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Subscribe to RSSAuthorities must decide what to do with the stricken 115,000 ton cruise ship. NBC's Mark Potter reports.
Updated at 8 p.m. ET: Carnival Corp., whose luxury liner Costa Concordia capsized off the coast of Italy last Friday, said it was providing lodging, refunds and other support to people affected by the accident, even as some public relations executives criticized the company's handling of the situation.
"I give my personal assurance that we will take care of each and every one of our guests, crew and their families affected by this tragic event," said Carnival Chief Executive Micky Arison in a statement late on Wednesday — five days after the incident that left 11 people dead and 22 missing.
Costa Cruise Lines, a unit of Carnival and operator of the ship, has been arranging lodging and transportation for passengers and crew members to return home, and has offered assistance and counseling as needed. It has also begun refunding passengers their cruise fares and all costs incurred while on board.
The company also said it was contacting every passenger and crew member or their family and will be addressing personal possessions lost on board.
Public relations experts have chastised Carnival for being slow to address the disaster and vague about its response and efforts to prevent similar incidents in the future.
"There are 101 ways they could have more effectively handled the communication around the crisis," said Evan Nierman, founder of public relations firm Red Banyan Group.
Carnival would have benefited, Nierman said, if Arison were on the ground in Italy, being seen talking to victims and crew and taking charge of the situation.
The shifting ship is creating dangerous problems for the searchers who need to blast holes in the hull. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
Updated at 5:30 p.m. ET: The children of a Minnesota couple missing since last week's Costa Concordia disaster in Italy said Wednesday their parents are not among those passengers whose bodies were recently recovered.
Family members posted the information on their blog, and said they were praying that conditions at the stricken cruise ship would improve so authorities could resume search operations.
Jerry and Barbara Heil, of White Bear Lake, Minn., are the only Americans still unaccounted for. The Heils were among the passengers still listed as missing, according to an official tally released Wednesday by Italian authorities.
Family members, who had been waiting to hear the identities of five bodies recovered Tuesday, said on the blog that they received confirmation that their parents were not among them.
Italian rescue workers suspended operations early Wednesday after the ship shifted slightly on the rocks, creating concerns about the safety of divers and firefighters searching for the missing.
"We continue to pray and hope for advantageous conditions which will allow the search and rescue operations to continue," the Heil family said on the blog. "While it is certainly hard for us to see the recovery efforts stall due to the unstable conditions present at and around the Costa Concordia, we are also very concerned for the safety of the Italian Coast Guard as they continue to put forth a heroic effort in trying to find those who remain missing.
"We are grateful to all of those who are working so hard to find our parents," the statement said.
Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino has reportedly now told officials that he tripped and fell into a lifeboat shortly after the ship began taking on water near Giglio Island.
Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET: Francesco Schettino, captain of the doomed Costa Concordia that partially sunk on Friday, said he did not abandon ship, according to a transcript published by Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper and reported by the Associated Press.
"I did not abandon a ship with 100 people on board ... the ship suddenly listed and we were thrown into the water," Schettino reportedly said during a recorded telephone conversation with Capt. Gregorio De Falco of the Italian coast guard in Livorno.
The transcript also showed the coast guard official urgently commanding the captain to return to the cruise ship after he had abandoned it.
"You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me?" the Coast Guard officer shouted as Schettino sat safe in a life raft and frantic passengers struggled to escape the listing ship. "It is an order. Don't make any more excuses. You have declared 'Abandon ship.' Now I am in charge."
The officer confronted him with an expletive-laced order to get back on board, which has quickly entered the Italian lexicon. The four-word phrase has become a Twitter hashtag and Italian media have shown photos of T-shirts bearing the command.
Criminal charges including manslaughter and abandoning ship are expected to be filed by prosecutors shortly. Schettino faces a possible 12 years in prison on the abandoning ship charge alone.
Updated at 2:50 p.m. ET: A German woman listed as missing from the Costa Concordia was located alive in Germany.
Gertrud Goergens alerted police in Germany that she was alive and well, according to the Associated Press, citing the prefect's office in Grosetto, Italy.
Goergens was removed from the official list of missing late Wednesday. Twenty-three passengers are still unaccounted for:
Dayana Arlotti, Italy; William M. Arlotti, Italy; Elisabeth Bauer, Germany; Michael M. Blemand, France; Maria Dintrono, Italy; Horst Galle, Germany; Jeanne Gannard, France; Christina Mathi Ganz, Germany; Norbert Josef Ganz, Germany; Pierre Gregoire, France; Gabriele Grube, Germany; Barbara Heil, United States; Gerald Heil, United States; Egon Hoer, Germany; Mylene Litzler, France; Margarethe Neth, Germany; Inge Schall, Germany; Siglinde Stumpf, Germany; Brunhild Werp, Germany; Josef Werp, Germany; Margrit Schroeter, Germany; Maria Grazia Trecarichi, Italy; Luisa Antonia Virzi, Italy.
Three crew members are also missing: Girolamo Giuseppe, Italy; Russel Terence Rebello, India; Erika Fani Soriamolina, Peru.
Eleven bodies have been recovered, though only one has been publicly identified: Crew member Sandor Feher, 38, of Hungary.
Hungarian ministry spokesman Jozsef Toth said Feher's body was found inside the wreck and identified by his mother in the Italian city of Grosetto.
Jozsef Balog, a pianist who worked with Feher, a violinist, told the Budapest newspaper Blikk that Feher was wearing a lifejacket when he decided to return to his cabin to pack his violin. Feher was last seen on deck en route to a lifeboat. According to Balog, Feher helped put lifejackets on several crying children before returning to his cabin.
Captain Francesco Schettino, the man accused of causing the deadly wreck of a cruise ship off the coast of Italy, is out of jail and under house arrest, as additional bodies were found aboard the capsized ship. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
Separately, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Wednesday he will hold a hearing to review cruise ship safety. The exact date has not been determined, but Mica has requested Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) to aid in the investigation.
