Passengers of a river cruise boat in New Orleans had to be pulled from the Mississippi river on Friday after a tanker collided with the paddlewheeler as it sat in dock, causing it to capsize.

Those aboard desperately gripped the railings of the American Heritage as it started taking on water and tipping over, sparking a major emergency response.

In what Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry hailed as a “miracle on the Mississippi,” all 197 passengers made it to safety.

“There had to be some kind of divine, godly intervention for this outcome,” Mayor Helena Moreno said Saturday.

Hours after the collision, the Port of New Orleans sued to ensure the seizure of the tanker, Atlantic Asphalt, which the lawsuit said is owned and managed by a Liberia-based shipping company.

The lawsuit, which also named Thome Ship Management in Singapore, said the tanker caused more than $1 million in damage to a New Orleans terminal.

The docked riverboat was struck “as a resu...