New details are emerging about the dubious condition of the Dali, the ship that hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge, as it left port the morning of March 26th, 2024.
Lawyers are uncovering new information about the ship as they continue their discovery process and interview crew members.
New revelations from lawyers representing the state of Maryland and other claimants seeking damages from Grace Ocean Private, the company that owns the Dali, and Synergy Marine Group, the company that managed the ship, include brake failures on one of the anchors.
“The hydraulic brake on the Dali’s port anchor windlass was inoperable — and had been inoperable for nearly two weeks,” the lawyers wrote. “That unseaworthy condition meant the port anchor windlass could only be operated with the manual brake, a two-man job. Despite that situation, only one man was posted to the Dali’s bow on March 26, which meant when the time came to deploy the anchor, he was unable to do so.”
The lawyers allege that that had devastating consequences for properly diverting the ship from disaster.
Additionally, the documents state, the ship was without one of its four generators.
The crew only ran two of the three remaining generators as it left port.
“As admitted by the Dali’s Chief Engineer, the second blackout would never have occurred if the ship had been using three generators rather than two,” the documents state.
The state of Maryland, the city of Baltimore, numerous companies and families of the victims who died on the bridge are all suing the Grace Ocean and Synergy.
Depositions have been taken from the crew members, but the testimony remains redacted at this time.
Earlier this year, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office asked ZeroNorth for its communications information with Grace Ocean as part of the discovery phase of the case.
ZeroNorth owns the software SMARTShip, which is used to remotely monitor vessels.
“The communications of the owners and managers of the M/V Dali with Alpha Ori and ZeroNorth will be critical in establishing how SMARTShip was utilized onboard the M/V Dali and what information shoreside personnel chose to monitor,” the Attorney General wrote.
Maryland is facing blame of its own for the ship allission.
A March National Transportation Safety Board report found Maryland’s transportation authority failed to assess the Francis Scott Key Bridge for threats for decades, leaving the bridge 30 times more vulnerable than thresholds set by industry standards.
“The MDTA would have been able to proactively identify strategies to reduce the risk of a collapse and loss of lives associated with a vessel collision with the bridge,” said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy when the report was released. “What's frustrating is, not only did MDTA fail to conduct the vulnerability assessment on the Key Bridge, they did not provide, nor were they able to provide, the NTSB with the data needed to conduct the assessment, including the characteristics of vessel traffic passing under the bridge, vessel transit speeds, vessel loading characteristics.”
The trail Grace Ocean and Synergy is set for next summer.
