A big container ship lost propulsion power in the waterways surrounding New York City and came to rest near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge Friday night, less than two weeks after another massive cargo vessel collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.
The US Coast Guard verified that its Vessel Traffic Service received a report that the 89,000-ton M/V APL Qingdao lost propulsion around 8:30 p.m. as it traveled through the Kill Van Kull waterway, which connects Staten Island and Bayonne, New Jersey.
John Konrad, CEO of maritime-focused news outlet gCaptain, published an image on X showing the 1,100-foot APL Qingdao hovering uncomfortably close to the Brooklyn-Staten Island bridge.
In reaction to the power outage, three tugboats accompanying the APL Qingdao maneuvered the vessel until it resumed propulsion a short time later.
We transported the vessel to a point just north of the bridge and anchored it.
“The Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service New York received a report from the M/V APL Qingdao around 8:30 p.m. on Friday that the vessel had lost propulsion in the Kill Van Kull waterway.” The Coast Guard stated, “The vessel regained propulsion and received assistance from three towing vessels to safely anchor in Stapleton Anchorage, outside of the navigable channel just north of the Verrazano Bridge.”
“These towing vessels were escorting the vessel as a routine safety measure, which is a common practice for large ships departing their berth.”
The Kill Van Kull Canal is a narrow 3-mile-long tidal strait that separates Newark Bay (home of the Port Newark Container Terminal) and Upper New York Bay.
It is one of the busiest waterways in the Port of New York and New Jersey.
The Coast Guard mandated the certification of the vessel’s propulsion system as fully functional and repaired.
The crew also had a duty to document the exact cause of the propulsion loss in a detailed casualty report.
After completing these standards, the vessel was allowed to continue its journey to Charleston, South Carolina.
The image immediately brings to mind last month’s deadly Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster in Baltimore, where the cargo ship Dali rammed one of the bridge’s supports, causing it to collapse into the Patapsco River, killing six construction workers despite the unsettling optical illusion.
The collapse brought marine traffic to a halt in the critical Port of Baltimore. On CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said it was “realistic” that normal operations on the waterway might resume as early as May.
“It is an aggressive timeline, but we are going to work around the clock to make sure we hit this timeline,” Moore told reporters.
Before the Baltimore accident, Dali appeared to have lost power.
In comparison, the APL Qingdao simply lost its propulsion.
APL Qingdao is registered in Malta and owned by the French shipping and logistics business CMA CGM. It was on its way to Norfolk, Virginia, when it lost power.
On Sunday, we were unable to reach CMA CGM. Konrad did not respond to The Post’s messages requesting a comment.
