two towboats steering the cruise ship before the accident, told Italian news agency ANSA that the cruise ship’s engine had a mechanical problem and was locked when the captain called for help.

“The two towboats were trying to stop the giant until one of the tow cables broke, cut in the collision with the river boat,” he said.

Local activists have campaigned for Venice to ban large cruise ships from entering the lagoon for years to protect its ecosystem and the incident has revived calls for the ban.

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Activists were seen protesting on the scene of the accident.

“Today’s accident in Venice’s port demonstrates that large ships can no longer sail on the Giudecca canal,” Italy ’s infrastructure minister Danilo Toninelli tweeted.

“After years of inactivity, we are finally close to a definitive solution to protect both lagoon and tourism .”

Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro demanded the opening of alternative routes for cruise ships to reach the city in a Facebook post. “It’s no longer thinkable that large ships sail on the Giudecca Canal,” he wrote.

Venice attracts some 28 million visitors each year, or 76,000 per day.

Researchers of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice have estimated that Venice should welcome no more than 19 million visitors a year for sustainable tourism, or 52,000 per day.

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Cruise ship arrives at New York City harbor with dead whale caught on bow

The 44ft-long whale corpse was an endangered sei whale, which will now be examined to determine how it died

A cruise ship has journeyed into New York City’s harbor bearing a gruesome cargo in the form of a huge, dead whale sprawled across its bow.

The incident happened on Saturday, according to local US media reports , and the event is being held by some as further evidence of the unfortunate impact on sea life that large vessels can have.

The 44ft-long whale corpse was an endangered sei whale and was caught on the ship’s bow when it arrived at the Port of Brooklyn, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries spokesperson, Andrea Gomez.

The boat involved was the Meraviglia, which docked in New York before sailing on a journey to ports in New England and Canada. It is owned by Geneva-based MSC Cruises .

“We immediately notified the relevant authorities, who are now conducting an examination of the whale,” officials with the cruise line said in a statement, who added that the company had regulations in place to avoid collisions with whales and other animals at sea.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of any marine life,” the statement said.

The whale is now the subject of a necropsy to try and determine how it died, notably if it was already dead when hit by the cruise ship. Sei whales are one of the largest whales and are a protected species.

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44-Foot Whale Found Dead on Bow of Cruise Ship Coming Into New York

The endangered sei whale, usually found in deep waters, was discovered on the bow of a cruise ship as it arrived at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, marine authorities said.

By Livia Albeck-Ripka

As the cruise ship approached New York on Saturday, it was found to be carrying a grim, and unexpected, catch: The carcass of a 44-foot-long endangered whale, draped across its bow.

The whale, which marine authorities described as a sei whale, is known for its rapid swimming and preference for deep waters, far from the coast. Its body was discovered as the ship neared the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, and the authorities were “immediately notified,” said MSC Cruises, which owns the ship.

A spokeswoman for the company said in an email that it had “comprehensive measures” in place to avoid such collisions, including training deck officers and altering itineraries in certain areas to avoid them. “We will continue to evaluate and update our procedures with our partners and the authorities,” she said.

Marine authorities said that they had towed the animal, estimated to weigh some 50,000 pounds, from the bow, and transferred it by boat to a beach in Sandy Hook, N.J., where they conducted a necropsy on Tuesday.

The investigation is continuing, but preliminary results — broken bones in the whale’s right flipper; tissue trauma along its right shoulder blade; a full stomach and decent layer of blubber — all pointed toward the animal having been in otherwise good health when it was likely struck and killed by the ship, said Robert A. DiGiovanni, the chief scientist of the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, which is leading the investigation .

The whale was already “pretty decomposed” by the time scientists began the necropsy, he added, so they worked quickly to collect samples that could be tested for contaminants and other biotoxins that would indicate any other relevant health issues. “It looks like the animal was alive and it was hit by a vessel,” he said, noting that investigators had not ruled out other factors.

Mr. DiGiovanni said that his conservation group, which is federally authorized to respond to marine mammal strandings in New York, had dealt with more than 100 whales over the past several years, many of which had been entangled in nets or struck by vessels. Most of those whales were humpback and North Atlantic right whales, he added, noting that it was more uncommon to come across a sei whale.

