The cargo ship Dali was “an abjectly unseaworthy vessel,” its transformer — which is integral to the ship’s electrical system — was “jury-rigged,” and its devastating March 26 collision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which killed six construction workers, was “entirely avoidable,” the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in a claim filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

The civil claim against the Singaporean owner and manager of the Dali, Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Pte. Ltd., seeks $103 million in damages stemming from federal cleanup and recovery efforts. It does not seek to recover the cost of rebuilding the span, which is owned by the state of Maryland. The state is expected to file its own claim later.

At the crux of much of the litigation surrounding the bridge collapse — which closed the Patapsco River shipping channel and most of the Port of Baltimore for months, continues to cause traffic problems and has caused incalculable economic consequences — is what caused the massive cargo vessel to twice lose power before it toppled the structure.

The Justice Department’s account, which is based upon its own investigation, points to existing issues with the ship’s transformer, which converts high-voltage power to lower voltage-power. The transformer had “long suffered the effects of heavy vibrations” and had been “retrofitted” with braces, one of which had “cracked over time, had been repaired with welds, and had cracked again,” the lawsuit says. The vibration was so “constant,” the suit alleges, that it caused “cargo lashings above the engineering spaces to work loose.”

A “metal cargo hook” also had been “wedged” between the transformer and a steel beam “in a makeshift attempt to limit vibration,” according to the suit.

The vibration problems — a “well-known cause of transformer and electrical failure” per the claim — had been noted previously by a ship’s officer and engineers, and a captain wrote in May 2023 that the vibrations had been reported to Synergy, the claim states.

Evidence that the owner and manager of the ship were aware of these problems before the collapse could be crucial, said Charles Simmons, a Baltimore attorney and maritime law professor.

Shortly after the bridge collapse, the ship’s owners sought to limit their liability to $44 million in an early April filing and, since then, several lawsuits — by the City of Baltimore, small businesses, etc. — have been filed against them.

The Justice Department’s claim, however, is the “most explosive filing, by far,” Simmons said.

If the government can prove that the owners had “privity or knowledge” of these issues, that could result in the owners’ liability being “unlimited,” Simmons said.

“What the DOJ is pointing out is that they were having lots of problems with that transformer and it should have been apparent,” Simmons said.

Darrell Wilson, a spokesperson for Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, said in a statement Wednesday that “the filing of today’s claim was anticipated.”

“The owner and manager will have no further comment on the merits of any claim at this time, but we do look forward to our day in court to set the record straight,” he said.

After problems arose with the transformer in the early hours of March 26, the backup transformer was then unable to assist, according to the Justice Department’s claim, because a safety feature had been “recklessly disabled.” Engineers “were left struggling in the dark to manually reset the tripped circuit breakers” for the transformer, while the 984-foot, 100,000-ton ship headed for the bridge’s support pier at 6.5 knots.

“This took them a full minute, wasting critical time to regain control of the ship,” the claim said.

Power was briefly restored, but the Dali experienced another power failure about 65 seconds later. As the culprit for the second blackout, the government’s claim points to the use of a “flushing” pump, rather than a “proper fuel pump” to fuel the diesel generators “that made the ship’s electricity.” The owner and manager used the flushing pump, the government’s suit alleges, because it was cheaper and more convenient.

“In short, using the flushing pump saved money,” the filing states.

The lawsuit goes on to say that, according to recent inspections, the ship had “loose bolts, nuts and washers and broken electrical cable ties” in the transformers and electrical switchboards.

“The ship’s electrical equipment was in such poor condition that an independent testing agency discontinued further electrical testing due to ‘safety concerns,’” the claim states.

The ship owner “sent an ill-prepared crew,” the Justice Department attorneys wrote, aboard the ship and patched up the vessel with temporary, makeshift fixes rather than actually making permanent, necessary repairs.

The Dali lost power twice the day before the tragedy, the National Transportation Safety Board — whose investigation into the incident is ongoing — previously found. Those outages were not reported to the Coast Guard as they should have been, per U.S. regulations, the suit alleges.

Local, Maryland-licensed pilots are required by state law to guide large ships while in Maryland waters. However, the pilot aboard the Dali at the time of the collapse was not informed by the captain of the crew (which consisted of 20 Indian members and one from Sri Lanka) of prior losses of power, nor of “other mechanical or electrical defects,” according to the suit.

In a last-ditch effort, the pilot sought to release the port anchor and, when that could not be done quickly, to apply the full power of the bow thruster. But the bow thruster was “inexplicably,” the suit states, not available and the “unseaworthy condition of the ship impeded” efforts to prevent the collision.

Justice Department attorneys went on to call the vessel owner’s conduct “outrageous, grossly negligent, willful, wanton, and reckless.”

The federal government also is seeking “punitive damages” to “deter such misconduct,” although it isn’t clear how much that could be. Generally speaking, the maximum awarded in punitive damages is no more than how much is awarded in compensatory damages. (So, in this case, punitive damages would be unlikely to exceed much more than $100 million).

“They cut corners in ways that risked lives and infrastructure,” the claim stated. “Those responsible for the vessel must be held fully accountable for the catastrophic harm they caused, and punitive damages should be imposed to deter such misconduct.”

The FBI opened a criminal investigation into the circumstances of the bridge collapse earlier this year, but on a call with reporters Wednesday morning, Justice Department officials declined to comment on the status of that investigation.

Rod Rosenstein, who previously served as the number two official at the Justice Department and as U.S. attorney for Maryland, said the shipping companies face “very challenging issues” with the government proceeding both criminally and civilly against them.

“You need to coordinate your response because what you say in the civil suit could harm you in the criminal matter,” said Rosenstein, now a partner at King & Spalding in Washington.

Unlike in criminal court, for example, invoking the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination in a civil case can be used against you as suggesting guilt, he said.

Rosenstein said that while it’s infrequent, the government on occasion does undertake parallel civil and criminal cases over the same incident because the penalties in each serve different purposes.

“A civil suit is primarily about restitution,” he said. While criminal cases can also carry fines, they have other “collateral consequences,” such as preventing a company from gaining future government contracts, he said.

The bulk of the $103 million figure the federal government is seeking to recover came from $74 million in expenses incurred by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the cleanup and recovery process. The Coast Guard spent $22 million, the Department of Labor spent $3.5 million, the U.S. Navy spent $1.8 million, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spent about $850,000 and the Maritime Administration spent $830,000.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department is “working to ensure that the costs of clearing the channel and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the crash, not by the American taxpayer.”

As the lawsuits pour in, the Maryland Transportation Authority continues to work toward building a replacement span. The authority, which owns the bridge, is working with construction giant Kiewit on the bridge design, which is expected to take about a year. In the coming months, the remnants of the Key Bridge will be blasted and demolished and, in 2028, a rebuilt bridge is scheduled to open.

The new span is expected to be at least 90% federally funded, but Democratic President Joe Biden has pledged that the federal government will cover the whole bill. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, echoed that sentiment again in a statement Wednesday.

“Today’s DOJ filing brings to light evidence of the negligence and mismanagement that we have long-suspected contributed to the Dali’s collision with the Key Bridge,” he said. “As we continue working in Congress to guarantee full federal funding for replacing the Bridge, we must hold those responsible for this tragedy accountable.”

Asked Wednesday morning at City Hall about the federal government’s suit, Democratic Mayor Brandon Scott said his “first thought” is with the families of those affected.

“Thinking about the people who lost their lives,” he said, “thinking about the communities impacted, thinking about how the city, how the state, how the nation was impacted.”

Baltimore Sun reporters Jean Marbella and Hannah Gaskill contributed.