The ill-fated Mexican tall ship that collided with the Brooklyn Bridge in May is aiming for a “triumphant return” to New York next year as part of a record-breaking flotilla expected to enter the harbor, The Post has learned.
The Cuauhtémoc is planned to be among the 30 Class A International Tall Ships set to march through the Harbor in celebration of the US’s semiquincentennial anniversary — provided the ship’s three decorative masts can be repaired.
The masts were destroyed in the tragic accident in spring that claimed the lives of two young mariners and left 19 other people injured.
The Mexican Navy now has precisely one year to restore the Cuauhtémoc to its former splendor and join what will be the largest flotilla ever to navigate the port of New York and New Jersey.
“We see it as a kind of triumphant return,” Chris O’Brien, the president of Sail4th 250, the organizer for next year’s blockbuster event, told The Post.
“They’re going to be executing their repairs and so the invitation is still open for them to join us.”
When asked if the Mexican Navy has indicated whether it plans to return, O’Brien said: “I can’t speculate there, but we are maintaining positive lines of communication.”
The Mexican Navy is in the midst of repairing the damage, which was mostly sustained on the Cuauhtémoc’s three masts that were severed when they smacked into the Brooklyn Bridge, a spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board told The Post.
The extent of the repairs needed was not immediately clear. The damage to the 147-foot-tall training vessel is expected to exceed $500,000.
The NTSB is still investigating the cause of the collision, which could take at least a year, or as long as two, a spokesperson told The Post.
A preliminary report released Monday revealed that the vessel was inexplicably sailing backwards — and picked up speed — before the fatal collision.
It did not answer what caused the “major marine casualty,” including why the docking pilot’s orders to stop the vessel didn’t have any effect.
At the time, dozens of cadets were “manning the masts,” meaning they were standing on and strapped to the ship’s three masts — a universal sign of respect every time a ship enters and leaves a port.
Two crew members who were on the masts plummeted to the ship’s deck during the collision and were later pronounced dead at local hospitals.
Should the repairs be completed in time, the ship will take part in the six-day, once-in-a-lifetime event slated for July 3 to 8 next year to celebrate America’s 250th birthday.
The flotilla of 30 international tall ships and 40 gray hull vessels will be the highlight of the festival, fittingly taking place on July 4.
The ships, each a military training vessel from another country, will ceremoniously voyage into the harbor from beneath the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before landing in ports on Staten Island, in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
A “senior government official” will be aboard the incredible parade — but planners wouldn’t budge on naming the guest of honor.