Sei whales usually live in subtropical, temperate and subpolar waters and are named after the Norwegian word for pollock, “seje,” because the mammals are often found together with the fish. Their long, sleek bodies are usually dark blue or black with a cream-colored underside, and are often scarred by shark and lamprey bites.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the whales were commercially hunted for their meat and oil, decimating their population, which is now designated as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act .

Mr. DiGiovanni said that the death was a reminder that humans shared the open water with many other mammals. “When you’re out there, these animals might be there,” he said. “We need to make people more aware about how to operate around these animals.”

A spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said by email that mariners along the East Coast were encouraged to slow down their vessels, stay alert, and report any sightings of dead, injured or entangled whales to the authorities.

Livia Albeck-Ripka is a Times reporter based in Los Angeles, covering breaking news, California and other subjects. More about Livia Albeck-Ripka

21 Sailors Are Stuck Aboard the Ship That Hit Baltimore's Bridge—With No End in Sight

Marooned on the Dali, a legal and logistical mystery unfolds at sea.

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us?

• In the early morning hours of March 26, a 984-foot-long ship collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing its collapse and the deaths of six construction works.
• More that two weeks after the accident, the 21-person crew is still on board the ship, performing much-needed maintenance.
• Because of the complexity of disembarking foreign nationals on container ships, the crew will likely continue to work and stay on the ship for some time.

Days after the collision, media reported that the crew of the ship—consisting of 20 Indian nationals and one member from Sri Lanka—remained aboard the ship and were all safe. The Singapore company Synergy, which owns the vessel , only reported one minor injury to one crew member, who was treated at a local hospital and then returned to the ship. An additional update on April 2nd commented on the overall state of the crew.

“Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the crew during this time is a critical priority for us. We have been actively engaged in a range of actions to support them since the incident,” the press release said , detailing various mental health services being offered to the crew. “The crew has unlimited use of the ship’s satellite communications, so they can stay in constant contact with their families. Food is delivered daily to assist the galley staff and to ensure that the vessel remains adequately provisioned.”

Even if the Dali wasn’t being restocked daily, they’d likely have more than enough resources to survive an extended stay on the boat. The New York Times reported soon after the initial collision that the Dali was only a mere 30 minutes into a 27-day voyage before the ship lost power and collided with the bridge , killing six construction workers who were on the bridge at the time.

So, while safe and provisioned, it might seem strange that the crew must remain on the ship as 50 salvage divers and some 12 cranes begin removing containers from the vessel. But unscheduled shore leave is a bit more complicated than you might think. According to the BBC , moving the Dali is second priority to clearing the shipping channel in Baltimore’s port, as 11 additional ships remain trapped (four of which are important to U.S. national defense ).

Disembarking crews aboard these kinds of ships—even when not dealing with a major infrastructure collapse—is a bit of a headache, as they require valid visas and shore passes to get off the ship. Officials told the BBC back on April 1 that, until the investigation is complete, “the crew will remain on board.”

NPR, who spoke with the executive director of the Baltimore International Seafarers' Center, reports that unless the ship is considered “exceedingly unsafe,” the crew will continue performing upkeep until it is allowed to travel to its intended destination or is otherwise moved from its current location for repairs .

When that will be is anyone’s guess.

Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough. 

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Terrifying videos show norwegian cruise ship rocked by massive waves ahead of power outage that knocked out navigation.

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A Norwegian cruise liner carrying hundreds of passengers weathered a “terrifying” storm before a rogue wave temporarily took out its power, stomach-churning footage showed.

Tour operator Thorsten Hansen shared a video of the foamy waves battering the hull of the MS Maud, which made headlines Thursday when its electricity failed mid-voyage.

“A few of my guests are not so happy. But most of them are very brave and find it very interesting,” he wrote on Facebook.

“We’re watching films in our room. Every time we move we nearly go flying,” one passenger commented under Hansen’s post.

Another clip shared on X showed the view of the terrifying swells from the glamorous windows of an on-board suit, which tilted precariously toward the water between each wave.

“No fun on the Maud just now,” the person behind the camera captioned the footage.

