Last voyage for Costa Concordia cruise ship

I have no data to back up my suposition, but I suspect the term captain rather than master was initiated by a Captain Bates.

 

Thank you Daiquiri for post 190 and heavy work related (hope you get some job from Echelon, be sure they got it!).

If all the mentioned stuff is confirmed, then I am filled with consternation and shame.

Francois-Xavier Nettersheim
(french captain and marine engineer)

 

It would be interesting to know the chain of command on a big ship like the Costa Concordia. When a big wave washes away the captian and mate, is it the Chief Engineer who is now legally in charge ?

 

Joseph Conrad's essay on the Titanic is worth reading in this context.

http://www.online-literature.com/conrad/notes-life-and-letters/23/

Cheers,

Earl

 

Chief engineer is 2nd highest rank but not a line officer. Not "in line" for command, untill all deck officers are incapacitated. Each mate ascends to "captain" in turn. But a junior 3rd officer finding himself in command would do well to confer with the chief.
As captain, I ALWAYS seek to partner with my chiefs. If the 2 highest ranking officers aboard can't get along, the operation is snake bit from day 1.

 

So this means that when the captain of the Concordia abandoned his duty, officers under him...right down to chief engineer are now legally liable for the abandon ship fiasco ?

 

I can reply with my limited french experience (even if acquired on international business).

On big cruise vessels or large passenger ro-ro vessels (my own experience) there are very often one captain and some kind of deputy captain together with chief officer (the mate); sometimes there is a second chief offcier dedicated to safety matters on board. In any case the command chain is very simple: captain and then chief officer (with deputy captain and second chief officer if any in the chain). I have no idea of something else, because the hypothesis is that above measures are sufficient.

Chief engineer is at the same rank of the captain for many reasons in terms of respectability and deference (especially on such vessels where the technical complexity of the systems is very high) but from a command point of view chief engineer is behind captain. In an emergency situation procedures are not so written that he would replace captain and chief officer. If captain can't do what he has to do, chief officier has to take over. After that, question mark.

Practically chief engineer will obviously take care of everything from the beginning because he is the "special and direct consultant" of the captain... Captain and chief engineer are normally the drean team of the vessel.

Francois-Xavier Nettersheim

 

And they did the things he suggested, though maybe not because he suggested them.

I wish people still spoke english that way.

 

To give a better idea of importance of Chief Engineer and his knowledge of ALL ships systems. This. When a vessel is docked for repairs, or temporary layup, the deck officers and captain are sent home. The ship is commanded by the chief engineer. All us naviguessers are as usefull as nipples on a boar hog. So we go home and the EXPERT runs the ship untill it's time to get underway again.

 

So ? other officers of the Concordia may also be criminally negligent ?

 

I'm sure they'll be questioned as to their performance, but the captain wasn't injured or dead, just mentally incapacitated. That is dangerous ground to relieve a captain based on your estimate of his mental state. I would be surprised if charges were brought against other officers. Wait and see is all I know to do.

 

Thank you for this thread and the considerable information and analysis that went into providing it. I have questions about the operational status of the communications equipment onboard the Concordia after it ran aground. Was the communications equipment able to function on auxillary power during the abandon ship procedures, or if not, is there a communications plan to keep members of the crew updated with orders via personal communication devices with one-to-many outgoing and one-to-one reply communication modes? Is it possible that a member in charge was attempting to coordinate the efforts of the crew but crippled by communication problems? Are the lifeboats equipped with loudspeakers and useful as a command center? They obviously have power to run them. If these questions are stupid, you can ignore me -- I don't have anywhere near enough experience to even be on this forum.

 

Don't know. My ships, the officers carry vhf hand helds. Bridge PA system is powered with emergency battery lighting system.

 

Good question I dont know how an internal PA system used to muster and inform passengers on a ship functions during a power failure. Cruise ships are very highly regulated for safety, so certainly a system must be in place.

Naturally the simple battery powered two way radios of the crew would function .

The lifeboats ? again I dont know, but I do see that the small shuttle boats used to ferry passengers ashore for excursions are fully fit out ...radar, communications and whatnot...for open water navigation . I would assume that these shuttles would be used as command centers.

 

It works the same way with crews on megayachts and superyachts. The chief engineer's salary is a close second to the captain. They are that important. If the boat's systems aren't working, the owner or charter guests will have a lousy time. They value a chief engineer greatly.