It was constructed by the Korean Hyundai shipyard in 2015 and is 300m long, 48m wide and 24.8m tall, with gross tonnage of 95,000 tonnes, making it an average-sized container ship.

It had left Baltimore port at 1am local time today for a roughly month-long voyage to Colombo in Sri Lanka, according to the site Marine Traffic.

It hit the bridge at 1.28am.

The ship belongs to Singapore-based Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, which is owned by a Hong Kong group, and was carrying containers on behalf of Danish shipping giant Maersk.

Synergy Marine, the Singapore company that operates the Dali, said it was being controlled by two Baltimore port pilots at the time of the collision.

There were 22 crew members on board, according to the port of Singapore, and none were injured, according to Synergy, which also says no leaking has been detected.

The Dali frequently links Asian ports with the East Coast of the US, and passed through the Panama Canal on Mar 13 before stopping at New York, Norfolk and finally Baltimore.

In 2016, soon after commissioning, the Dali accidentally hit a dock in the Belgian port of Antwerp, according to the sites Vessel Finder and Shipwrecklog.

It can hold up to 8,344 cubic metres of fuel, according to Marine Traffic.

It is insured by UK-based Britannia.