The vessel carrying 266 passengers and 131 crew suffered shattered windows on its bridge when it encountered a powerful storm in the North Sea late Thursday, Danish authorities said.

Everyone on board was marked safe, and the ship is being towed to Bremerhaven in Germany, officials with the Danish Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said.

The ship’s main engine is still functioning, so the vessel can be steered from the engine room.

One passenger, Elizabeth Lawrence, wrote on X that the storm was a “terrifying experience.”

I’ll be honest, there was about 20 minutes yesterday where I thought the ship might capsize, it was rolling so heavily and we didn’t have any idea what had happened. It really hit home when they started handing out orange survival suits to everyone (2) — Elizabeth Lawrence (@eclairelaw) December 22, 2023

“I’ll be honest, there was about 20 minutes yesterday where I thought the ship might capsize, it was rolling so heavily and we didn’t have any idea what had happened,” she said.

“It really hit home when they started handing out orange survival suits to everyone,” Lawrence explained.

Lawrence said her group took shelter between buffet tables to avoid “flying chairs and furniture.”

The MS Maud, which is run by the cruise company HX, a unit of Norway’s Hurtigruten Group, left Floroe in Norway on Thursday and was scheduled to arrive in Tilbury in Great Britain on Friday.

The ship was named after a famous polar ship from the 20th century, the cruise line’s website explained .

The MS Maud’s on-board technology makes her “exceptionally well-suited” to trips through Norway and the British Isles, the company boasted.

A trip on the Maud can cost up to $10,000, according to the website.

With Post wires

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17 reported hurt after river cruise ship hits a concrete passageway on the Danube in Austria

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Seventeen passengers were hurt when a Bulgarian river cruise ship lost steering and hit the sides of a lock on the Danube in Austria, the apa news agency reported Saturday. Eleven of the injured were taken to hospitals.

The ship with 142 passengers aboard, most of them from Germany, temporarily lost power to its electronics system and became unsteerable as it passed through narrow locks at 9:45 p.m. Friday, apa reported.

The ship’s power was restored but not before the bow and stern struck the concrete sides of the lock passage near the town of Aschach, a few miles upriver from Linz.

The ship sustained minor damage and continued to its next port. The cause of the loss of electrical power was under investigation.

Passengers on Antarctic cruise ship hit by deadly 'rogue wave' speak out

The Trusdales were passengers on the Viking Polaris cruise ship last week.

Tom and Pam Trusdale were enjoying a bucket list trip to Antarctica , until their trip of a lifetime turned into a deadly disaster.

"It was going real smoothly, and we were only anticipating nothing but smooth going forward," Tom Trusdale told ABC News.

The Trusdales were passengers on the Viking Polaris cruise ship sailing toward Ushuaia, Argentina, when it was hit by a "rogue wave" last week , killing an American passenger, Sheri Zhu, and injuring four others.

"Good Morning America" airs at 7 a.m. ET on ABC.

The Trusdales said the wave wasn't the only disaster. The Trusdales and ABC News later confirmed that a day before the accident, another passenger was seriously injured during a Zodiac boat excursion.

"It was a real loud, it was a boom, and I flew up in the air, and the passenger across from me flew up in the air. She came down and hit hard," Pam Trusdale said.

MORE: 'Rogue wave' strikes Antarctic cruise ship, leaves 1 dead and 4 injured

Tom Trusdale said he saw two passengers tossed into the air from what seemed to be an apparent explosion.

"I saw the woman go, probably about 3 feet in the air, and then the gentleman straight across from me go up in the air, and then roll over into the sea," Tom Trusdale said. "So I went across and leaned over the pontoon, and I just grabbed on to the life jacket. He was face up, so he was stabilized, and I reassured him that, 'Hey, you're safe.'"

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Tom Trusdale said he and another passenger were able to quickly pull the man back on the boat, but the woman's leg was severely injured.

"She said, 'I hurt my legs. I can't feel my leg,'" Pam Trusdale said. " And then I could hear her kind of straining that, you know, I could tell that she was in a lot of pain."

The passenger's leg required surgery, which led the ship's captain to turn back to Argentina. During the trip back toward Argentina, through a known turbulent stretch of ocean, was when the "rogue wave" crashed into the cruise ship.

