Sailors could be seen clinging to the wreckage as large beams crashed to the deck below.
“I heard a sound like a big twig snapping,” said Nick Corso, a witness who had been photographing the sunset moments before the crash. “Then people started screaming. You could tell something terrible had happened.”
Lily Katz, another bystander, told the AP she saw a crew member dangling by a harness from the top of a mast for at least 15 minutes before being rescued.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” she said. “We zoomed in with our phones, and someone was just hanging there.”
⚓ Tradition Turns Tragic: ‘Manning the Yards’
At the time of the crash, the sailors were participating in a centuries-old naval tradition known as “manning the yards,” where crew members stand atop the masts to honor their entry into port.
Normally a celebration of maritime heritage and naval pride, the ritual ended in horror as the ship’s rigging and sails collapsed, turning the towering structure into a deadly hazard.