"The Costa Concordia tragedy is a wake-up call for the United States and international maritime organizations to carefully review and make certain we have in place all the appropriate standards to ensure passengers' safety on cruise ships," Mica said in a statement.
Updated at 11:40 a.m. ET:
The Costa Concordia took a nearly identical route past Giglio Island in August to the one Friday that led to the sinking of the ship, NBC News has learned.
Adam Smallman, editor of shipping magazine Lloyd’s List, said the route taken in August, based on satellite tracking, was “authorized by the company and the coast guard.”
DigitalGlobe
The Costa Concordia ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy, resulting in the evacuation of thousands of passengers as the ship began heavily listing.
"Our assessment of the route this vessel took (in August) is it must have come perilously close, and I mean possibly within touching distance of the rock that it hit this time ... which the company is saying wholly unauthorized in terms of its proximity to the island," Smallman said.
The search for missing passengers aboard the Costa Concordia is on hold over fears that the ship is shifting, making rescue efforts more dangerous.
The captain in charge of the specialist divers searching the stricken Costa Concordia tells NBC News that they need to blow four more holes in it to gain access to the bottom of the cruise ship. Asked about the search for bodies -- some 23 people are unaccounted for according to Reuters -- the captain said there was visual evidence suggesting some bodies were at the bottom of the sea.
NBC News, citing officials involved in the rescue effort, reported that on Wednesday the ship had sunk 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) at the front and 1 meter (3.2 feet) at the back, raising concerns that the vessel may break up in the middle.
The coast guard is monitoring shifts with sensors installed by divers at the start of the rescue mission, and that movement is its main concern as it could trap divers. By late afternoon, officials still did not have enough data to reassure them that the ship had stopped resettling.
"The visibility is awful. Yesterday I couldn't see my hand in front of my face," Giuseppe Minciotti, director of a school for cave divers in the northern city of Verona and part of the specialist team deployed on the wreck, told Reuters.
"I grabbed a piece of floating debris, and I couldn't see what it was until I had my head out of the water. It was a woman's shoe," he said. "We're waiting today for new openings to be made, and we'll see if the visibility is any better in those points."
Jim Fee, a yacht skipper for three decades, discusses the potential ecological problems related to the Costa Concordia disaster. NBC's Harry Smith reports.
Coast guard spokesman Cosimo Nicastro said work would focus on an evacuation assembly area on the partially submerged fourth deck, where most of the 11 bodies found so far have been located.
"It's where we have already found seven of the bodies and it's where the passengers and crew gathered to abandon ship," Nicastro said.
Fire services spokesman Luca Cari said the search was suspended at about 8 a.m. local time (11 p.m. ET) after a shift of a few inches, posing a potential threat to diving teams operating in the submerged spaces of the ship.
There was no word on when work might resume.
The Costa Concordia had more than 4,200 passengers and crew on board when it slammed into a reef Friday off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio after Capt. Francesco Schettino made an unauthorized maneuver from the ship's programmed course — allegedly to show off the luxury liner to the island's residents.
Rescue workers discovered five bodies on Tuesday, bringing the death toll of the Costa Concordia accident to 11.
The adult bodies, believed to be passengers, were all wearing life jackets and were found in the rear of the ship near an emergency evacuation point, according to Nicastro.
Schettino, whose actions during the disaster have come under intense scrutiny as details of his role on the night of the disaster emerge, appeared before a judge in Grosseto, Tuscany, where he was questioned for three hours. Schettino remains under house arrest.
During a heated conversation the Italian coast guard told the captain of the Costa Concordia to go back to the ship. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
Schettino's lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, said urine and hair samples have been taken from Schettino, apparently to determine if he might have consumed alcohol or used drugs before the accident.
Leporatti also told a news conference in Grosetto that house arrest made sense given there was no evidence the captain intended to flee. He cited the fact that the captain coordinated the evacuation from the shore after leaving the ship.
"He never left the scene," Leporatti said. "There has never been a danger of flight."
Leporatti added the captain was upset by the accident, contrary to depictions in the Italian media that he did not appear to show regret.
"He is a deeply shaken man, not only for the loss of his ship, which for a captain is a grave thing, but above all for what happened and the loss of human life," the lawyer said.
Martino Pellegrino, a crew-member on Costa Concordia, described Schettino as "authoritarian," "stubborn" and "egocentric," in an interview with Italian newspaper La Republica on Tuesday.
"Schettino likes to be in control of the ship's wheel," he told the newspaper.
Also on Tuesday, a transcript of a conversation between Schettino and Capt. Gregorio De Falco of the Italian coast guard in Livorno, showed the coast guard official urgently commanding the captain to return to the cruise ship after he had abandoned it.
"There are people trapped on board," De Falco said. "Now you go with your boat under the prow on the starboard side. There is a pilot ladder. You will climb that ladder and go on board. You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear? I'm recording this conversation, Cmdr. Schettino ..."
Passengers continued to make their way home, with consistent claims that crew members were ill-prepared to handle an emergency evacuation.
"The crew members had no specialized training — the security man doubled as the cook and bartender, so obviously they did not know what to do," passenger Claudia Fehlandt told Chile's Channel 7 television after being embraced by relatives at Santiago's airport.
"In fact, the lifeboats, even the ones that did get lowered, they did not know how to lower them and they cut the ropes with axes," she said.
Msnbc.com staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
- What you sign away when you book a cruise
- Scorned cruise ship captain not alone in history
- Brother keeps hope alive as search is halted
Leave a Comment:
Anchor the damned thing!
To WHAT Mr Salvage Engineer?? Just calculate displacement when the tied rises and get back to us... OK?
They've had enough time now to build a dock around it..
They can lift the boat with air bags, then they could move it anywhere. or before they blew holes in it maybe still weld the hull with temp patch then pump the water out. probably some kind of polimer could even be used as a patch. doesn't have to look pretty, 4" plexiglass, or rubber mat (I have no idea how thick it would need to be) glue to the side and get the thing righted by pumping water out. even if the patch leaked some, just keep pumping. but air bags could lift ship enough to move, doesn't matter how big the ship is just to do a nearly full lift they would need to strap under the boat. would need to be done in two phases, (one) partial lift, boat still on side. then full lift to right boat. be a little slow to right (each small inflation water would have to level (pumped out) but I think it could be done.