"This wave hit it and came over and literally broke through windows and just washed into these rooms, and not only did it wash into the rooms, but it broke walls down, and once some walls went into the next room," Tom Trusdale said.

Viking said in a statement on its website that it's investigating the wave incident and is committed to the safety and security of all guests and crew.

Viking issued a second statement about the Zodiac boat incident, saying: "On November 28, the Viking Polaris deployed a small boat with six guests and one crew member near Damoy Point, Antarctica. On this trip a guest sustained a serious but non-life-threatening leg injury while on board the small boat and was taken to the medical center on the Viking Polaris."

"Following a detailed diagnosis by the ship's medical team, the decision was taken for the ship to immediately sail to Ushuaia so that the guest could receive additional medical care from a shore-based hospital," it continued. "The guest is now recovering shoreside in Ushuaia and will then return home; Viking is continuing to support them during this period. We are committed to the safety and security of all our guests and crew, and we are investigating the cause of the incident."

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Danube river cruise ship crashed after it was 'suddenly no longer able to maneuver,' 17 passengers injured

• A cruise ship crashed into a concrete wall along the Danube river in Austria on Friday.
• A police statement said the ship "was suddenly no longer able to maneuver."
• Eleven people were treated at the hospital and another six suffered less serious injuries.

A Bulgarian cruise ship carrying over 140 passengers crashed into a concrete wall along the Danube river in Austria.

The incident occurred late on Friday in the northern Austrian town of Aschach an der Donau, local police said Saturday.

Eleven people were injured and taken to hospital as a result of the crash. Six others suffered less serious injuries that did not require hospital treatment.

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The ship had set off from Passau, a German city on the Austrian border. A police statement said that as the ship was leaving a lock chamber further down the river, "the ship was suddenly no longer able to maneuver," and its right bow and left aft crashed into the lock walls.

The second-in-command of the ship, who had been at the helm during the crash, "pressed the emergency switch, whereupon the electronics started up again." He was then able to steer the ship out of the lock.

The ship was later docked at the quay wall and emergency services were notified. The ship was able to continue its journey toward Linz, Austria.

Earlier this week, a container ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, collapsing a section of the 1.6-mile-long structure. The bodies of two construction workers were found after the collision, and four more workers are missing and presumed dead.

Citing the container ship's recovered data recorder, officials said the power went out on the Dali for just one minute and three seconds as it approached the bridge, Sky News reported, but that was enough for the collision to become unavoidable.

In 2019, a cruise boat hit and sank a smaller boat near Budapest, Hungary, killing 25 South Korean tourists and two crew members. The captain was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the accident.

The Danube is the second-largest river in Europe, flowing from the Black Forest in Germany south into the Black Sea near Romania and Ukraine.

Correction: April 1, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the year of the Danube ship crash in Hungary. It was in 2019, not 2023.

Watch: One of Europe's deadliest shipwrecks leaves hundreds missing

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Cruise Ship, Fishing Boat Collide Near Nantucket

The u.s. coast guard said the norwegian pearl came into contact with the gabby g, a fishing vessel, off the coast of nantucket early saturday morning, by jake levin and kaitlin mckinley becker • published july 31, 2022 • updated on august 1, 2022 at 1:03 am.

A cruise ship bound for Bermuda was delayed after striking a fishing vessel off the coast of Nantucket on Saturday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Departing from Boston, the Norwegian Pearl came into contact with a fishing boat, the Gabby G, around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, according to Coast Guard officials.

Watch NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are

A spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed in a statement to NBC10 Boston that a "small unidentified fishing vessel made contact with Norwegian Pearl while she was sailing to Bermuda."

The Norwegian Pearl was "thoroughly assessed" and given clearance by the Coast Guard to continue on her seven-day voyage as planned, the spokesperson said.

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The Gabby G, however, reported some damages to the bow and was towed to New Bedford, arriving around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the cruise line spokesperson and Coast Guard officials said.

A picture of the fishing vessel docked following the incident appears to show some of that damage.

According to officials, one minor injury was reported aboard the Gabby G, a cut that was treated on the boat. No injuries were reported aboard the cruise ship.

