Last voyage for Costa Concordia cruise ship

Thanks Hoyt . . ! !

 

No problem. Happy to help.

 

They drill from the outside through the hull all the way to the tanks, stabbing a pipe in, welding a flange around the pipe on the hull put a valve on it and start pumping + the same procedure to let air or sea water in the tank, depending on what is profitable for stability on that spot.

Edit:

1. They need two pipes for the job, but that could also be a double pipe (pipe in a pipe) which only need one drill to the tanks, not sure what they use in this case, it could be situation dependant.
2. Intention is if there is oil spill it will be inside the hull, they pump out that too and separate it from the sea water.
3. Don't know how they make the heavy fuel oil liquid enough to make it pumpable in this operation . . ? ?

Cheers,
Angel

 

BTW, word is Smit needs ± three weeks to get the oil out after they get the go, and ± a year to salvage the whole ship if they get the contract, maybe a bit faster if they are allowed to chain cut her in pieces. But don't know, the abyss is cheaper . . . . maybe a accident will happen . . . . don't trust the owner who let that Captain in charge while knowing his track record . . .

Cheers,
Angel

 

Angel, can I know where you are from? I agree with your reasoning, but does not seem to be U.S.

 

As my profile says from Belgium, but I'm often in Holland for long periods, so now I'm a bit from both . . .

Cheers,
Angel

 

My mistake. I had read about it on gCaptain.com, but I have to admit then failed to understand the following update to the article: "The Costa Concordia does not have azimuthing “pod-type” thrusters."

 

There was a lot of speculation for a while based on the assumption that loss of electrical power occured before the collision with the rock, and from that there was further speculation about how the loss of electrical power could have caused the collision.

It appears clear now that the loss of electrical power occured after the collision and did not cause the collision.

 

Going to sea is always a risk. It's an alien, corrosive, and dangerous enviroment. We have developed over many centuries, technology and stratedgies to not only survive at sea, but even enjoy it.
Taking foolhardy unecessary risks, is always an invitation to disaster. The sea will extract a severe penalty, if you venture upon it and fail to respect it's dangers.

 

Maybe you have seen this already, but it still is outrageous ...

Passengers on the stricken Costa Concordia were told to return to their cabins, 40 minutes after the cruise ship struck a rock, according to Italian TV.

.

Some people paid with their lives because of it.

 

All Germans, I think.
I talked last night,about this.
Just transmitted.
I am ever more convinced that Schettino merits the death penalty.

 

Assumptions are risky but.. is it likely that the collision was known to have occurred?- this is a large ship.

The flooding must have been rapid- are these crewed spaces where the hull damage is?
Are there alarms in place that would have made the progression of flooding clear to the crew?

In other words- did they know they hit and were flooding as soon as they struck.. or some delay before this became evident?

 

I'm certain they knew they hit something.
The body of a violin or guitar is an amplifier for the strings vibrations. Ships hulls amplify vibrations and sounds in same way.
Didn't passengers claim they heard rumbling and felt a lurch?
Surely officers and crew did too!

 

This are two Dutch skippers who were aboard, the knew immediately during the hit what happened and that the ship was lost due to the size of the impact, they were dining and their wifes were in evening dresses, they have immediately gone to their huts to get warm dressed and get their life jackets, then got to the life boats. These professionals knew immediately and prepared, like every professional who was at his job and well at his mind should have done. (the link is a Dutch vid, so I tried to summarize)

Cheers,
Angel

 

Weather & moonlight conditions, pivot turn

I've read all 36 pages, but I don't recall the weather and lighting conditions being discussed yet. Does anyone know what they were that night?

I'm guessing that the pilot was navigating visually based on the lights of the island (both nav lights and city lights). If there was a full moon or a lot of moonlight, they should have been able to see the little island and realize they were too close in plenty of time to give it room. If it was overcast, or with minimal moonlight, I wonder if they overlooked it. It had no lights and would have looked like a dark shadow with no glistening. I used to sail small sailboats on a lake. There was a rocky peninsula on it that we could easily see in the daytime, but not easily see at night. Occasionally someone would return at night, go on the wrong side of the nav light, and ground. It's funny in 4 or 5 feet of warm water. Climb out and push off.

Also, I'm wondering about the pivot turn. Yobarnacle mentioned in an earlier post that it would be impossible without bow thrusters. I'm wondering if they did it by dropping anchor and letting the stern swing around based on it's own momentum. I could easily do this on a small boat, but I don't know if its possible in a large ship. It's been reported that the anchor went out and in again, and was up where she finally beached. If the pilot had full steerage with bow thrusters and forward propulsion, I can't make sense of where he beached. I would have headed as far into the harbor as I could get. But if he didn't have steerage, but only forward propulsion, he couldn't really choose is spot. Or perhaps he drifted there. Does the AIS data indicate speed after the pivot turn? Drifting would have been very slow. By the size of the hole, and it being towards the stern, I would have to think the engine/genset room was at least somewhat compromised.

Obviously this all speculation on my part, and I've never sailed anything larger than 35'. Thanks to Yobarnacle, Dcockey, and many others with relevant experience for shedding a lot of light on this tragedy.

Lastly, not doing safety drills is inexcusable. We occasionally sailed on Lake Superior with groups of friends. We did man overboard drills within 30 minutes of leaving the dock.