Thousands of shipping containers on the Dali, the 984-foot cargo vessel that struck and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge more than a month ago, face an uncertain fate.
About 180 of the 4,700 containers have been removed from the ship and taken to a CSX rail yard in Curtis Bay, while the rest, both full and empty, remain stacked on board as the vessel owner, shipping line and cargo customers negotiate who ultimately will cover the costs of the salvaging operation.
Cleanup crews are working to remove an estimated 50,000 tons of steel and concrete bridge wreckage from the Patapsco River. They will remove “just enough” cargo and debris to refloat the ship, after which the Dali will be taken back to the Port of Baltimore to be assessed for damages, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer Michael Himes.
The majority of the cargo containers will remain onboard during the refloating process. Once the Dali reaches port, Maersk will offload the remaining containers and take them to a yet-to-be determined location, according to Kevin Doell, a U.S. spokesperson for Maersk, the ship’s Denmark-based shipping line.
About 2,100 containers onboard are full, Doell said.
The Dali’s Singapore-based owner, Grace Ocean Private Limited, last week declared “general average,” invoking an ancient maritime law that compels cargo owners to help finance the fallout from what some expect to be the largest-ever maritime loss.
Security bonds for all 2,600 empty containers onboard the ship had been provided as of Friday, while adjusters had received deposits for only 49 full containers, some of which were bound for ports in Bangkok; Busan, South Korea; Shuwaikh, Kuwait; and Doha, Qatar, according to a list of secured containers obtained by The Baltimore Sun.
The Dali was minutes into a monthlong journey to Sri Lanka when it collided with the bridge at 1:27 a.m. March 26, toppling the 47-year-old span and killing six workers who were filling potholes. As of Tuesday, cleanup crews had removed 182 containers to help refloat the ship, then taken them by barge to a CSX-owned transportation yard in Curtis Bay, according to Gov. Wes Moore.
Doell declined to specify what is in the unopened containers, citing privacy. Shipping manifests are not publicly available, and charterers can request additional protection measures to guarantee their confidentiality, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Dali previously had carried cargo from companies such as IKEA, LG, Walmart and the Chinese and U.S. units of Israeli-owned ZIM Logistics, according to ImportInfo, a website that compiles U.S. Customs import manifests.
The accident immediately destroyed 14 containers upon impact, and two more fell overboard, releasing soaps and perfumes into the water. Fifty-six containers onboard contain corrosive materials such as lithium batteries, and flammable and miscellaneous hazardous materials, though Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, has said those containers pose “no immediate threat” to the environment.
The collective cargo is worth $43.7 million, according to an April 1 petition filed by Grace Ocean and its manager, Marine Synergy, seeking exemption from legal liability. The two Singapore firms have since appointed as its adjuster Richards Hogg Lindley, a British firm that also oversaw the adjustment processes for the Ever Given, which got stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021, and the Ever Forward, which ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay in 2022 for over a month. Authorities had to remove 500 containers out of 5,000 from the Ever Forward to free it.
The Dali apparently lost power before it crashed into the bridge for reasons that remain unknown publicly. Investigations by the NTSB and the FBI are ongoing. Investigators from the safety board are focusing on its electrical system, while the FBI is looking for criminal negligence.
On April 22, Baltimore City officials accused Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine of negligence, arguing in court filings that the two firms knew the Dali was unseaworthy before the bridge collapse. A Baltimore County publishing company also sued the Dali’s owners for negligence on April 26, arguing that it lost business because of the collision, and seeking class action for the suit so other companies could join it.
Cargo insurers must provide invoices, agree to make payments, and clear security before the containers can be delivered to their customers, according to instructions from Richards Hogg Lindley provided to The Sun. Uninsured cargo customers must pay cash deposits to retrieve their containers.
Customers can then work with Maersk to ensure delivery of their cargo, Doell said. He was unable to say many containers onboard the Dali are insured.
Jonathan Spencer, the principal and average adjuster with the New York-based Spencer Company, previously told The Sun that as much as one-third of the cargo on a typical container ship may be uninsured.
