Coast Guard records indicate that the same Seastreak ferry has been involved in prior crashes, including one in 2009 when the vessel slammed into a New Jersey dock and tore a 2- to 3-foot gash in the starboard bow of the vessel.
Some of the ferry's cargo of 50 lorries broke chains holding them down and as the load shifted the vessel began to list at 60 degrees in conditions described as the roughest for a decade.