@Curios Bob,
The damned thing IS anchored. The captain actually did a very complex maneuver which deploys and then reels in 2-4 anchors for this sort of situation.
The problems are really with the size of the ship. As ships get larger, they try to maximize the amount of ship above the waterline, especially with cruise ships. What this gets you is a very "tender" ship that has a known and serious liability to list or to "keel over."
The tendency of these ultra-large (and getting larger) cruise ships to list is not taken into account when designing lifeboats and lifeboat launching systems. In anything over about 8 degrees of list, the passenges are pretty much on their own. On one side the lifeboats cannot be launched because they strike the hull on their way down. On the other side they can't be launched because they swing too far out and are very difficult to board. This is a long-known problem that has been swept under the rug by the cruise industry.
Another major issue is that the ships were designed to meet minimal strustural standards plus a safety margin. That's just the way thngs are engineered these days. But that design presupposes that the ship will always be in the upright position afloat. If you put it on its side resting on rocks, it introduces structural stresses that no ship was ever designed for. Trying to anchor the ship to the rocks would only make the situation worse by introducing a whole new set of stress points.
Tides and rough seas pose additional problems in that they tend tomove the ship around on the rocks causing yet another set of stress points. (For @Bob Olson below, the tides are pretty neutral because there is still some degree of hull integrity. The dead weight on the rocks probably prevents much more less than six inches of shifting.)
As these ships get larger, they become more and more safe in their intended modes of operation, but far less safe in unintended modes, such as laying on their sides on rocks.
there are a lot of factors at play in this. before the blew holes in the hull to search for servivors, it might have been possible to patch, and right the ship. however, with the stress as it is now, and the anchors down you cant do much but start a salvage poeration after the ship has been cleared. its junk now. if its already sank 5' in front 3' in back. this ship isnt going anywhere but in circles. Drain the fuel, and get a recovery vessle to cut it up, and bring it in. look for lots of cantaminants from cutting a 3 football field long ship even if cantaminats are drained, and removed prior.
The problem was the captain went too close to the shore and was irresponsible.
If this massive ship breaks up it will take years to dismantle it and clean up this area.
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They could try to lift the ship with a sizable amount of air cushions, tow the wreck out to see and make an artificial reef with it.
just a suggestion here but it occurs to me that someone who can't manage to spell "sea" might not be the best person to engineer the salvage operation.
All of the bloggers above should go back up and read the well-written blog from Chris 749391. He is dead-on about the top-heavy problem, the lifeboat deployment problem, etc. As long as everything is alright and the ship remains upright things are good. ANYTHING that changes that status moves these ships into '...serious liability to list or to "keel over." You don't even need a 'crazy captain' because a rogue wave would do the trick too!
it does now appear that the floating monsters, are not very sea-worthy; they are top heavy, single hull, shallow draft floating barges, there is no way this would have sank, if the ship had adequate water-tight compartments; something is very wrong with the design of these floating hotels.
Thanks for the laugh owencoffin.
to those that say "pump the water out after patching the hole"
I'm not very knowledgeable about things like this, but now that the ship is on it's side, I'd think that water can come in from a lot more places than just the hole in it's side.
Can we at least all agree that that is a blatant lie?
Just remember that the ship is inanimate. All of the happenings, including the mass exit from the ship, is of human nature. Human panic, probably justified, is not something you can control. When someone jumps into a full lifeboat, you know you are in trouble.
My "at sea" time was years ago on the USS KittyHawk (CV-63). For a ship with over 5,000 souls on board, we relied more on auto-inflate rafts than life boats. In fact, I think the only small boats we had were the CO's gig, and the Admiral's gig and maybe 2 other 50-man whale boats. In the event of a sinking, the life rafts would deploy on submersion, or manually. But it was expected you would already be int eh water and climb aboard the inflated ramps.
Yes, that is all the 20-30-somethigns, not 70 year old retirees. I just wonder if the cruise industry safety folks might want to re-think the deployment of life boats. More rafts for the swimmers and no issues about list of the ship fouling the davits. fewer, but more launchable "containers" for children and infirm. Maybe somethign that stays in place until it hits the water, then pops loose. Time to hit the drawing board, eh?
If this ship had passed close to the same spot before, who was the captain then...? Just wondering if it was the same person. Or maybe I missed it in the article. Anyone know who was at the helm the first time?
And thanks, Chris, for your always thoughtful and enlightening comments.
Actually, Rick's Real, I saw video on the BBC of this very ship off the coast of this very island last summer, with all its lights ablaze. It does appear to be a common practice.
Maybe this time the captain veered just little further towards the shore. Maybe the tides were running lower. Either way, it does appear that this cruise line and this very ship does make a practice of running close by the shore on a regular basis.
None of which excuse the Captain's actions after the ship struck the rocks. He very quickly left the ship, fell overboard, he claims, and then refused direct orders by the officer directing the rescue to return on board and help. Even if he does not end up in prison, he'll never in command of so much as a canoe.
Of course the vessel is going to shift. There are things called tides. As the tides go in, the water level goes up, more water enters the hull and as the tides go out, water levels drop but the trapped water inside stays. You would have thought they would have built a cofferdam by now or somehow pumped air into the hull to push water out. I haven't seen this much coverage on a ship incident since the Exxon Valdez incident. God what a mess.
Exactly, the stresses of the tides will eventually break up the ship unless it can be patched and righted quickly and I don't see that happening.
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i just hope the boat company has deep pockets. anyone that gets on any these ships got to be crazy.To many things happen, most the people that work on the ship look at you like they want to kill you . They are not americans , for the most part. The company will get some judge that will rule you can't sue for more then $100,000. This company don't disserve to be in business. Second after this happen the company was saying how much money they will loose because the ship not in service. And how must the stock fell. Can you believe that .
al wise-261013, you've never been on a cruise liner have you? They are great. And the staff does not look like they want to kill you. They are usually very nice and take care of you very well. And not everybody in the world is American. You need to get out once in a while and enjoy the world.
