In an absolute jaw-dropper of an incident out of New York City, the Mexican Navy crashed a training ship into the Brooklyn Bridge, causing what appears to be severe damage to the ship and reportedly leading to two deaths and over a dozen injuries of varying degrees of severity. The incident appears to have been an accident.
The ship involved was the training vessel Cuauhtémoc, a steel-hulled, three-masted barque named after the last Aztec emperor. The 300-foot vessel was launched in 1982 and is meant to not only train sailors but also be a diplomatic symbol of the Mexican people and government abroad.
In any case, the training vessel was sailing through New York City on its way to Iceland with over 270 passengers on board. While stopping in NYC, it was ready for a spectacular NYC event with white uniformed sailors standing on the 147-foot tall masts and crossbeams, which were shining brightly with decorative lights.
But then the rudder apparently stopped working and the ship began drifting in the wrong direction, leading to the towering masts slamming into the arched Brooklyn Bridge and shearing off as the ship drifted relentlessly on. As sailors were standing on the crossbeams to make a display when the incident occurred, they faced heavy casualties, with two dead and nearly two dozen injured.
The incident, with mastops tumbling from on high as stricken sailors dangled from crossbeams, caused mass panic amongst those watching the horror unfold, with bystanders at the South Street Seaport base of the suspension bridge fleeing in terror as the masted training ship drifted toward them at high speed.
The training ship had stopped in New York City on its way to Iceland for most of a week, arriving on May 13 and being scheduled to head out on Saturday, May 17, when the incident occurred. Apparently, the ship lost power as it left New York’s Pier 17, after having been open to the public for visiting while sitting in the city, and so it drifted north rather than sailing south, leading to the tragedy at Brooklyn Bridge.
Watch the incident from the perspective of bystanders under Brookly Bridge here:
"*" indicates required fields
The United States Ambassador to Mexico quickly took to X (formerly Twitter) to post about the incident, saying, “Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the @SEMAR_mx training ship Cuauhtémoc incident at the Brooklyn Bridge. We are monitoring closely and are in touch with the Government of Mexico via @SRE_mx to provide support as necessary. You have our full support.”
Similarly, NYC Mayor Eric Adams posted, slightly understating the total number of now-reported casualties, “Earlier tonight, the Mexican Navy tall ship Cuauhtémoc lost power and crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. At this time, of the 277 on board, 19 sustained injuries, 2 of which remain in critical condition, and 2 more have sadly passed away from their injuries.”
While government officials and news accounts were more serious, most other commenters on X were largely left joking about the confluence of absurdities involved in the crash. One large account, for example, wrote, “Mexican navy colliding into the Brooklyn Bridge on a brightly lit up ornamental old-timey ship with a giant Mexican flag feels like an Arrested Development Season 4 scene.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video