A Danish ship crashed into the USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul (LCS-21) Freedom-class littoral combat ship on Sunday in the Baltimore Inner Harbor in Maryland.
CBS News reported the Danish ship “Danmark” became stuck after crashing into some wood pilings shortly after 11 a.m. on Sunday. A tugboat came to free the stuck Danish ship but in the process pulled it into the USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul, which was moored.
A video taken from on board the U.S. Minneapolis-Saint Paul showed the antique wooden Danish ship run headfirst into the modern U.S. warship
The Danmark appeared to suffer the most damage in the end. A wooden boom on the mizzen sail at the back of the vessel appeared to snap as it pressed into the 3,900-ton U.S. warship.
WMAR 2 News anchor Christian Schaffer shared a video from a building looking down on the harbor, showing the position of the two ships after the crash.
“No U.S. Navy personnel were injured and no serious damage sustained onboard USS Minneapolis St. Paul (LCS 21) when the Danish training ship Danmark made contact with the moored LCS while the Danish ship was getting underway from the Baltimore Inner Harbor Sept 11, 2022,” a U.S. Navy spokesperson told CBS News. “The ships were in port taking part in what has been a fantastic week in Baltimore for Maryland Fleet Week and Flyover Baltimore.”
The USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul appeared unharmed after the collision, though Schaffer tweeted that a person touring the U.S. warship during the collision said “the whole ship shuddered.”
It is unclear how much damage the Danmark sustained in the collision. According to VesselFinder, the Danish ship was built in 1933 and has been used as a training vessel.
The collision came toward the second-to-last day of fleet week at the Baltimore Inner Harbor.
Other recent collisions involving U.S. warships have been deadly occurrences. In June of 2017, the destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) collided with a South Korean cargo ship and seven U.S. Navy sailors were killed. Two months later, the destroyer USS John McCain also collided with a Liberian-flagged tanker, killing 10 U.S. sailors.
