Last voyage for Costa Concordia cruise ship

[Yobarnacle]

Only this.Many large ship captains, super tankers and pleasure palaces like this one, the captain really has very little ship handling experience. They train and test only on simulators. In practice, they go from seabuoy to seabuoy. In harbor, a docking pilot takes over.

[Mr Efficiency]

Originally Posted by daiquiri

In fact, that fact goes against the media firing on the crew for alleged incompetence and inefficiency during the evacuation phase. 4000 people were evacuated in little more than 2 hrs, in the night and with badly listed ship - that was a well-done job imho.

Absolutely, this could easily been a Titanic scale catastrophe otherwise.

[Submarine Tom]

Originally Posted by CatBuilder

Tom, that all adds up properly.

Northbound ship scraping along the eastern edge of an island equals damage to the port side.

You are absolutely right and I am absolutely wrong. Somehow, I got east/west bass-ackwards and made a complete fool of myself, again.

lol

Sorry folks.

-Tom

P.S. My whole line of east west logic is/was flawed I now see in most of my posts. I apologize especially to Michael and Daiquiri. Good thing I wasn't driving!!

[CatBuilder]

Originally Posted by daiquiri

So the faults are spread on a much wider area of competences. The captain is at this point probably just the cheapest scapegoat they could offer to the
A local newspaper reports some interesting comments on the Facebook page for the Costa Crociere maritime staff. One officer claims that the maneuver performed by the captain after the breach of the hull was wrong, and has probably led to the loss of the ship. He says that, had the captain chosen to sail farther from the island (instead of trying to get as close as possible), the ship wouldn't touch the seabed and list so quickly. The compartments would be sealed off, giving it sufficient buoyancy and stability to allow the evacuation with lifeboats from both port and starboard side of the ship.
By choosing to ground the ship, the captain has caused the excessive list, which has left him with only half the lifeboats available for evacuation.

Any thoughts on this?

I think the final maneuver was a good idea. The captain probably did not know the extent of the damage and chose between sinking Titanic style and partial submersion with a list.

The last maneuver saved countless lives, imo.

Just heard news from some Americans that were aboard. They jumped and swam to the island. The people who did this may not have survived in deep water.

Also, see the picture a while back in this thread taken at night. The ship is still remarkably upright at night. It capsizes later, probably from water ingress. Had that happened in deep water, everyone may have drowned.

I think he did the right thing at the end.

[CatBuilder]

Originally Posted by Submarine Tom

You are absolutely right and I am absolutely wrong. Somehow, I got east/west bass-ackwards and made a complete fool of myself, again.

lol

Sorry folks.

-Tom

P.S. My whole line of east west logic is/was flawed I now see in most of my posts. I apologize especially to Michael and Daiquiri. Good thing I wasn't driving!!

If you want to see a fool, go see the thread about ganging outboards where i misread the yanmar power curve chart while doing a fancy explanation of ice vs electric.

It happens to all of us.

[beachcraft]

What happens to the ship now?

[Mr Efficiency]

I'm thinking the owners of similar such mega cruise ships world wide will be very worried about the effect on trade. An all round bad look that thing lying over on its side. And yes, getting it moved is a mammoth job.

[bntii]

Originally Posted by beachcraft

What happens to the ship now?

Guessing that welding up patches and pump out will be straight forward enough- handy that the hole is on the rolled up side.

[Mr Efficiency]

Originally Posted by bntii

Guessing that welding up patches and pump out will be straight forward enough- handy that the hole is on the rolled up side.

Provided there isn't more damage underwater. Murphy's law would insist there is.

[Angélique]

Originally Posted by beachcraft

What happens to the ship now?

Smit has began with the preparations for the removal of the thousands of tons of fuel oil on board and is investigating and negotiating the salvage of the wreck.

Their first team started Saturday and are resting here in Giglio. - (translation)



Cheers,
Angel

[Angélique]

Originally Posted by bntii

. . . handy that the hole is on the rolled up side.

We haven't seen the other side and bottom yet . . .

Cheers,
Angel

[Mr Efficiency]

I'd like to own a cafe in the village next to where it sank, though. The trade would be booming.

[charmc]

Originally Posted by michael pierzga

The last major Mediterranean ship disaster was the Don Pedro.

2007 was a bad year for ships in the Mediterranean. 3 months before Don Pedro, Sea Diamond, a Louis Hellenic cruise ship, sank in circumstances similar to Costa Concordia (Sea Diamond photos below). She hit a subsurface rock while maneuvering into port in a small island and sank within hours. In her case, a later survey of the site showed that the rock was located more than 100 m further from shore and was 15 m closer to the surface than was marked on area charts.

In this case the practice of passing very close to shore at cruising speed seems to have been a major contributor. "I always got away with it before" will likely not be a credible defense.

A terrible tragedy. Any loss of life is horrible, but the fact that nearly 5000 passengers and crew were evacuated safely speaks well of modern safety standards and excellent action by many, if not all, of the crew.

[Angélique]

Info from Smit here . . . - (wacky translation of the jargon)

‘‘ a bit of oil leaked from the ship, but that volume has been limited till now ’’

They are working with a local partner to remove the fuel from the ship.

Cheers,
Angel

[Ad Hoc]

Originally Posted by daiquiri

In fact, that fact goes against the media firing on the crew for alleged incompetence and inefficiency during the evacuation phase. 4000 people were evacuated in little more than 2 hrs, in the night and with badly listed ship - that was a well-done job imho.

D

Whilst i understand your sentiments, the 2 hours is very poor.

All ships, under SOLAS regulation 21 section 1.4, must launch the full compliment within 30mins.

So 2hours is very poor and hence questions shall be raised why...was it design, poor manning by the crew, or a combination of the two.