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UnitedStates1776, I agree with you totally. I have been on several cruises with Royal Caribbean, and the staff was alway knowledgeable, friendly, and went out of their way to be helpful if you needed something. My husband I my needs were always met in a timely manner. I will continue to enjoy cruising with both them and Celebrity, their sister cruiseline.
I bet if you look at the numbers, taking a cruise is safer than driving to the mall in your car.
and incidently an article posted yesterday said they have 3 insurers
considering where one may live, even safer than walking to the mailbox to get your mail.
not to mention, everyone i have ever met who has gone on a cruise, said they plan on going again if able to afford another trip, didnt have 1 complaint other than they wanted another week touring. hmmm doesnt sound like someone is being honest does it? hope some are more honest when we elect our next president.
You know what? i think that the captain did what he had to do by leaving the ship and helping survivors get to shore, what alse could he do?,die too?. Not even if he would have gone back he didnt have any chance, but maybe to die. Look at the rescue team, they have the tools, experience and the time to get to the bodies or survivors, and they have not do much Either.So, how one guy could have done better?
Seriously Mario? Here's a good idea, STAY AWAY FROM THE COAST! That's what he should have done. And yes, a responsible captain is supposed to go down with his ship in the event that it sinks. This guy should've been tied to the front rail for being such a dummy and putting so many peoples lives at risk.
Coffer dam? It's resting on a cliff Einstein.
@mario moreno -- please tell me you're not serious. The captain's job is to stay on the ship, maintain order by directing his staff, and coordinate the efforts that help passengers get off the ship as safely as possible. He also needs to be relaying situation reports to Coast Guard and rescue personnel so they can coordinate. That's his job, and yes, it carries a risk of dying. But that's what he signed up for when he took the job. He abandoned his post and was derelict in his duties. From the audio version I heard of the call between Cmdr. DeFalco and Captain Schettino, the guy's a coward. Because of the unsafe route he chose to take that put his passengers in danger and led to loss of life, he's also a murderer.
Mario - the problem is the captain did not even hang around and help get the passengers off to safety - he left and went home while others in his crew were trying to get people ferried to shore - he did not actually help them,soon after he spoke with the coast guard, he left. It's not a matter what could just one person do - it's a matter of what is his responsibility to his passengers,crew and ship. It's kinda like if you were in charge of a group of children and a mess occurred and the kids were trapped in the room - you may not be able to remove all of those kids yourself, so you call a rescue service to help - but even if you are worried about your life - those kids are your responsibility. It is your legal and moral responsibility to stay in that room and help get all of those kids out.
Mario - the problem is the captain went home while others in his crew were trying to get people ferried to shore - he did not actually help them,soon after he spoke with the coast guard, he left. It's not a matter what could just one person do - it's a matter of what is his responsibility to his passengers,crew and ship. It's kinda like if you were in charge of a group of children and an accident occurred and the kids were trapped in the room - you can't remove all of those kids yourself, so you call a rescue service to help - but ultimately those kids are your responsibility. It is your legal and moral responsibility to stay in that room until all of those kids are out.You can't say,okay the rescue guys are here,nothing more I can do,so I'm going home.
al wise, you have heard of something called insurance have you not? Ocean going vessels get their liability insurance from one of the many Steamship Mutuals for the most part. Read this article explaining it and you will understand how limits of liability are governed : http://www.simsl.com/Publications/Articles/Articles/LLMC_96Prot_SH0304.asp
As far as your comment about American involvement, you do comprehend that Carnival Cruise Lines (an AMERICAN company) is the ultimate owner of this cruise ship? Try to at least educate yourself a little on why ships are registered in different countries, why they fly flags of convenience, why they employ a mixture of nationalities of crew, before you decide to make blanket sweeping statements.
Mario, it's called personal responsibility. Something that has vanished from this country so completely you don't even know what it is.
To:Chris-749391
Your posting,
The tendency of these ultra-large (and getting larger) cruise ships to list is not taken into account when designing lifeboats and lifeboat launching systems. In anything over about 8 degrees of list, the passenges are pretty much on their own. On one side the lifeboats cannot be launched because they strike the hull on their way down. On the other side they can't be launched because they swing too far out and are very difficult to board. This is a long-known problem that has been swept under the rug by the cruise industry.
Well written, Chris, Related to the Emotional side the news is highlighting is the chaos comparing to Titanic- which had not enough lifeboats and was positioned too far and too cold for any survivors. Though that ship "unsinkable" took 2.5 hours to go down.
As for lessons learned (sad when you see/know about issues "swept under the rug" seems like a Space Shuttle Challenger O-ring - do not fly sort of issue.
Hopefully new rules will not only "govern" for the human error capabilities. Not siding with Captain as he should have stayed on board- no doubt, but was he in shock, disbelief? Did a rock relocate itself sea bed moves too? But also enforce safer ship building practices. Perhaps even a double hull?
The RMS Brittanic (Titanic's sister) had extra large lifeboat davits to carry 3x the amount of lifeboats which also stretched out further. Could a deployed davit become a floatation outrigger to prevent a complete capsize even if it held (structurally/ stressfully) for several hours- while the passengers (I agree the lifeboats really became useless) in this wrecks predicament.
plus, you may want to tip more than 3%.
What that crippled cruise ship needed during those desperate moments was a Captain Chester "Sully" Sullenberger...
Give the Captain a snorkel and a mask and make him go diving and fish for bodies and IN THE DARK ONLY.....then when he is done.....put him in prison for at least 30 years! What a coward....how the hell did he get to be a Ship's Captain?
Did it sail through a flock of geese?
This accident was caused by 100% human error. Cruise liners like this one are incredibly safe. Humans can wreck anything. Fortunately, this accident happened very close to the coast, and people could evacuate to the shore, albeit, with great difficulty. From the information in the article, it appears that the crew was not very well trained. That is something that should be examined. Accidents of this nature happen so infrequently, that real-life scenarios can be very confusing.
