Last voyage for Costa Concordia cruise ship

[Yobarnacle]

Originally Posted by CatBuilder

What bugs me is I keep reading (even in the CNN article), that the company and captain claim 300 meters 1000ft, from shore at impact.

I wouldn't take a catamaran with a 2ft draft up the coast of an island at 1000 ft out. I know I'm an anal.navigator, but I have never felt you can trust charts 100% and should err on the side of caution and improve your chances by keeping to deep water whenever possible.

There is always going to be some "uncharted" something or other, so you make sure you have 50ft of water between you and the supposed bottom.

This technique has kept me from ever grounding in 20+ years. Ok, once in the intracoastal when the channel was filled with a pile of sand, but that is an oddball situation.

Very poor seamanship, imo, to be skirting an island 300 meters out.

Agree cap. Always err on the side of excess caution and safety. NEVER commit to a do or die manuever. ALWAYS plan an escape manuever if things go south. Shiphandling 101

[bntii]

From that news piece:

"There was a "lateral rock projection," he said. "Even though we were sailing along the coast with the tourist navigation system, I firmly believe that the rocks were not detected, as the ship was not heading forward but sideways, as if underwater there was this rock projection," he said."

This is what I was thinking- that rock looks like a chip of ledge, not a prominence set off from the bottom. Anyone who has messed around granite islands has perhaps seen ledge like this- they are knife like, lateral projections right in close to shore with often very deep water just adjacent.

"Looking at the pictures of the damage, it almost looks as if they saw it at the last minute, and they tried to swing the ship to the right to miss... But just like when you're driving an RV or something, when you swing the nose to the right, the tail swings little to the left. If you look at the photos of the ship, you can see that the rock embedded in the side of the ship's left port side...as if exactly that happened. She swung her tail over and kissed that rock."

One doesn't "see" a submerged uncharted rock at night and do an emergency turn to avoid.
I am guessing he misjudged the fly by and made a quick turn to correct thereby swinging in the stern and wasting his "I was 300m off more or less"...... distance.
If he saw the island at the last moment- whew, he was really off course. I am thinking hot dogging near the island and misjudged distance.
Other reports show that these fast, close fly bys are standard practice here for the benefit of the tourists
Anyone drive cruise ships- are these close in maneuvers done 'by eye'?

Anyone draw up the radius of the turn required to hit the stern and avoid that stab plane forward?
Helm must have been dead over.

yobarnacle?
All I drive is my little bitty yacht so am guessing..


On evacuations- the videos show a large contingent of assist boats taking off passengers.
Some of the passengers swam to the island. How many used the on board rescue devices?

In the absence of the assist boats, this may have been a real tragedy as it appears they were dearly needed...

Skipper getting off the boat fast?
I assume they ran a blood alcohol on him....

[liki]

The latest news is that the search parties have been told to abandon the wreck as it has started to slide deeper. Judging by the presented charts it could end into a depth of around 40 meters.

[michael pierzga]

What does this statement imply

" "Even though we were sailing along the coast with the tourist navigation system, I firmly believe that the rocks were not detected, "


Tourist navigation system ??

I have the complete regions folio of Admiralty EDICS charts. The scale of these is not great enough, not enough detail , to permit close in navigation. Does this mean he was using non standard, non EDICS, Navionics type tourist charts on a ship ???????????

[daiquiri]

There is a pretty detailed reconstruction in a local newspaper (renown for its journalistic investigations) of what happened in the immediate aftermath of the grounding. From "Il Fatto Quotidiano" newspaper:

http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2012...T6q-I.facebook

Translation of the most incredible parts of the story:

A reconstructed first radio-call from the Coast Guard (CG) to Costa Concordia (CC), based on first testimonies from the CG personnel:

CG: "Costa Concordia, is everything okay?".
CC: "Yes, Compamare Livorno, only a technical failure."
CG: "Costa Concordia, are you sure that is a technical failure? We know that there are passengers on board wearing life jackets."
CC: "Compamare, confirm: it is a technical failure."

