Costa Concordia, 80 deg list, really scary !!

@seewolfbarney
Shipping companies are supposed to have an ISM system in place where responsibilities of persons/crew ashore/aboard and procedures ashore/aboard are described.
Every crew member is responsible for certain tasks and at the top of list of responsible persons is the SHIP OWNER ashore (or on the ship if he/she is there).
The Master of the ship is under the directions of and responsible to the SHIP OWNER ... and if a SHIP OWNER starts to blame his Master for incompetence then it is easy to see who is at fault.

I doubt very much that the Master of Costa Concordia:

- ignored the possibility of any failure of steering or propulsion while running ashore straight forward at almost 16 knots to shallow waters and the towards an island with rocky environment;

- ignored the well-known fact, that engine-rooms became flooded heavily after first impact;

- ignored safety-measure management instantly by preparing life-boats manning;

- misinformed to coastguard's question if there were serious problems;

- failed to direct and organize passenger's leaving-ship-operation twice;

- left his place on the bridge long before rescue-forces had managed to get on board; etc.

Actually, I think you don't know what you are talking about.

 

Anybody with minimum knowledge of the merchant shipping business knows that the shipowner is NOT involved in hour by hour decision of the management of ship.
This is what the master is paid for.

In that peculiar case, it is obvious that the master took some wrong decision, the worst being this absurd idea to come so close to shore.
What remains unclear is whether this was common practice to play fool like that either for this master or for other ones of same company.
In this sole case, their should be a fault from the shipowner for not having either dismissed this guy or advise all masters to stop this practice.

 

Well - I don't care what shipping companies are supposed to; I care what really happens on board the ship. And I don't trust in companies - I trust in men (or not!)

Maybe I got all my info from a Comic Strip...

 

SWB,

Which comic strip?

-Tom

 

When you pilot a ship, even one with less of a draft than a cruise ship, you stay within the standard navigational lanes. This is done for many reasons, not just the occasional rock that may come out to attack you. You might also run over a fishing ship.
And the Captain never leaves the bridge unless the boat is in open water. Hello!!!
Think about it another way, the airline captain decided to change the planes normal flight path to do a fly by his house, and he wasn't even in the cockpit.

 

Thanks a lot - that is what I always believed and still do.

 

Certainly we need to wait to see the ultimate outcome of the investigation, and likely trial will be.

Nobody would have died had the captain not struck the rock with the ship in the first place.

At 10:14, after the ship had been adrift for about a half an hour, had taken on large amounts of water, was already listing, and the Livorno harbormaster calls the ship (rather than the ship calling Livorno). The crew, under the command of the Captain, informed the harbormaster that they were dealing with an electrical problem, failing to mention the grouding, taking on water, loss of main generators and propulsion, listing, and critical failure of the ship's systems. Vital time was lost in preparing an emergency response. This is all clear on audio tape. Post analysis also indicates that at this time, the ship had already reached its maximum distance from the Island of Giglio, and was being blown back towards the island and the second grounding.

At some point, passengers were spontaneously putting on lifejackets, and assembling in the lifeboat areas. Again on video tape, a member of the crew, under the captains command, informed them that the situation was under control and that they should return to their cabins. Less than an hour later, the ship was hard aground the second time, and ordered to be abandoned.

There is also recorded audio tape where the coast guard ordered the captain back onto the ship to help with the evacuation. It might have been disruptive for him to climb up a ladder that people were trying to climb down. However, it seems obvious that sitting in a lifeboat was not the appropriate place to direct the evacuation. It likely was more complicated than that, as many passengers were trapped on the starboard side of the ship as it layed over in the water, perhaps the captain was among them, and had no choice but leave the ship. However, he apparently never made an effort to climb back aboard.

I have no doubt that the first hour and fifteen minutes between the initial grounding and the order to abandon ship was very hectic on the bridge. However, more of that time could have been used to assure a 100% evacuation, rather than a 99% evacuation.

At least one person that died is reported to have heroically given up his lifejacket to another passenger. Had the full hour between the first and second groundings been utilized to prepare for a possible evacuation, then that likely would not have been necessary.

I doubt any Costa Allegra passengers are complaining about having organized for an evacuation that never happened, although some might complain that they weren't transfered off ship earlier.

 

Barney, you should not bother about these stupid aggressions.

 

News about Mr. Schettino

This guy obviously loved adventures since years...

http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/vorwuerfeschettino100.html

(main German TV-News)

 

Different source:

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/0,1518,818904,00.html

 

Just a quick reminder: there is also the more general and longer thread: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/al...voyage-costa-concordia-cruise-ship-41313.html which is a better location for general discussion of the incident, general procedures, route, past incidents, etc., matters not related to stability.

 

With today's technology it is very easy for the Master to call the ship owner ashore direct and discuss problems ... and what decisions to make. Time of coded cables sent via shore radio stations is long gone.
It seems it was Costa practice or custom to sail close to shores for show offs ... and not the Master's decision. It seems the prosecutor in Italy has now also arrested three people employed at the ship owner's shore office for causing the incident.
I am more curious (topic) what caused the CC suddenly to capsize, i.e. what caused righting arm GZ to become 0. Did the Master do THAT?

 

If COSTA keeps losing ships, Jeff is going to have to make a section just for cruise ship disasters.

 

How many cruise ships can be left out there?

-Tom

 

With all those new very large cruise ships in service and being built; the CC may be a timely wake up call to tighten up all the loose ends in the designs, and on the bridge.