I'm sure that every effort is being made to locate the missing. I wondered if many had just gone home or continued their vacations. They may not know that they are missing. Let's hope that's the case.
With all the problems our country (USA) is experiencing, our brilliant congressmen think that investigating the safety of cruise ships is an issue they want to explore. I'll bet they'll want to take a few cruises just to ascertain the problems. Give me a break. This accident was 100% human error. If you want to investigate something, investigate stupid people. You can start in your own office.
Many condolences to the families of the lost.
Has anyone ever traveled on a Disney Cruise??? You don't even leave the dock until a complete lifeboat drill is done! Babies, children, grown-ups all fitted with their life-jackets - then stored in their cabins ready to go...then everyone off to their respective lifeboats...orderly, everyone is accounted for to ensure everyone has participated....THEN Disney sets sail.
The question should be, where was the captain and sonar navigator when the ship ran aground ? This ship was fitted with a state of the art sonar and depth finder which is accurate to within inches ?
The last cruise I took showed a difference in the fire station drill. We did not even have to wear our life jackets. Apparently they were causing people to trip in the halls because the straps are long on the jackets.
Humm............We watched a "boat person" put on his jacket. The Captain of the ship had to use the overhead speakers from the bridge to tell everyone to be quiet during the drill. There was laughing, joking, general crowd movement and there were still people coming to the drill long after it had started. There were even wheel chairs being pushed to the correct drill position. You can say what you want but we are dealing with people who have absolutely no concern for the welfare of others. When the ship is lying on its side (Concordia) you can only imagine what the chaos would be. There were people at the drill who were not remotely concerned about others let alone themselves.
I can only picture what the interior halls must have looked like with people pushing and falling down because the straps of the jackets on those ahead of them were too long.
It is a miracle (if you believe in them) that so many passengers got off the ship.... alive.
However, I grieve for those who were not fortunate to make it. It is a terrble scenario.
If the captain tripped into the lifeboat, how did he trip into the same lifeboat as his second in command, Dmitry? Did they trip into the lifeboat together?
How dare all of you!!!!! Captain Shettino is a nice man! He might be a coward, pu$$ee, disloyal, and partially a murderer, but I can assure you he is a magnificent at something other than steering a ship, have courage, being a cheating womanizer, and a murderous tw@t face.
CaptBrngDwn...Actually not "required" to go down with the ship, should not leave while there are pass and crew lives in jeopardy.
He should be the last one off, not among the first ! Tripped and fell into a lifeboat ? How convenient !
This "Captain" is such a clown, no one can believe a word he says. He probably tripped over a pattern in
the linoleum and fell overboard. Or maybe the dog that ate his homework fell overboard.
to mario and all the others trying to rationalize the captains motives for leaving. he is a coward, nothing more and certainly maybe less.
Ships that leave American ports are required to do a full emergency drill (the passengers only see the lifeboat part) before leaving port. It is a USCG rule. Other countries have different rules. But that said I was on a Holland America Med cruise last summer. We were tied up behind the Concordia at Chettavecchia (sp?). Both HAL and Costa are owned by Carnival. Our ship, the Statendam had a full safety drill including a lifeboat drill before it left port just like in the states. I can only assume that the Concordia did not.
Our cruise took us to Santorini where I noticed a huge oil slick in the caldera. I asked a local about it and he said that a ship called the Sea Diamond had sunk there (under very very similar circumstances) with a loss of two lives and was leaking fuel.
But I would point out that if the captain fell overboard, he managed to exactly hit a lifeboat (along with his First Officer) and did so without getting wet or damaging his hairdo. Check out the pictures.
Yes, something similar to this happened to me several years ago. I was walking by this barely-dressed lady, and I tripped and fell. Being a gentleman, I took my clothes off, too. I think that was the story I told my girlfriend...it was just a simple misunderstanding.
Chris,
"I can only assume that the Concordia did not."
They did not, according to what I heard on the PBS News Hour last night. They also said that modern ships have something like the black box on an aircraft that records what is going on and that since this ship was a modern one, it probably had such a box. If this ship did, it should be interesting to see what it says. I think a lot of lawyers are going to have a field day with this. By the way, one of the persons they were interviewing on the PBS News Hour was a lawyer who specializes in this sort of thing.
LOL! LostFlorida... awesome,. . . just awesome.
I don't know how the captain says this with a straight face. My middle school aged son immediately responded with "in the same boat as his second in command?"
If a kid can figure that out in a split second, does the captain think no one else can?
My daughter just told me that the captain of the Italian cruise ship is being referred to as "Chicken of the Sea."
I want to know if they can fix the ship? The poor ship. SAVE THE SHIP.
Anchoring doesn't stop a ship from moving, just not moving far. And it won't stop the ship from rolling either. Given the underwater terrain, which is sloped, where would you like the anchor to rest? Your stinkbug avatar tells me you know more about raising squash than raising ships.
It appears that the life-jackets they were wearing might actually have been contributory to their deaths. Possibly they floated to the top of the room and couldn't reach the doors?
Or they waited to put them on until it was the only option. They probably figured that if the doors were under water, that the hallways and exit options were under water as well. It is a logical thought and very depressing. The probably figured that they couldn't swim far enough and hold their breath long enough to find another pocket, so they remained where they were and died hoping that someone would find them in their air pocket.
On every cruise I have been on I was told in case of emergency to go to my cabin and get my life jacket and proceed to the fire station on deck. If "you are unable to reach your cabin" I was told, "there are life jackets on deck ready for distribution." The people trapped in their cabins may have been following instructions.
What is wrong with this picture. And, incidentally, the next time you see the Captain holding forth at his table in the dining room, wine in hand, you might look for the exit signs. Someone else is running the ship.
@ Andy ~ Just because the Captain is not on the bridge is not cause for concern. There are numerous senior officers on the ship that are more than qualified to command the vessel. The first officer and navigator being two of them. Do you think the Captain is on the bridge every minute of a seven day cruise? I would be more worried about that than having one of the other senior officers in charge.
