BALTIMORE — After delivering a load of sugar to the Domino refinery in Baltimore's Inner Harbor two winters ago, a 567-foot bulk carrier departed for Georgia but didn't get very far before experiencing engine trouble.
Not long after the Nazenin sailed underneath the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a mechanical malfunction cut the flow of cooling water to the ship's main engine, disrupting the ship's propulsion. Its crew dropped anchor just outside the channel in the Patapsco River to make quick repairs, according to a Coast Guard incident report.
Having replaced a “cracked cylinder liner” the Coast Guard attributed to poor maintenance, the Nazenin sailed south to the Annapolis Anchorage, just south of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge for the repair to be inspected. A day later after it resumed its voyage south in the Bay, the ship's “oiler on watch,” who the report said was inadequately trained, made an error that caused it to lose propulsion again and it had to drop anchor again.
Crisis was averted both days, despite the ship twice being rendered mostly adrift not far from bridges providing passage to tens of thousands of motorists daily. At least 40 other times since 2021, cargo vessels experienced a complete loss, or reduction of, propulsion, power or steering while sailing in Maryland waters, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of Coast Guard reports.
Those incidents are rare — hundreds of ships call in Baltimore…
