Cruise ship damaged after striking San Francisco pier while docking
Written by ABC Audio. All rights reserved. on July 7, 2023
(SAN FRANCISCO) — A Ruby Princess cruise ship startled sleeping San Fransico residents Thursday morning after it hit a pier while docking, damaging it and the vessel, officials said.
None of the 3,328 guests and 1,159 crew members on board were injured during the incident, according to Princess Cruises. The ship was returning from a 10-day cruise to Alaska that left last week, according to the cruise line.
The Coast Guard is investigating the incident, according to police. A spokesperson for the San Francisco Bar Pilots group told ABC News in a statement that it is cooperating with the investigation.
Nearby residents told ABC affiliate KGO that they could hear the impact and they were awoken by the sounds of the crew scrambling.
“One of the dock guys, you can hear him yell out like, ‘Whoa,'” resident Jeremy Jordan told KGO, “and then you can kind of hear it just slowly going in…it was surreal, and you could definitely feel it.”
Witnesses said the dock took the brunt of the damage from the crash.
Princess Cruises told ABC News that the vessel underwent an assessment.
Passengers for the next trip on the boat began boarding later in the afternoon for a scheduled departure at 4 p.m. PT, according to the cruise line. It was unknown if that departure would be delayed.
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