Giffer
Of course, you are correct. I have been on 56 cruises, mostly with Holland America. My last comment was "someone else is running the ship." I guess I was being too subtle about who it might be. In the case of the Concordia I wonder how the bridge was "peopled." If they had been by this rock before, surely someone up there should have been "on real guard." I think the same thing happened in/on Santorini several years ago. The Captain in that mistake was also threatened with dire consequences.
The huge mistake in this current event was the delay in getting people to their stations. Everybody in charge on that ship was aware of the panic that could materialize.....and it did. I have always wondered how long it would take me to get off an airplane if something really went wrong. Human panic is a terrible thing. The real heroes in these moments are the persons who go back "into" the fire. This Captain did not.
Let it slide off the rocks to the deep
Another ship for the Davey Jones locker
"Davey Jones, clean out your locker!"
This salvage operation is going to be very interesting. Even if/when they get the diesel out, removing the ship when it is on the rocks and obviously close to other rocks is not going to be easy. I can only imagine everything that can snag portions of the ship when they begin taking it apart. Plus, they will have to worry about damaging the salvage vessels. This one is going to take a long time to remove.
Perhaps they could patch the gash in her side and then pump all the water out. She may then re-float enough to be towed off the reef. Probably a moot point if she breaks up before they can get started.
Removing the fuel without replacing it with water will allow the ship to rise a little and might let them move it somewhere. Needs lots of patches though.
Neal, fuel is lighter than water, therefore it's already applying some bouyancy to the vessel. Now, the vessel is 3 footballs long, twice as wide, and probably 20 stories tall from bottom to top. They can weigh up to ~220,000 tons. Even though it can carry up to ~80,000 gallons of fuel, methinks the amount of bouyancy compared to the weight of the ship is a drop in the ocean, no pun intended.
do not rule out the possiblility of repairing underwater damage and refloating it. remember what they did at pearl harbor with battleships and cruisers. big money to be made perhaps. prayers go out for the dead. terrible and unecessary tragedy.
Brian - I think Neal was saying to replace the fuel with air, not water. Fuel may be lighter than water, but air is much lighter than fuel and removing that mass would raise it to some extent. Even if it isn't by much, perhaps even a few inches would be helpful.
Schettino wanted to show off his ship to the town of Gigglio Porto by veering closer, as a favor handed down to the head waiter who is from there. Now the town will get a good hard look at his charge, (or dis-charge), for many years to come!
Lesson: If you are captain of a $750,000,000 ship, don't veer off course in "uncharted" waters for the sole purpose of dazzling a landed audience. There may be as many rocks below the surface, as there are in your head.
Charles the Hammerhead,
"Schettino wanted to show off his ship"
Right! And now they can't get him to go back on it even with threats. The man is clearly a coward, and that's why he abandoned his ship and left the passengers to fend for themselves.
Uncharted waters? Really? This was the very first ship to ever pass that island? Haven't kept up huh?
Shellie - he was too close to the island. Cruise ships that big have to keep a distance. And as Charles stated he did this as a favor to the chef/cook to be able to wave to his friends he knew on the island. Due to the Captains dumbass decision, people have been killed and a liner destroyed.
Haven't kept up huh?
lisa-3322183: If you read the article you will see that another ship did the same thing in October. They were very lucky they skimmed by the rock that got this one. So, if you haven't read that part it would be a good choice to go back and do it.
Thanks Diana, I did read it and the other ship was very lucky, but it didn't make it right or safe for the crew and passengers. This captain showed extremely bad judgement and for that there is no excuse for the lost lives and 750mil liner.
The captain knew right away that he screwed up. That's why he ran and hid.
I think Bob Olson's observation is correct. It doesn't seem that they know what they are doing in the way of search and rescue. Poor souls....how frustrating all of this is. I can't imagine what the families of the missing are thinking of this whole fiasco. If I were the captain of this ship, I'd find a handy rope and use it!!! What a piece of sh!? this guy is. It is obvious that this guy was clearly to blame for all of this mess. 29+ counts of negligent murder. Like I say....get a rope!
So, I guess you are a specialist in maritime disasters? The salvage company from Holland that was called upon was there in a day and a half is the best in the world. Good thing the Italians weren't waiting on the incompetent Bush Katrina Team or the BP-Halliburton gulf cleanup crowd of callous corporate farts.
Alwise you have obviously never been remotely near a cruise ship. I just got off of the Norwegian Dawn, and the crew on that ship was fabulous! They were always ready with a smile, and knew what I wanted before I did! They were all highly personable, and willing to go the extra mile. I did have one issue upon which I had to email corporate, but even they responded the very next day and were terrific! I will never sail anything other than NCL, and I would cruise over crammed, expensive planes any time.
This story breaks my heart, all those people terrified and cold. It's devastating that stupid moves by one man could cause such destruction and loss of life on what should have been a nice vacation. The captain appears to have no regard for anyone but himself.
C'mon people, tidal rise and fall is not really an issue. One of the characteristics of the Mediterranean Sea, just in case you hadn't heard...
The ship doesn't need the Italians blowing more holes in it. Making the situation worse. The ships hull needs to be repaired. Water pumped out. Up righted. and towed to port for repair. At the cost of 650 million dollars the ship has to be repaired and placed back into service.
Yes Raymond, they need to just blow off those 23 people missing and hurry up and get this ship fixed. Time is money right?
I would expect that a captain of such a grand ship would have a much better sense of honor and charactor than this guy,what does it take to be a captain of such a grand ship, apparently no more than it takes to work at McDonalds where did they hire this guy from I would like to know his credientals. The company should be so ashame.its heart breaking and money cannot replace loved ones.I have not heard any heartfelt aploge from the company are they afraid to claim they are at fault of course they are 100% at fault for hiring this idiot.
And what about the poor souls who are still missing, Raymond? They are of no importance to you?
ah Raymond, any clue as to why the owners have written it off as a total loss? would you take your family for a sea voyage on that ship?
I'm surprised none of the other officers refused the order to change course. No balls on the bridge I guess.
