Captain of a brand new Luxury cruise ship Pearl No. 7, crashed into a bridge in Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. The accident left two of the ship's chimneys damaged and an obvious abrasion on the bridge.
No casualty was reported, both on the cruise ship and the bridge. And the traffic across the bridge was not interrupted.
The newly built holiday cruise is 158 meters long and seven stories high. It was towed on the Oujiang River yesterday morning when it hit the Wenzhou Bridge, the local maritime bureau said.
The ship was sailing along the Oujiang River that flows underneath the bridge, Wednesday morning. Some witnesses said the main structure of the bridge swayed slightly once when the collision occurred.
According to the municipal maritime safety authorities, further assessment and investigation of the bridge damage are underway.
Yang Tao, the chief engineer of the bridge's owner company, Wenzhou Round-City Expressway Co.,LTD, confirmed that the city's maritime safety department is investigating the cause of the collision.
"The maritime safety department is investigating the cause of the collision, considering such factors as the height of the ship, its draught and the tidewater's level," said Yang.
The unpowered vessel designed as a floating hotel was launched at a nearby shipyard the previous day.
The 280 million-yuan (44.24 million U.S. dollars) vessel is the first unpowered luxury vessel independently built by Wenzhou's local shipbuilders, Wenzhou Mingzhu Yacht Co., Ltd.
With a length of 158 meters and a 30-meter width, the 33-meter high five-star vessel could accommodate up to 1,000 passengers. The vessel weights 8,600 tons and its low drought is only 5.5 meters.
The cruise ship is designed by Changjiang Ship Design Institute based in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. According to the ships' owner, the vessel will be put into use before October 1, this year, as originally planned.