In-depth news coverage of the Greater Boston Area.

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An NBC10 Boston and NECN employee who is on board the Norwegian Pearl said the fishing vessel struck just below his cabin.

"There was a huge thump that woke us and then the shipped rolled drastically in a couple of directions," Jim Warner wrote in an email to the station. "The fog was incredibly thick and visibility was 0. It happened at 1:30am and we were under way again by 4:30am."

Warner, who noted the only casualty was a little bit less sleep for everyone, shared pictures of the ship's tender in the water investigating around 3 a.m.

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Cruise ship sails into New York City port with 44-foot dead whale across its bow

NEW YORK (AP) — A cruise ship sailed into a New York City port with a 44-foot (13-meter) dead whale across its bow, marine authorities said.

The whale, identified as an endangered sei whale, was caught on the ship's bow when it arrived at the Port of Brooklyn on Saturday, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries spokesperson Andrea Gomez said.

A spokesperson for MSC Cruises said the whale was on the MSC Meraviglia, which docked at Brooklyn before sailing to ports in New England and Canada.

“We immediately notified the relevant authorities, who are now conducting an examination of the whale,” officials with the cruise line said in a statement.

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“We are deeply saddened by the loss of any marine life,” the officials said, adding that the Geneva-based MSC Cruises follows all regulations designed to protect whales, such as altering itineraries in certain regions to avoid hitting the animals.

The dead whale was relocated to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and towed to shore there to allow for better access to equipment and to conduct a necropsy, Gomez said.

The necropsy, an autopsy on an animal, was conducted on Tuesday, Gomez said. Samples collected from the whale will help biologists determine whether it was already dead when it was struck by the ship, she said.

Sei whales are typically observed in deeper waters far from the coastline, Gomez said. They are one of the largest whale species and are internationally protected.

Weekend rundown: Here's the biggest news you missed this weekend

Six presumed dead after cargo ship crash levels Baltimore bridge

BALTIMORE — A major Baltimore bridge collapsed like a house of cards early Tuesday after it was struck by a container ship, sending six people to their deaths in the dark waters below, and closing one of the country’s busiest ports.

By nightfall, the desperate search for six people who were working on the bridge and vanished when it fell apart had become a grim search for bodies.

“We do not believe that we’re going to find any of these individuals still alive,” Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon N. Gilreath said.

Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, said earlier that one of his workers had survived. He did not release their names.

Up until then, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore had held out hope that the missing people might be found even as law enforcement warned that the frigid water and the fact that there had been no sign of them since 1:30 a.m. when the ship struck Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Moore expressed heartbreak after officials suspended the search for survivors.

"Our heart goes out to the families," he said. "I can’t imagine how painful today has been for these families, how painful these hours have been have been for these families."

It was a crushing blow to the loved ones of the missing men, who had waited for hours at a Royal Farms convenience store near the entrance of the bridge for word of their fate. 

Follow live updates on the Baltimore bridge collapse

The tragic chain of events began early Tuesday when the cargo ship Dali notified authorities that it had lost power and issued a mayday moments before the 984-foot vessel slammed into a bridge support at a speed of 8 knots, which is about 9 mph.

Moore declared a state of emergency while rescue crews using sonar detected at least five vehicles in the frigid 50-foot-deep water: three passenger cars, a cement truck and another vehicle of some kind. Authorities do not believe anyone was inside the vehicles.

Investigators quickly concluded that it was an accident and not an act of terrorism.

Ship was involved in another collision

Earlier, two people were rescued from the water, Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said. One was in good condition and refused treatment, he said. The other was seriously injured and was being treated in a trauma center.

Moore said other drivers might have been in the water had it not been for those who, upon hearing the mayday, blocked off the bridge and kept other vehicles from crossing.

“These people are heroes,” Moore said. “They saved lives.”

Nearly eight years ago, the Dali was involved in an accident. In July 2016, it struck a quay at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium, damaging the quay.

The nautical commission investigated the accident, but the details of the inquiry were not immediately clear Tuesday.

The Dali is operated and managed by Synergy Group. In a statement, the company said that two port pilots were at the helm during Tuesday's crash and that all 22 crew members onboard were accounted for.

