The crew of the cargo ship that crashed on the Baltimore bridge has been kept in touch for two months on the ship

(CNN) — The Dali’s 21-member crew has been confined aboard the ship since March 26 and will likely have to remain on board “for the foreseeable future,” the ship’s management company said.

There are no immediate plans for what the crew members, 20 Indians and one Sri Lankan, will do after the cast is transferred this Monday, said Barbara Shipley, the mid-Atlantic labor representative for the International Transport Workers Federation.

According to one of the unions representing crew members, the sailors’ one-month visas expired while they were stranded on the ship.

Shipley said the sailors have been without their cellphones for more than a month because the FBI seized the devices as part of its ongoing investigation.

“It is important that these gentlemen return home to their families,” he said.

But according to international maritime rules, it is necessary to have personnel on board the ship. Shipley hopes officials will prioritize deciding which men can return home and which should stay.

Although the sailors were trapped on the boat, they were not idle. They played a vital role in keeping the ship afloat and helping rescuers navigate the ship, said Darrell Wilson, a spokesman for Synergy Marine Group, the company that manages the Dali ship.

Synergy provided mental health services to sailors who were dealing with the deaths of six construction workers who died in the accident.

“It has been difficult for seafarers, mainly (because) they know that lives were lost,” said Gwe Guo Duan, deputy secretary-general of the Singapore Maritime Officers Union, one of the unions representing the Singapore ship’s crew members. Went.”

“It is difficult for them to be on board and have to see the crash site every day.”

The cargo ship was removed from the accident area.

After 55 days stuck in the Patapsco River, the freighter Daly has been towed from the site of a catastrophic accident on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, marking an important step toward fully reopening the busy Port of Baltimore.

Several tugboats began pulling the 106,000-ton ship around 7 a.m. ET Monday, officials said. The ship traveled at a speed of about 1 mph (1.6 kph) to the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore.

By late Monday morning, Dali was already standing at the terminal, the same place from where he had set off on his ill-fated journey almost eight weeks earlier.

Officials said the ship will undergo necessary temporary repairs before permanent repairs.

Federal authorities are still investigating why the cargo ship lost power, veered off course and crashed into the Key Bridge on March 26, killing six construction workers.

But Dali’s withdrawal from the doom scenario means officials will soon be able to open more channels for trade across the country, especially the Port of Baltimore, a vital hub for the sugar and auto industries.

“We are ahead of schedule in opening our channels,” U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Kate Newkirk told CNN affiliate WBAL over the weekend.

“We plan to open (this Monday) a 120-metre by 15-metre (400-foot by 50-foot) canal, and hopefully in the next week we will have a 213-metre (700-foot) canal, Which is our goal.”

Maryland Governor Wes Moore said he expected the main federal waterway that had been blocked by debris to reopen later this month.

“I’m proud that we’re on the right track,” Moore said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “By the end of May, we will reopen that federal channel.”

Officials are investigating the cause of the disaster

Multiple investigations are underway to determine who may be responsible for this horrific accident. Last month, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced the launch of an investigation “to hold those responsible accountable and mitigate immediate and long-term harm to residents.”

The ship’s Singaporean owner, Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, and administrator, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, filed a petition in the federal court last month seeking $43.6 million in potential liability payments.

The City of Baltimore asked the court to deny that request.

The FBI, United States Coast Guard, and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are also investigating.

Last week, the NTSB released a preliminary report that said there were two electrical failures aboard the cast minutes before the collision, as well as two blackouts while the ship was in port the day before. According to reports, one of those blockages at the port was caused by crew error.

The FBI and Coast Guard are investigating whether the crew failed to report a power outage at the port, according to a US official with knowledge of the matter.

—CNN’s Amanda Moses, Zoe Sottile, Chris Boyett, Nicole Grether, Gloria Pazmino and Jillian Sykes contributed to this report.