Salvors prepared a heavy lift sheerleg crane ship to remove the wreckage of a ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

Footage shows workers preparing the Chesapeake 1000, a heavy lift sheerleg crane ship, to use the HSWC500-1000 heavy duty hydraulic salvage grab to conduct wreckage and debris removal during the Key Bridge Response 2024 operation.

The 29ft wife HSWC500-1000 hydraulic claw can grab up to two million pounds of wreckage from a depth of more than 260 feet.

The Dali vessel reportedly lost power before ramming into a support pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, plunging the structure into the river as it fell apart within seconds early morning on March 26.

The ship's pilot reportedly issued a 'mayday call' minutes before the collision, allowing Maryland transportation officers to stop oncoming traffic onto the bridge.

Authorities have opened the Fort McHenry Limited Access Channel as a temporary passageway for commercial vessels into the Port of Baltimore.