The "pecking" order on these ships is incredible. I suspect there were officers who knew it might be a terrible mistake. But, saying so, could mean insubordination. I think the ship was given permission to change course by an off-ship source.
Given that all these boat-disaster articles are getting routed into the Overhead Bin section of the MSNBC website, maybe it would be a good idea to at least temporarily retire that "Getting there is half the fun" subhead from the title bar, which is starting to look a little weird in context. (What's the other half: drowning?)
I thought the same thing, but, come on, that would be too much like the right thing to do. You're setting pretty high expectations.
Every time I see this ship on its side. I think of the loss of life that should have never been. I think people who consider one of these cruises should be aware of the pitfalls of having so many people on a ship and that no real effort has ever been made to develop a quick and efficient way to evacuate a ship of this size. The cruise ship companies say it can be done in 30 minutes but this event took 14 hrs? Something is very wrong with that estimate.
They had plenty of time to get every passenger and crew member off of this ship if the Captain had admitted to himself what he did and listened to his subordinate Officers who urged him to order the ship abandoned. At first there was only a minor list and the lifeboats could have been launched without issue.
They should have also conducted the mandatory lifeboat drill before departing port. While the SOLAS regulations say it has to be conducted within the first 24 hours of a voyage, common sense says and most cruise lines agree, that the drill should be done before setting sail so that everyone knows what to do and where to go in the event of an emergency.
The wreck it's self and the loss of life all rest on the joke of a Captain. If he had done his job before the crash it would have not happened. If he did his job after the crash everyone would have gotten off the ship safely.
This loser needs to go to jail for a long time.
I've been on one cruise in my lifetime and wasn't impressed. You pay at least $100 a day to spend time in a room no bigger than a walk-in closet, get herded around like a bunch of cattle, have less than 8 hours to spend ashore when in port only to get herded again. I couldn't see how that's entertaining. On top of that, I don't think these people expected to lose their lives or, for the survivors, have to deal with such a disaster. I understand the assumed risk, but NOTHING about a cruise justifies the money people have to spend to take one.
If you took a weeklong vacation and paid for hotel, 3 meals (or more) a day, visited exciting ports, saw evening shows, I think it would cost you more than $100 a day. Cruising is a good deal for the money. Every cruiseline is different. Don't throw them all into one group. This captain was reckless with his "showboating". The crew was not prepared and had no leader to facilitate the evacuation. The captain is directly responsible for the loss of life.
So true...but how many more of those floating coffins, with unprepared crews and irresponsable captains are there out there...
I would suggest that an indepth look at the cruise line and the captians last few fitness reports. I would say this captain was atleast the lowest bidder. I would guess to say that they sent to pasture better captains because they simply didn't want to pay them their worth. I hold the cruise line responsible for having a moron at the helm of a 750mil ship and 4200 lives.
Don't you guys remember that old saying "one person screws it up for everybody else?" I would like to imagine that most captains are nothing like this guy and actually take their job and responsibilities seriously.
This makes me so sad and so angry that he cared so little for the lives of his passengers and fellow crew members.
dirty so...you are an idiot!!! cruises are the best value for the buck!! assho
i think your right how boring to b stuck on a piece of metal for a week nothing but water all around u.also why if the ship did sink would u want to drown .i almost did an it was the most nastiest feeling .if i die at least i want my feet on solid ground not somwhere i cant walk an then if im not found to have my body eaten by animals.yalls crazy u can keep it.
When on a cruise, there is so much to do, that on average I spend about 30 minutes a day in the cabin [no counting sleep]. There is an amazing amount of *free* activities.
From the picture, it looks like it happened at night. That's a factor, too. Do they still use lighthouses? Just wondering...
Hey John, there's a set of routinely updated marine safety regulations called SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea), about the size of an encylopedia, that's been around almost a 100 years and was first prompted by the disastrous circumstances surrounding the sinking of the Titanic. These enforceable regs govern all sorts of things related to ship safety and come into play long before a new ship's keel is even laid. Unfortunately, the best-intentioned regulations can't always take sloppy ship's officers or crew and panic and general pandemonium into consideration...
Italy imprisons an innocent student on trumped-up charges, then lets this blatent murder go home. I will never vacation in Italy again. They showed the world how they feel about outsiders.
Under Italian, and maritime, law he is facing 12 years in jail just on the charge of abandoning ship. Add on the multiple manslaughter charges, dereliction of duty and other charges and it looks like he should be sentenced to a very long cruise in the cross-bar hotel.
Last time I check Italy released the student. Get over yourself. Chances are you would never leave you own back yard anyway.
I'm very sure they will miss you...
.
Gotta love the comments. Any of you ever salvaged a ship before? Best case is weeks of planning. "Just pump it full of air..." Um, yeah. simple. Imagine your house sunk. Inflate it. How long do you think it will take to seal all the places the air can escape?
That gash looks to be roughly 100 feet by 30 feet... it will take weeks to plate it over with enough strength to tow it. By then there's a good chance the weather and tides will have taken its toll on the ship.
My bet is it's a loss. Damn shame about the lost souls. Captain will be going to prison. Hell, Amanda Knox went to Italian prison and they didn't even have evidence.
Family owned Ship Salvage since 1899. That ship can stabilized. Hull repairs made. Lifted and up-righted. Towed to shipping yard for repair. The ship cost over 650 million to build. No ifs no buts, Just repair it and put back into service. Anything else would be just foolish.
couldn't pump full of air, but you could pump water out, once temp repairs were made
Unless it breaks in half, Raymond. You aren't involved a maritime salvage company.
Quit picking on Raymond his family collects shells on the beach. Maritime salvage is it not?
When I look at this ship and think about what some of the people in it must have seen, it scares the hell out of me.
I keep seeing re-runs of that bloody movie The Titanic in my head and that song at that end as they all faded away.
I think this story has somehow hit a nerve in me that I never really understood until now.
All I can say now after the anger has passed, and time is I hope those few people at the end had someone with them.
So sad..............good bye.
Freemannogod - Well said. You have a beautiful soul.
