According to data from Vessel Finder and the maritime incident archive Shipwrecklog, the cargo ship that collided with the Baltimore bridge, named the Dali, was also involved in a collision in Antwerp in 2016.
The same ship that struck and destroyed the Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday also collided with another vessel in 2016 while it was departing the port of Antwerp, Belgium, sending people and cars flying into the water.
According to Bloomberg, Russia and China have struck a shipping deal with the Houthis, ensuring safe vessel transits by promising political backing at the United Nations Security Council for the group.
According to data from Vessel Finder and the maritime incident archive Shipwrecklog, the Dali, a cargo vessel measuring 948 feet (290 meters) long and capable of carrying 10,000 containers, was departing from the container terminal in Antwerp en route to Bremerhaven. During its departure, the ship’s bow is said to have veered, resulting in the stern scraping against the quay wall, causing significant damage to several meters of the hull.
The ship moored in Deurganckdok, Belgium, and was later seized by officials. There were no recorded negative pollution effects or injuries.
The event was purportedly attributed to the ship’s master and pilot, while Vessel Finder reports that the weather was fine at the time.
What crew members were on board the ship is unknown. At the time, Vessel Finder reported that the ship was hired by Maersk but owned by the Greek business Oceanbulk Maritime, having been built in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2015.
The Dali had 22 crew members when it was registered in Singapore, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) on Tuesday. Maersk said in a statement that all of the crew members were Indian, but none of them were employees of the company. It stated that Synergy Group, a charter vessel firm, was in charge of operating the ship.
The Dali struck the Baltimore bridge on Tuesday, causing about 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) of it to collapse and several cars to plummet into the Patapsco River below. During a pre-dawn press conference on Tuesday, officials stated that at least seven persons were being looked for and that two of them had been rescued, one of whom was in critical condition.
