The Mexican Navy's tall ship ARM Cuauhtémoc is set to arrive in Honolulu this Friday, docking at 9:30 a.m. at Pier 10 of Aloha Tower for its first international port call since two of its crew members were killed when the ship struck New York's Brooklyn Bridge in May 2025. The five-day stop, which runs through Aug. 11, opens with free public deck tours each day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and organizers expect the welcoming activities to draw thousands of Hawaiʻi residents and visitors to the historic downtown pier.
According to Big Island Now, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi and the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco are coordinating the visit, and the arrival ceremony will welcome the ship's commanding officer, officers, crew and naval cadets. The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi says the ceremony will also feature Mariachi Hawaii Internacional, ballet folklórico and traditional hula, according to a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi announcement. A members-only reception for chamber members follows from 6 to 8 p.m. that evening.
A Somber Remembrance Amid the Celebration
The arrival ceremony will also include a remembrance honoring the Mexican Navy personnel lost in last year's tragedy, the outlet's report notes. Organizers describe Hawaiʻi as the first international port of call for the Cuauhtémoc's first major training voyage since the accident, framing the stop as a milestone in the ship's return to open water.
Ruben Juarez said the visit stands as "an international symbol of resilience and friendship," according to Big Island Now.
The Ship That Struck the Brooklyn Bridge
The Cuauhtémoc's return carries particular weight given what happened on May 17, 2025, when the tall ship struck the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge while departing Manhattan's Pier 17, damaging all three of its masts and killing two crew members, according to the NTSB. The agency said the accident, which also injured 22 other people, occurred at about 8:24 p.m. as the ship was departing New York City for Iceland at the start of a planned 254-day goodwill tour.
The two sailors killed were identified as América Yamilet Sánchez, a 20-year-old final-year naval cadet from Xalapa, Veracruz, and Adal Jair Maldonado Marcos, a 23-year-old sailor from the Ikoot community of San Mateo del Mar, Oaxaca, according to The Guardian. Sánchez had aspired to become a naval engineer, the paper reported, while Maldonado had dreamed of following his father's career at sea.
Months of Repairs Before Returning to Sea
The NTSB designated the crash a major marine casualty and opened a formal safety investigation alongside the U.S. Coast Guard and Mexican naval authorities, examining harbor current conditions and possible propulsion problems during the ship's departure maneuver.
The ship then spent months at Caddell Dry Dock in Staten Island, undergoing roughly $500,000 in repairs that included mending three severed masts and inspecting its running gear and propulsion systems, Hoodline reported. The Cuauhtémoc completed sea trials in late September and departed New York City in October, according to the same report.
A Storied Training Ship With Deep Pacific Ties
Built in 1982 at Astilleros Celaya in Bilbao, Spain, the 297-foot barque-rigged Cuauhtémoc is the last of four sister windjammers constructed for Ibero-American navies, according to Yucatán Magazine. Its main mast rises roughly 147 feet and it can carry up to 25,489 square feet of sail, a scale that helps explain how its rigging reached the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge.
The tall ship is a familiar sight in Honolulu Harbor, having made port calls there in June and August 2024, October 2017 and October 2014, per Maritime Hawaiʻi. During past visits, crew members have performed the traditional naval honor of "manning the yards" while entering the harbor, and Pier 10, built in 1926 as a berth for trans-Pacific passenger liners, now serves as Honolulu's primary downtown dock for visiting tall ships and foreign naval vessels.
Since its commissioning in July 1982, the Cuauhtémoc has logged more than 400,000 nautical miles and visited over 200 ports in 60 countries, serving as a floating naval academy for graduating classes of Mexico's Heroic Naval Military School, Yucatán Magazine reports. After Honolulu, the ship is expected to continue its Pacific training voyage toward the U.S. West Coast, with a berth reserved at Pier 15-17 in San Francisco in late September, according to the Port of San Francisco.
For the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi and Mexico's consulate, organizers say the visit is meant to strengthen diplomatic, educational, cultural and economic ties between Mexico and the islands before the Cuauhtémoc raises sail again for the mainland.
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