Another big ship lost power near Baltimore. This time, nothing went disastrously wrong.

A 965-foot cargo ship “briefly lost power” as it departed the Seagirt Marine Terminal at the Port of Baltimore early Monday morning, but it was able to return to its berth according to Maryland Port Administration spokesperson Richard Scher.

The ship, a Liberia-flagged vessel named the Bellavia, departed Baltimore around 2:30 a.m. but almost immediately ran into trouble. Marine tracking data indicates the ship was going roughly 2 mph and made very little progress — no more than 1,000 or 2,000 feet — before it turned around and returned to a berth at Seagirt.

“It was able to quickly reengage and return to Seagirt under its own power,” Scher wrote in an emailed response to questions from The Baltimore Sun.

The Bellavia then received repairs in Baltimore, Scher said, and less than 18 hours later, the U.S. Coast Guard cleared the ship for departure. It left Monday evening and sailed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis around 8 p.m. By Tuesday evening, the vessel was approaching New York, according to marine tracking data.

The Bellavia, which arrived in Baltimore from Cartagena, Colombia, is owned and managed by German companies Eastvia Schiffahrts and Dauelsberg, respectively. Dauelsberg did not reply to a request for comment.

There are some parallels between Monday’s power loss and the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in the early hours of March 26, when the 984-foot container ship Dali lost power before striking and collapsing the span. The disaster killed six construction workers who had been filling potholes on the span and sent 50,000 tons of wreckage tumbling into the Patapsco River, blocking the shipping channel for more than two months.

The channel was fully reopened in June and the port has started to return to pre-incident activity levels.

The Bellavia, like the Dali, was made by Hyundai. Although the Dali is wider than the Bellavia, the ships share similar lengths.

A key difference in the two instances, however, is that the Bellavia was able to quickly regain power and safely return to a berth. Additionally, tugboats — which provide security for larger vessels navigating harbors — were still tied onto the Bellavia at the time that it lost power and became a “dead ship,” an industry term for a ship without power.

Tugboats had assisted the Dali away from the Port of Baltimore, in accordance with state regulations, but were not required to escort the ship under the Key Bridge.

The Bellavia’s issue marked at least the third time that a deep-draft ship has lost power in Maryland waters since the bridge collapse.

Coast Guard District 5 spokesperson Lt. Luke Pinneo said the service’s Maryland-National Capital Region, which includes the Chesapeake Bay, received six notifications of “vessels that have experienced a loss of reduction in power or propulsion” since March 26. Of those, three were “U.S. inspected small passenger vessels” with the other three being “deep draft foreign flagged” ships.

Thousands of ships come in and out of Baltimore, one of the nation’s busiest ports, annually and it is not unheard of for ships to lose power. At least 42 cargo vessels lost propulsion, power or steering while sailing in Maryland waters from the start of 2021 to April 2024, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis, including seven in direct proximity to Seagirt Marine Terminal.

When a vessel loses power or propulsion, it is required to report the incident to the Coast Guard and Pinneo described such instances as “a serious marine safety concern.”

“When we receive reports, the incidents are promptly investigated, and operational control measures are taken to restrict the vessel’s movement until the condition that lead to the loss of power or propulsion is identified and corrected,” he said in an emailed statement.

A vessel without power underscores potential dangers that massive ships can pose to the infrastructure in and around ports. In addition to the calamity of the Key Bridge collapse, a 997-foot ship lost control of its engines and sped through the harbor in Charleston, S.C., one month ago, prompting the closure of a bridge there.

Since the Key Bridge disaster, the Coast Guard has launched a probe to “examine the implications of larger, more complex vessels and evolving maritime traffic patterns on port infrastructure.”