The Dali was chartered by the Danish shipping giant Maersk, which said it would have no choice but to send its ships to other nearby ports with the Port of Baltimore closed.

The bridge, which is about a mile and a half long and carries Interstate 695 over the Patapsco River southeast of Baltimore, was "fully up to code," Moore said.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said that her agency will lead the investigation and that a data recorder on the ship could provide more information.

"But right now we're focusing on the people, on the families," she said. "The rest can wait."

President Joe Biden vowed to rebuild the bridge and send federal funds.

"This is going to take some time," the president warned. "The people of Baltimore can count on us though to stick with them, at every step of the way, till the port is reopened and the bridge is rebuilt."

Speaking in Baltimore, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg echoed the president's promise.

"This is no ordinary bridge," he said. "This is one of the cathedrals of American infrastructure."

But Buttigieg warned that replacing the bridge and reopening the port will take time and money and that it could affect supply chains.

The Port of Baltimore, the 11th largest in the U.S., is the busiest port for car imports and exports, handling more than 750,000 vehicles in 2023 alone, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration.

Writer David Simon, a champion of Baltimore who set his TV crime drama "The Wire" on the streets of the city he once covered as a reporter, warned online that the people who will suffer the most are those whose livelihoods depend on the port.

"Thinking first of the people on the bridge," Simon posted on X . "But the mind wanders to a port city strangling. All the people who rely on ships in and out."

Timeline of crash

Dramatic video captured the moment at 1:28 a.m. Tuesday when the Dali struck a support and sent the bridge tumbling into the water. A livestream showed cars and trucks on the bridge just before the strike. The ship did not sink, and its lights remained on.

Investigators said in a timeline that the Dali's lights suddenly shut off four minutes earlier before they came back on and that then, at 1:25 a.m. dark black smoke began billowing from the ship's chimney.

A minute later, at 1:26 a.m., the ship appeared to turn. And in the minutes before it slammed into the support, the lights flickered again.

Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said the workers on the bridge were repairing concrete ducts when the ship crashed into the structure.

At least seven workers were pouring concrete to fix potholes on the roadway on the bridge directly above where the ship hit, said James Krutzfeldt, a foreman.

Earlier, the Coast Guard said it had received a report that a “motor vessel made impact with the bridge” and confirmed it was the Dali, a containership sailing under a Singaporean flag that was heading for Sri Lanka.

Bobby Haines, who lives in Dundalk in Baltimore County, said he felt the impact of the bridge collapse from his house nearby.

"I woke up at 1:30 this morning and my house shook, and I was freaking out," he said. "I thought it was an earthquake, and to find out it was a bridge is really, really scary."

Families of bridge workers wait for updates

Earlier in the day, relatives of the construction crew waited for updates on their loved ones.

Marian Del Carmen Castellon told Telemundo her husband, Miguel Luna, 49, was working on the bridge.

“They only tell us that we have to wait and that they can’t give us information,” she said.

Castellon said she was "devastated, devastated because our heart is broken, because we don’t know how they have been rescued yet. We are just waiting for the news."

Luna's co-worker Jesús Campos said he felt crushed, too.

“It hurts my heart to see what is happening. We are human beings, and they are my folks,” he said.

Campos told The Baltimore Banner that the missing men are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

Active search and rescue ends

The Coast Guard said it was suspending the active search-and-rescue effort at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"Coast Guard’s not going away, none of our partners are going away, but we’re just going to transition into a different phase," Gilreath said at a news conference.

Maryland State Police Superintendent Roland L. Butler, Jr., said it was moving to a recovery operation. Changing conditions have made it dangerous for divers, he said. 

Butler pledged to "do our very best to recover those six missing people," but the conditions are difficult.

"If we look at how challenging it is at a simple motor vehicle crash to extract an individual, I'm sure we can all imagine how much harder it is to do it in inclement weather, when it's cold, under the water, with very limited to no visibility," he said.

"There's a tremendous amount of debris in the water," which can include sharp metal and other hazards, and that could take time, Butler said.

'A long road in front of us'

Built in 1977 and referred to locally as the Key Bridge, the structure was later named after the author of the American national anthem.

