The doomed sailors aboard the Mexican tall ship that crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge were participating in a touching tradition called “manning the yards,’’ which pays homage to host ports, at the time.
Dozens of crew members on the Mexican navy training ship Cuauhtemoc were lined up, standing with their arms apart, along rigging for the craft’s 147-foot-high masts around 8:20 p.m. Saturday in a sign of respect that seamen frequently do when entering and leaving port, NTSB officials said Monday.
The ship then smashed into the historic span, leaving sailors dangling or caught up from the crumpled masts, while others fell onto the boat.
The tragedy killed two young sailors and injured more than 20 other people on the ship, including a pair who are still critical.
The crew of the Cuauhtemoc last week also had demonstrated the maritime “Manning the Yards” tradition when The Post was on board for a celebration of the ship’s arrival at the South Street Seaport.
The sailors precariously stood on the beams and some of the rigging for their salute.
But getting down from the rigging afterward is no easy matter, and the cadets may have been caught off guard before Sunday’s crash.
“I was speaking to one of the crew members who was still on the boat, and they stated [that] to get up there, it takes 5 minutes roughly to climb up there,” Mayor Eric Adams said on during an appearance on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” on Monday.
“So that can give you a real indicator of how high it is,” he said.
NTSB officials Monday said the tragedy unfolded very quickly after the ship cast off from Pier 17 in Lower Manhattan with the help of a harbor tugboat.
“At 8:24 p.m., a [voyage data recorder] radio broadcast was sounded requesting assistance from other tugboats in the area of the Brooklyn Bridge,” investigator Michael Young said at a briefing.
“That was followed by two other requests for assistance, and at 8:24 and 45 seconds, the vessel’s mast struck the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge. At 8:27, the vessel came to a stop.”
He said NYPD and FDNY boats were at the scene by 8:30 p.m.
The NTSB said it hopes to have a preliminary report on the tragedy within 30 days but warned that a full accounting of the collision could take as long as two years.
