Crews have recovered the body of a Brooklyn crew member who died when a tugboat slammed into a Tappan Zee Bridge construction barge and sank in the Hudson River last week.

The largest salvage crane on the East Coast, The Chesapeake, raised the 84-foot tug named The Specialist from up over 40 feet of water shortly after daybreak. After crews drained the boat so that oil and fuel didn't leak into the river, a joint team of investigators entered the boat and recovered the body of Brooklyn-native crew member Harry Hernandez, 56, one of three men who died in the crash.

The remains of 63-year-old Paul Amon, of Bayville, New Jersey, and 29-year-old Timothy Conklin, of Westbury, Long Island, were pulled from the water shortly after the collision on March 12.

Hernandez's body was recovered around 11 a.m. and was transferred to the Westchester County Medical Examiner's Office. Family members have been waiting almost two weeks for his retrieval. 

While one team concentrated on reaching the body of Hernandez, another team was collecting evidence and looking for key items such as the log book and the GPS system. "That tells us, again, electronically, step by step, minute by minute, where the vessel was. Any of the things that can help us learn why this happened," says Charles Rowe, of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Crews placed the damaged vessel on a barge and will move it to Jersey City for further examination. A preliminary report is expected to be released next week.