Cruise Ship calls to Key West, Florida are set to be impacted due to the Mallory Square dock being damaged by a Silversea vessel last week. The dock will be out of action for around three months so repairs can be made.
Cruise Ship Damages Key West Mooring
The docking area at Mallory Square in Key West was damaged last week on Tuesday, November 27. At around 6:30 PM when the Silversea Silver Spirit luxury vessel was departing the port and was unable to turn around due to strong winds at the time.
Wow! What a night in Key West. I’ve never seen this… the Silver Sea’s Silver Spirit Cruise line got into trouble trying to leave the harbor. It got part way out then drifted back in and hit one of the pilings and torqued it. It lefts some marks on the ship after hitting and then scrapping against them. It also hit several other pilings as it slid the entire way back into the harbor. It appears that at least one piling is damaged… not sure about damages to others. The ship is still here… they are checking out the damage to the ship now. I updated with some pictures and a couple of videos in comments.Update: The captain just made an overhead announcement, apparently the ship is okay, but they are waiting until at least midnight to leave due to the current weather conditions and inability to safely leave the harbor.Updates 11/28:There was significant damage to the south dock. No cruise ships are currently able to dock at that location.Update 12/1: No cruise are currently able to dock at that location. It’s estimated that the damage to dock could possibly take up to 3 months or more to repair. #SilverSea #SilverSpirit#SilverSeaSilverSpirit#KeyWest
Posted by Liz Acar on Tuesday, November 27, 2018
As a result and while the ship was trying to dock again it struck a mooring platform which caused minor damage to the ship hull along the starboard side. Thankfully there were no injuries reported. The platform was extremely damaged and is the reasons why no cruise ships will be able to dock there for three months.
The entire incident was captured on a local webcam. The footage was posted online by Broadway Live Cams.
Shortly after the incident ship and port personnel can be seen checking what damage had been done and a detailed inspection was done of the ship hull. According to the Miami Herald, the bollard platform is estimated to cost $500,000.
Also Read:Â 20 Fun Things to Do in Key West, Florida
The Silver Spirit is a luxury vessel and was sailing an eastern Caribbean cruise at the time. The ship did continue as normal with the voyage and arrived at her homeport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida as normal on November 28. The ship is 36,000 gross tons with a guest capacity of 540.
