Tears flow for seafarers at a vigil, who were killed in the Brooklyn Bridge Ship Ship Crash. • Brooklyn paper

Flowers and candles are killed on the East River near Pier 17 in Manhattan in memory of the two seafarers when the Mexican naval ship Cuauhtémoc met the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, May 17th.

Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

Mexican citizens and New York gathered in mourning, after two cadet sealers died in an accident with the Cuauhtémoc, a Mexican naval training ship who met the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday evening.

More than 300 people defy the pouring rain on Wednesday to honor the seafarers and remembered those who proudly served their land.

The ship was left on the way to Iceland on May 17th at 8:20 p.m. Pier 17 in Lower Manhattan. According to the investigators of the National Transportation Safety Board, it should drive south on the East River -away from the Brooklyn Bridge -but instead traveled north.

“A VHF radio program was sounded and for support from other tractors in the Brooklyn Bridge area for support,” said Brian Young, the responsible investigator of the NTSB. “Two further inquiries followed for help. At 8:24 and 45 seconds PM, the masts of the ship hit the bottom of the Brooklyn Bridge. At 8:27 a.m. the ship came to a standstill.”

The Cuauhtémoc was supported by a tractor at the time of departure. The crash killed two crew members-América Yamileth Sánchez Hernández, a 20-year-old cadet, and Adal Jair Maldonado Marcos, a 23-year-old sailor. The crash left two more in a critical condition and injured around 19 more of the 277 people on board.

The federal investigators were in Manhattan on Monday to start their probe. Michael Graham, a member of the board of NTSB, said a team of experts for nautical operations, marine and bridge engineering and voyage recordings had met in Brookly on Sunday to check the incident. The investigation also includes interviews with the crew, reviews of guidelines and procedures and the examination of the available records.

At the vigil, the New York Mayor Eric Adams offered condolences.

“Parents shouldn't have to bury their children,” he said about the young victims, “but everyone will get through it. I will be on the ship when it is finished.”

The public lawyer Jumaane Williams also spoke at the meeting.

“I am in this difficult time with people in Mexico,” he said. “This is not time for you to split. You come here to live the American dream and keep this country in motion.”

The monument showed a Mariachi band, food, candles and a large banner that exhibited the faces of the fallen seafarers. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.