The shipping industry as a whole have always fought the insurance industry, and pilotage rules...it costs money to charter a tug. But in this case and many others, one or two assist vessels would have saved the day. Foreign flag ownership exacerbates the problem...poorly trained officers, minimum maintenance and safety standards. When there is an incident, the foreign flag owners just declare bankruptcy, move on and start a new company...leaving a pittance in insurance to clean up the aftermath. Mandatory assist tugs from pierside to open water would take almost all the risk away...kinda handy to have 6,000 hp available to the pilot in an instant. In the case of containerships with their huge 'sail area' and tankers, 2 tugs...but oh no...it costs too much.
The article linked said that they had tugs, but had released them prior to the power going out it appears.
"According to Marine Traffic the ship departed the Seagirt Marine Terminal in the Port of Baltimore at approximately 00:30 local time, sailed northwest past the Nuclear Ship Savanah then turned southeast to depart the harbor, released the tugboats, and collided with the bridge at approximately 01:38."
