Investigators are probing whether spontaneous combustion or coal dust ignition might have triggered the August 18 blast on board the 81 681 deadweight tonnage W-Sapphire near the Port of Baltimore.
This is after the US Coast Guard recovered a 30-ton hatch from the waterway south of the Port of Baltimore on August 28. Since then, the Fort McHenry Channel has been fully reopened to vessel traffic.
The Channel is directly north of the Francis Scott Key Bridge which collapsed on March 26, 2024, after a container ship named the Dali lost power and struck one of the bridge's main supporting piers.