A Princess Cruises ship carrying nearly 4,500 people smashed into a San Francisco pier Thursday while the crew was attempting to dock.
The Ruby Princess “made unexpected contact” with Pier 27 just after 6 a.m. while returning from a 10-day roundtrip cruise to Alaska, the cruise line said in a statement.
There were no reported injuries among the 3,328 guests and 1,159 crew members who were on board the ship.
“I noticed we were spinning pretty quick, to be that close to the dock, and I was mid-ship, portside, looked out the window and we smacked into the dock,” Sacramento resident and passenger Paul Zasso told ABC7 News.
Another passenger said the effects of the crash were minimal, but that “you could definitely feel it.
“It wasn’t like things falling off the shelves or anything like that, kind of like when you get the tugboats coming up against us. So yeah … it was different,” Jeremy Jordan said.
“It was so funny, because one of the dock guys, you can hear him yell out like ‘whoa’ and then you can kind of hear it just slowly going in.
“It’s ironic, because I think it was yesterday the captain was talking about how he goes into docks and how unpredictable the currents are. So yeah, it’s a challenge for them to be able to do that.”
A Princess Cruises spokesperson said the 18-deck liner was left with a dent in its port side rear, and photos show that large, black circular smudges were etched along its port side.
The pier appears to have borne the brunt of the crash — some of the metal spokes that help stabilize the orange buoys against the cruise’s side have been ripped from their stations.
The San Francisco Port could not immediately say how severe the damage along the pier was.
The extent of the boat’s damage has yet to be determined and could delay an upcoming Ruby Princess voyage to Alaska.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation, but at the time of the crash, the liner was under the partial control of a San Francisco Bar Pilot, a spokesperson for the organization confirmed.
