Damaged Mexican Tall Ship Cuauhtémoc Towed to Brooklyn Navy Yard

The doomed Mexican Navy training ship the ARM Cuauhtémoc is one port of call closer to going home after the United States Coast Guard towed it on Friday morning, June 6, from Pier 36 on the Manhattan side of the East River to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for repairs.

Berthed at Pier 6 at South Street Seaport during Fleet Week, on Saturday, May 17, the tall masts of the Cuauhtémoc crashed into the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge at 8:24pm.

Two crew members died—one female, América Yamilet Sánchez, 20, and one male, Adal Jair Marcos, 23—and at least 19 others were seriously injured. There were 277 people aboard the ship, most of them young Navy cadets.

The Brooklyn Bridge itself was undamaged, yet another in a long history of testaments to the superior engineering of father and son architects John and Washington Roebling, and the tireless project management of Washington’s wife, Emily, who took on much of the required work when her husband was disabled.

The crash was made even more dramatic and seemingly unreal—like a scene one might see in a disaster movie—because it happened so close to hundreds of tourists who were then milling about Brooklyn Bridge Park, which the stern of the Cuauhtémoc would soon bash into.

While a final report has yet to be issued, it’s suspected that a combination of engine failure and a northerly current caused the Cuauhtémoc to drift toward the Brooklyn Bridge at an estimated speed of 6 knots.

After passing under the iconic span, its too-tall masts horrifically broken and twisted and with sailors dangling from the spars, the ship continued drifting north and east until it passed under the Manhattan Bridge and finally collided into shore just past that span’s Brooklyn side tower.

After the rescue mission, which began immediately that evening, a makeshift memorial to the Cuauhtémoc victims—one full of cards, candles, flowers, and messages written in Spanish—arose the next day on the portable fencing that had been put in place to keep people away from the permanent iron fence damaged by the crash.

The three masts of the Cuauhtémoc were 147 feet tall, while the clearance of the Brooklyn Bridge is 127 feet.

Most of the Cuauhtémoc crew who were not hospitalized flew back to Mexico from JFK that Sunday evening, while a small number remained aboard the ship.

The day after the accident, the ship was towed to Pier 36 on the East River waterfront, which is where Montgomery Street meets South Street, and is often used as a docking area for commercial party boats.

Various agencies, led by NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) head Zach Iscol, decided there would an East River shutdown between 6:30 and 8am on June 6. While most New Yorkers were alseep or preparing for work, the US Coast Guard supervised the Cuauhtémoc’s movement to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The OEM announced that the Cuauhtémoc “safely docked at GMD Shipyard at 0735 hours [7:30am] and will undergo repairs.”

The operation brought together partners across every level of government, including the US Coast Guard, NYPD Harbor, NYC Ferry, NYCEDC, the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs, and the Government of Mexico, alongside private maritime and shipyard teams.