The bridge is more than 8,500 feet long, or 1.6 miles. Its main section spans 1,200 feet, and it was one of the longest continuous truss bridges in the world upon its completion, according to the National Steel Bridge Alliance .

About 31,000 vehicles a day use the bridge, which equals 11.3 million vehicles per year, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority.

The river and the Port of Baltimore are both key to the shipping industry on the East Coast, generating more than $3.3 billion a year and directly employing more than 15,000 people.

Asked what people in Baltimore can expect going forward, the state's transportation secretary said it is too early to tell.

"Obviously we reached out to a number of engineering companies, so obviously we have a long road in front of us," Wiedefeld said.

Julia Jester reported from Baltimore, Patrick Smith from London, Corky Siemaszko from New York and Phil Helsel from Los Angeles.

Julia Jester is a producer for NBC News based in Washington, D.C.

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital.

Dead whale caught on bow of MSC Cruises ship, authorities investigating

Authorities are conducting an investigation after a dead whale was found caught on the bow of an MSC Cruises ship.

The whale was discovered as the MSC Meraviglia ship approached the port in Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday. “We immediately notified the relevant authorities, who are now conducting an examination of the whale,” a spokesperson for the line told USA TODAY in an emailed statement.

The roughly 44-foot-long sei whale was towed to shore at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, for a necropsy, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries spokesperson Andrea Gomez. The examination, done on Tuesday, found broken bones in its right flipper and “evidence of tissue trauma along the right shoulder blade region.” The gastrointestinal tract was full of food, as well.

Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, the lead on the case, said in a Facebook post that the whale was a mature female.

“Most of the other organs were sampled including for biotoxin analysis and other life history studies,” Gomez said in an emailed statement. “Samples were collected and will be sent for histopathologic analysis. The tissue and bone samples collected will help biologists determine if the vessel interaction occurred pre or post mortem.”

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is investigating the incident. Gomez noted that sei whales are endangered and usually seen a great distance from the coast in deeper waters.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of any marine life,” the MSC spokesperson added. “We have comprehensive measures in place to help avoid collisions, such as training all our deck officers with the Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA) and we follow regulations designed to protect whales and other marine life. This includes altering itineraries in certain regions to avoid whales and we will continue to evaluate and update our procedures with our partners and the authorities.”

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at [email protected].

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Cruise ship arrives in NYC port with 44-foot dead endangered whale caught on its bow

Updated on: May 9, 2024 / 11:41 AM EDT / CBS/AP

A cruise ship sailed into a New York City port with a 44-foot dead whale across its bow, marine authorities said.

The whale, identified as an endangered sei whale , was caught on the ship's bow when it arrived at the Port of Brooklyn on Saturday, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries spokesperson Andrea Gomez said. A necropsy conducted later confirmed the whale's species and determined that the creature was a mature female, said the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, a nonprofit organization that conducted the exam on an marine mammal.

A spokesperson for MSC Cruises said the whale was on the MSC Meraviglia, which docked at Brooklyn before sailing to ports in New England and Canada.

"We immediately notified the relevant authorities, who are now conducting an examination of the whale," officials with the cruise line said in a statement.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of any marine life," the officials said, adding that the Geneva-based MSC Cruises follows all regulations designed to protect whales, such as altering itineraries in certain regions to avoid hitting the animals .

The dead whale was relocated to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and towed to shore there to allow for better access to equipment and to conduct a necropsy, Gomez said.

The necropsy, an autopsy on an animal, was conducted on Tuesday, Gomez said. Samples collected from the whale will help biologists determine whether it was already dead when it was struck by the ship, she said.

Basic results of that exam showed evidence of tissue trauma in the area of the whale's right shoulder blade and a fractured right flipper, said the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society. In a post shared Wednesday to its Facebook page, the organization also said those tests revealed the whale's gastrointestinal tract was "full of food." Samples of its organs will undergo toxicology reviews and analyses to identify any potential tissue diseases.

"The tissue and bone samples collected will help biologists determine if the vessel interaction occurred pre or post mortem," said the conservation society.

Sei whales are typically observed in deeper waters far from the coastline, Gomez said. They are one of the largest whale species and are internationally protected.

