The Dali, a Singapore-flagged cargo ship that caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, finally left the Port of Baltimore on Monday, according to the Coast Guard.
The ship struck a support pillar of the bridge at 1:28 a.m. March 26, causing the bridge to snap and tumble into the Patapsco River below. In a report, the National Transportation Safety Board said the 947-foot-long ship suffered a pair of power losses in the minutes before it struck the bridge, leaving it without propulsion to help steer away from one of the bridge’s piers.
The Dali, which had been in the Port of Baltimore since it collapsed, will sail to the Port of Virginia. The Coast Guard said it will oversee its voyage Monday.
"During the transit, the Coast Guard Cutter Sailfish, an 87-foot Marine Protector-class patrol boat homeported in Virginia Beach, will provide a 500-yard safety zone around the Dali while Coast Guard watchstanders ... will closely monitor the ship’s movement as it transits through each captain of the port zone," the Coast Guard said.
The Dali will sail with a full crew of 22 directly to the Virginia International Gateway, where it will offload around 1,500 cargo containers, the Coast Guard said. Then it will sail to the Norfolk International Terminal, where it will undergo repairs for damage caused by the bridge collapse.
The Dali, which was chartered by the Danish shipping giant Maersk, was bound for Sri Lanka when it struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Minutes before the crash, its lights went out, then briefly flickered back on, and black smoke billowed from the stack — signs of the power losses.
The NTSB and the FBI opened investigations into the bridge collapse, which killed six construction workers.