The incredible thing is that the CG had to call the C. Concordia ship (and not the vice-versa) after they received a call by a relative of a lady on-board the ship. This lady has called home to tell them about the accident, and her relatives have then called Carabinieri to have more info. The Carabinieri knew nothing about the accident, so they have contacted the Coast Guard. The CG knew nothing too, so they checked the ship's AIS track, saw that something strange is going on and have immediately called the ship.
An hour has already passed since the ship has hit the rock.

I'll break the story-telling here to cite Submarine Tom again: Truth stranger than fiction!

The most incredible part is yet to come.
A vessel of the Guardia di Finanza (GdF - Financial Police) was called in by the CG to check the situation. When they have arrived near the ship, it was already listed. They were asked by the CC crrew if they could tow a rope to help move the ship out of the zone. the GdF crew couldn't believe their ears.

At this point the commander's blunder has become public and the order to evacuate the ship was given. The captain (whose name is Francesco Schettino) and some crew members have arrived to the port among the first ones, according to this reconstruction of events. He took the taxi and asked the driver to take him "as far as possible from there". So the driver took him to his house, to give him some food and drink.

That's where he received the next three phone calls from the CG.
CG: "Captain, you are not on the ship?"
FS: "No, I'm not aboard and I'm not going back there"

The next phone call:
CG: "Captain, I have been ordered to tell you that you must get back on board"
FS refuses again to comply.

The third phone call was more shouted than talked, from both sides.

After that (not specified precisely when), the "captain" took a boat for Porto Santo Stefano (across the channel), where he was arrested by Carabinieri.

A word of caution - I would still take it all with a healthy grain of salt, until the official reconstruction of events is released. Because this truth is so much stranger than fiction...

[bntii]

That delay could well have cost lives- chilling.

[Yobarnacle]

Thanks daquiri.
Well! (sigh in huge relief), That's ONE less idiot I might have to meet at sea!

[bntii]

"He took the taxi and asked the driver to take him "as far as possible from there""

"No, I'm not aboard and I'm not going back there"


This is a man fleeing his mistake.
The only 'uncharted rock' here is in the man.

It cost lives to find it....

[hoytedow]

Wow! That captain sounds like a stretch of bad road.

[michael pierzga]

Jeez ....that captain is terrible. This reflects very poorly on the Carnival Cruise lines. Trouble is on the way...Dump your CCL stock.

http://quote.morningstar.com/Stock/s.aspx?t=CCL

[Yobarnacle]

In open ocean, I've had ships overtake me, and pass close enough I could see into their empty bridge. over reliance on electronics.
Were the watch below playing poker? Who knows?
I normally on a good day, spend 12 hours on the bridge and another 4 hours at my desk doing paperwork. I sleep for 6 hours and a 2 hour siesta when I can. Some days are literally 36 hours long, when things AREN'T going well. I resent extra paperwork, because companies are always looking for reducing manning requirements. The Coast Guard goes along, but can't man a 300 ft cutter with less than 113 men. I run that size with 11 persons.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...7191425AAKc1sD

[michael pierzga]

Gee barnicle...if they relaxed the JONES ACT and allowed a percentage of cheaper foriegn AB crew, more higher paid american officers would be carried , with safety improved via manning levels

[Yobarnacle]

Originally Posted by michael pierzga

Gee barnicle...if they relaxed the JONES ACT and allowed a percentage of cheaper foriegn AB crew, more higher paid american officers would be carried , with safety improved via manning levels

The jones act was originally instigated to assure Seattle grocerors an exclusive on shipping food to Alaskas Gold rushers. To pass, they needed allies, so became the biggest pork barrel legislation of its time. Should be repealed. Won't be. Been bigger barrels of pork (something for everyone to win votes) since then! Not even representative of type of legislation any longer.

[michael pierzga]

The jones act makes US internal shipping so expensive that Maryland imports road SALT from Chile !!!! YIKES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wonder is a USCG investigation team is presently on site in Italy ??? What is the CARNIVAL CRUISE LINE ?

[Yobarnacle]

Carnival is US owned but all ships flags of convenience. US regs for passenger vessels too stringent. No US flag liners exist anymore.