An amateur’s mistake, not knowing how high the masts are, resulted in the tops of the Cuauhtémoc’s 150/160 foot masts hitting the Brooklyn bridge on May 17, 2025. Here’s the result that caused two fatalities and scores of injuries: 
The ship was being powered on it’s starboard side by a tugboat, was moving backwards and was being pushed faster backwards by the current when the masts hit the bridge and snapped. Two men were killed and more were injured.
ARM Cuauhtémoc is a sail training vessel of the Mexican Navy. It has a 1,125 hp. engine but was allegedly unable to use the engine when the vessel hit the Brooklyn Bridge.
The vessel was launched in 1982. It has a steel hull about 295 feet in length that displaces 1,800 tons; almost 4 million pounds. It’s draft is almost 18feet. It has three masts with a height of 158 feet, according to a statement issued by an Australian foundation in 2024. The Brooklyn Bridge has a clearance height of about 127 feet above the East River’s mean high tide which is 32 feet lower than the height of the Cuauhtemoc. The ship had some power to operate the electrical components but the engine was not running.
A very beautiful ship that unfortunately was severely mis-handled in the accident that so far has killed two with four more critically injured and
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