Y’all, seriously now, this is the second one that has hit a bridge. (I thought the Brooklyn Bridge had been sold. Ha.) The whole cargo boat and a bridge were an all-fired mess. But at least I could understand it. Cargo boats are ginormous and, of course, take a long time to stop. What’s the best part for this one from the Mexican Navy is that *it kept going* under the Brooklyn Bridge and apparently did not try to stop!! One, two, three masts snapped off. No one ended up in the water, but it didn’t come out all well for their people.
A Mexican navy sailing ship on a global goodwill tour struck the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on Saturday night, snapping its three masts, fatally injuring two crew members and leaving some sailors dangling from harnesses high in the air waiting for help.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the 142-year-old bridge was spared major damage but at least 19 people aboard the ship needed medical treatment after the crash.
Two of the four people who suffered more serious injuries later died, Adams announced on social media early Sunday morning.
(They were able to inspect the bridge and reopen it pretty quickly.) Regrettably, as I mentioned, it didn’t all come out well. And yes, of course, the cause is under investigation. That may take a while. Soooo…why was it going towards the BB without knowledge of the height it was off the water? If it snapped *all 3 masts*, why didn’t the crew know the ship went up too high?
Just before the collision, Nick Corso, 23, took his phone out to capture the backdrop of the ship and the bridge against a sunset. Instead, he heard what sounded like the loud snapping of a “big twig.” Several more snaps followed.
People in his vicinity began running back, and “pandemonium” on the boat erupted, he said. He later saw a handful of people dangling from the mast.
“I didn’t know what to think, I was like, is this a movie?” he said.
The Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that the Cuauhtemoc was an academy training vessel. It said a total of 22 people were injured, 19 of whom needed medical treatment.
That would be one helluva movie scene, and I would think would have had stunt men up the masts, not the actual sailors. But now, we have the meat of the matter.
It was unclear what caused the ship to veer off course. New York Police Department Special Operations Chief Wilson Aramboles said the ship had just left a Manhattan pier and was supposed to have been headed out to sea, not toward the bridge.
The vessel, which was flying a giant green, white, and red Mexican flag and had 277 people aboard, then drifted toward the piers lining the riverbank as onlookers scrambled away.
As midnight approached, the broken boat was moved slowly up the East River, going under and past the Manhattan Bridge, aided by a series of tugboats, before docking at a pier. Onlookers continued to gather on the waterfront to watch the spectacle.
Okay, yup, I spoke a bit too soon. It was NOT supposed to go towards the bridge. (I still thought it had been sold. Ha.) It should be interesting when they release a report on what happened. Considering it was going the wrong way, I would think something pretty serious happened, except I don’t know a damn thing about boats. I’ve been on an icebreaker once. That was impressive, and I remember it vividly for something that was 50 years ago. (Damn, now I feel old….) So, here we are, with another boat and bridge introducing themselves. I hope everyone else who was injured will come out okay. Spectacle is one thing. Losing people is not. Thanks for sticking with me!
*****And now, please read ******
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Don’t worry. The Drumpf (mis)administration will prove the accident was TOTALLY a result of Mexico’s DEI policies for its military. If only the Mexicans had recruited “regular” (read “straight, white and cisgender”) men instead of insisting on recruiting all those “criminals and rapists and mentally insane” people, there wouldn’t have been any problems.
Either that or the Drumpf (mis)administration will claim this was a new attempt to help “illegals” enter the United States and allow Drumpf to set new tariffs on Mexican goods. (Probably in the neighborhood of 250%–sounds about right.)
Don’t forget that those pesky freedom-loving New Yorkers probably were moving the bridge to hit the boat just to embarrass the trump administration.
When I was living in NYC, I most certainly would have helped with such a thing (LOL) but without the folks dying….I saw a video. YIKES.
*snort*choke*LAUGH* Well said, sir!