According to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation , sei whales eat 2,000 pounds of fish and plankton per day. They can grow up to 60 feet long, weigh as much as 50 tons and live on average between 50-70 years.

The incident marks the latest endangered whale to be found dead along the East Coast.  Last month, federal authorities said a North Atlantic right whale that was found floating 50 miles offshore east of Virginia Beach, Virginia, was killed in a collision with a ship .

In March, NOAA said the first  North Atlantic right whale  baby born this season had  died after being hit by a vessel .

Environmental groups have called for tighter regulations on commercial fishing and shipping to try to save the whales.

In Massachusetts, there's a proposal to put  speed limits on fast ferries  to Cape Cod and the Islands to protect whales. The ferry companies counter that this would drastically reduce service, and say their captains have never seen a right whale on the job. 

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Endangered whale found dead at Brooklyn cruise port was likely struck by ship

A n endangered whale found dead on the bow of a cruise ship in Brooklyn was likely struck by the vessel, according to examinations by a conservation group.

The 44-foot sei whale suffered “tissue trauma along the right shoulder blade region and a right flipper fracture,” the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society said Wednesday in a Facebook post. Its digestive tract was full of food, the group added.

The MSC Meraviglia cruise ship pulled into Brooklyn Cruise Terminal on May 4 with the dead mature female whale on its bow. The whale was removed and taken to Sandy Hook, N.J., for the AMCS to examine.

The group is authorized by federal authorities to respond to dead whales in New York and conduct animal autopsies, or necropsies. Several of the whale’s organs were sampled for toxins, which were sent to a lab for further study.

“The tissue and bone samples collected will help biologists determine if the vessel interaction occurred pre or post mortem,” the conservation society wrote on Facebook.

Sei whales are classified as endangered and typically seen in deeper waters far from the coast, particularly in subtropical, temperate and subpolar regions.

A spokesperson for MSC Cruises , which operates the MSC Meraviglia, said the ship docked in Brooklyn before a planned trip to sites in New England and Canada.

“We immediately notified the relevant authorities, who are now conducting an examination of the whale,” cruise line officials said in a statement.

The AMCS conducted the necropsy on Tuesday. The incident is also being investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

Scientists estimated there are 50,000 sei whales remaining in the wild internationally. They have been protected by international treaties since 1970, after decades of whaling decimated the population .

With News Wire Services

©2024 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Cruise Ship Alarmed to Discover a 50,000-Pound Dead Whale Stuck to the Front of It, Seemingly After Getting Run Down and Dying

"it looks like the animal was alive and it was hit by a vessel.".

A cruise ship came to port on Saturday with a surprising and stinky stowaway stuck to its bow: a dead and rotting whale, the New York Times reports .

And preliminary signs from an investigation suggest that the aquatic mammal — an endangered sei whale weighing at a hefty 50,000 pounds — was killed when it was struck by the vessel, because it had a broken right flipper and trauma to its right shoulder blade.

"It looks like the animal was alive and it was hit by a vessel," Atlantic Marine Conservation Society chief scientist Robert A. DiGiovanni told the NYT .

The cruise ship was sailing towards the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal when authorities found the whale on its bow, the NYT reports. A boat later towed the whale to Sandy Hook Beach in New Jersey for a necropsy conducted by the conservation society.

Sei whales, a type of baleen whale that can be as big as 100,000 pounds and measure 40 to 60 feet, are considered endangered because the commercial whaling industry started targeting them in the 1960s — yes, that late — after exhausting stocks of blue and humpback whales, which became protected species.

From the mid-1960s to 1970s, whalers killed masses of sei whales until there are now only an estimated 57,000 to 65,000 out in the wild. It's estimated that the whaling industry, which went after sei whales for their meat and oil, culled 300,000 sei whales in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The gentle giants still face threats, including getting tangled in fishing gear and getting struck by sea vessels like the cruise ship that came to port on Saturday.

"When you’re out there, these animals might be there," he told the NYT . "We need to make people more aware about how to operate around these animals."

More on whales: Footage Shows Whales Fighting Off Orcas Using Explosive Diarrhea

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