Cruise Ship Hits Manhattan Pier
Norwegian Cruise Lines - Norwegian Spirit
May 25, 2008
Norwegian Cruise Lines' Norwegian Spirit was coming back from a Caribbean cruise on Sunday May 25, 2008 when the ship struck the pier on the Hudson River at the Manhattan, New York City, New York docks.
While photographs of the damage, showed minor injury to the Norwegian Spirit with the bow crunched and the railing on the bow twisted.
While attempting to moor the vessel at pier 88, vessel bow made contact with south side of pier 90. The buildings on the pier showed substantial damage to the beams supporting upper-level parking lots at Pier 90. Two support beams were twisted as the ship's bow plowed into the structure before finally coming to rest with the bow shoved into the parking structure.
The cruise terminal sits on the Hudson River between West 47th and 53rd Streets. It consists of Piers 88, 90 and 92.
Local officials said that normally a tug brings in the cruise ship, but during this incident the cruise line's employees on the bridge were bringing the ship into port.
Contributing factors to this collision include the fact that the bow lookout was not at his assigned mooring station and not properly carrying out his lookout duties. Bow lookout did not relay distance of vessel bow to pier 90 causing the vessel to shift closer to pier 90 then expected.
