Last voyage for Costa Concordia cruise ship

Discussion in 'All Things Boats & Boating' started by daiquiri, Jan 14, 2012.

  1. michael pierzga
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    michael pierzga Senior Member

    You cant navigate a ship that close to the coast !!! Its difficult to understand exactly what the captain was doing so close to the coast at night. There are no aids to navigation on those islands...he was eyeballing it
     
  2. Submarine Tom

    Submarine Tom Previous Member

    That's odd Michael, I saw a light house close by in the grounded photos, maybe it was burnt out.

    -Tom
     
  3. Yobarnacle
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    Yobarnacle Senior Member holding true course

    My first question when Michael posted the event immediately after it happened, posted on a different thread. My immediate question was "What was he doing a ship's length from shore?'
    Absolutely NO justification for such proximity unless you are in a river or port.
     
  4. michael pierzga
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    michael pierzga Senior Member

    I have the charts !! No lighthouse.
     
  5. michael pierzga
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    michael pierzga Senior Member

    They are Interviewing the Italian Coast Guard on BBC Africa Service right now.

    "The Captain was too close to the coast"
     
  6. CatBuilder

    CatBuilder Previous Member

    I think that's what I said in my first post to this thread.
     
  7. CatBuilder

    CatBuilder Previous Member

    Tom, that all adds up properly.

    Northbound ship scraping along the eastern edge of an island equals damage to the port side.
     
  8. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    How do you figure that? East is on starboard side going north.
     
  9. CatBuilder

    CatBuilder Previous Member

    I feel like I'm in a cukoo clock! :p:D

    Imagine, if you will, a ship traveling up the eastern side of the USA. Sticking out will be Cape Fear, Long Island, etc...

    Let's imagine that our ship, going from Miami to Halifax, Nova Scotia is making a navigation error like this one did.

    Our ship grazes the tip of Long Island at Montauk Point, which is the extreme eastern shore of Long Island and the extreme eastern shore of the USA at that particular latitude. Here is a map. Look for the 27 that is on the very tip of Montauk, the eastern most point.

    [​IMG]



    Are you telling me the damage is on the starboard side? :confused:

    A simple way to keep it straight is that "port" and "left" have the same number of letters in them.

    Transiting from Miami to Halifax, a ship's port side hugs the eastern most part of the USA. Its starboard side faces the open Atlantic.
     
  10. Yobarnacle
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    Yobarnacle Senior Member holding true course

    I think Hoyt is simply confused that north bound looking east would be to starboard, but if he thought just for a moment, he'd realize that passing to the east side of an island would put that island on the vessels port side.

    Same thing you said capt cat. Just condensed.
     
  11. DCockey
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    DCockey Senior Member

    The statements I saw attributed to the captain blamed the accident on an uncharted rock. Nothing about a power loss or loss of control causing the accident.
     
  12. DCockey
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    DCockey Senior Member

    Putting aside the cause of the accident consider what happened and the consequenses:
    • Weather conditions are relatively calm.
    • 280m long ship suffers a 70m rib in the bilge.
    • The ship lists, initially around 20 degrees or so.
    • There was considerable confusion about evacuating the ship.
    • Some of the lifeboat launching systems may not have functioned properly.
    • The ship eventually rolls on its side in water shallow enough that a third or so of it is out of the water.
    • People died.
    Was the outcome what should be expected and reasonable?
    Are there lessons to be learned from this?
     
  13. CatBuilder

    CatBuilder Previous Member

    There are a myriad of lessons to be learned here, the first of which, like a plane crash, is determining what caused the accident and making sure we all (any commercial captains) do not follow these mistakes.

    We could go on for hundreds of pages about SOLAS chapters and STCW issues, but the root of the accident is a great place to start, IMO.

    Reading through all of the various news reports, I see that crew training was the real weak link here, be it on the bridge or on the deck.
     
  14. Yobarnacle
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    Yobarnacle Senior Member holding true course

    Rule number One. You don't take risks with your ship! That's true of a freighter. With tankers even more cautiion, and passengers most cautious of all. Sailing that close to shore was risky business. Slap his wrist for a bad bad boy!
     

  15. DCockey
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    DCockey Senior Member

    The Guardian is reporting a different scenario, with the ship suffering a power failure and the captain deciding to to into shallow water for safety. Follow the link which shows a course with a U-turn. No idea where the Guardian got this scenario from.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/int...sta-concordia-italian-cruise-ship-interactive

    Also from the Guardian a report that the ship was only 150m offshore:
    [Captain] Schettino has said the ship hit rocks that were not marked on his nautical charts, and that he did all that he could to save lives. "We were navigating approximately 300 metres from the rocks," he told Media-set television. "There shouldn't have been such a rock." On Sunday night, Italian RAI radio reported that the ship's black box, discovered by rescue teams, had revealed the Costa Concordia was just 150 metres from Giglio when it struck rocks. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/15/cruise-ship-scene-disaster
     
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