For me; The Posideon [sp] Adventure. Also that ship at Pearl Harbor where sailors trapped in a compartment lived for three weeks. People outside could hear them but couldn't get to them.
HEY! Half of that ship is still good!
Hey Master of the Universe...great advertising offer for future ads..."Get your next cruise for 1/2 off, but act quickly, this offer expires when the ship sinks!
I can only venture to say how much this is going to cost this company because of a coward and a showoff. At least a billion dollars. The ship is scrap metal now and the lawsuits that will be coming will be off the charts. And then on top of that if that chunk of metal starts spewing fuel the enviromental impact will be,well,another billion?
NO reason why this ship cannot be repaired.
During the weeks following the Japanese raid, a great deal of repair work was done by the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, assisted by tenders and ships' crewmen. These efforts, lasting into February 1942, put the battleships Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Tennessee; cruisers Honolulu, Helena, and Raleigh; destroyers Helm and Shaw, seaplane tender Curtiss, repair ship Vestal and the floating drydock YFD-2 back into service, or at least got them ready to steam to the mainland for final repairs. The most seriously damaged of these ships, Raleigh and Shaw, were returned to active duty by mid-1942.
Five more battleships, two destroyers, a target ship and a minelayer were sunk, or so severely damaged as to represent nearly total losses. These required much more extensive work just to get them to a point where repairs could begin. Starting in December 1941 and continuing into February 1942, the Navy Yard stripped the destroyers Cassin and Downes of servicible weapons, machinery and equipment. This materiel was sent to California, where it was installed in new hulls. These two ships came back into the fleet in late 1943 and early 1944.
To work on the remaining seven ships, all of them sunk, a salvage organization was formally established a week after the raid to begin what would clearly be a huge job. Commanded from early January 1942 by Captain Homer N. Wallin, previously a member of the Battle Force Staff, this Salvage Division labored hard and productively for over two years to refloat five ships and remove weapons and equipment from the other two. Among its accomplishments were the refloating of the battleships Nevada in February 1942, California in March, and West Virginia in June, plus the minelayer Oglala during April-July 1942. After extensive shipyard repairs, these four ships were placed back in the active fleet in time to help defeat Japan. The Salvage Division also righted and refloated the capsized battleship Oklahoma, partially righted the capsized target ship Utah and recovered materiel from the wreck of the battleship Arizona. However, these three ships were not returned to service, and the hulls of the last two remain in Pearl Harbor to this day.
All this represented one of history's greatest salvage jobs. Seeing it to completion required that Navy and civilian divers spend about 20,000 hours underwater in about 5000 dives. Long and exhausting efforts were expended in recovering human remains, documents, ammunition and other items from the oil-fouled interiors of ships that had been under water for months. Uncounted hours went into cleaning the ships and otherwise getting them ready for shipyard repair. Much of this work had to be carried out in gas masks, to guard against the ever-present risk of toxic gasses, and nearly all of it was extremely dirty.
Riiight.
So you're saying that repairing a battleship in shallow water in a protected bay (Pearl Harbor) in wartime is the equivalent of repairing a damaged civilian cruise ship in the open (deep) water?
Really?
Those were the days when America was not 68.7% fat. Also the taxpayer footed the entire bill, and warships do not have much carpet, wood, stages, bars, swimming pools etc............
I'm skeptical about being able to refloat this vessel. Seems like it would have to be pumped out and floated out to sea, then ballasted so that it rights itself. Ships are designed to take a certain amount of list and be able to right themselves. Even without flooding conditions, there is no way this ship could go from laying on its side to being righted. Look at how much of the ship's structure is above the waterline, and right now, half of that is full of water. You also have to consider that the submerged portion of the superstructure would have to be pumped out, and that portion of the ship is not designed to be watertight. I think the salvage efforts will be focused on getting the fuel and other petroleum products off the ship to avoid a catastrophic spill and dismantling the ship in place. Just getting the fuel off will be a huge challenge when you consider the effects of tide and wave action, and how the ship will react to changes in bouyancy as liquid load is removed. Whatever the experts decide to do, its probably going to cost more than what the ship is worth at this point.
And who is going to repair the families?
@ the Skeptic : First : it is not in open water. If you look with attention, you can see it is close to the coast. That's why a lot of people were able to swin to shore. Second : it is in the Mediterranean Sea, which is almost all enclosed, except for the Gibraltar strait. There are tides, but nowhere close to the ones in the Atlantic or the Pacific. Third : I would say it is shallow enough where the ship is since it has not sunk to the bottom of the sea. It is laying on rocks as far as I can see from the pictures.
So I agree with Raymond. It can be done. And considering the price it cost to build it a few years ago, it is worth considering. To build a new one to replace it would be more expensive than it first cost to build or to do repairs today.
And on another note, I think the title is misleading. When you look at the route it took in August, it shows very clearly that it went on a straight line. It is the fact that the captain changed the route that lead to this tragedy. Nothing to do with being "ill-fated route"
Yes that was a real great effort at the beginning of WWII. If my dad( US Army) was not in the hospital having surgery , we would have been living at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked. Altho. they got their self together and made some heroic effort with the ships that could be saved, there was one fact over looked in that day. The over powering "we are never going to be attacked" attitude of the USA at that time. The same goes for this ship line. As Dear old dad use to say"prepare for the worst and hope for the best" or something along those lines. The cruise ships that take care of business first , count noses and make sure people are where they should be can insure a nice trip. Or you can have a jerk off like this captain playing the big shot without a care in the world for his thousands of passengers and reap a very bad hair day for sure. God help him in court, I don't think the witnesses will be too kind to him and rightly so.
Why didn't they free the men trapped onboard if they did such a good job? I still feel bad when I think of their slow death.
RE 22.8;
The men could have been in a water tight compartment which was surrounded by flooded compartments. No way to get to them.
Raymond poster.
Nobody is going to sail on this ship if they decide to spend the millions to repair. You cannot repair a phuck up. I am sure the lines will long to buy tickets to board this 2012 Titanic and all will sing and dance and drink away.
NOT
I am replying to myself on this post. After thinking about it this ship could be used again because all the company has to do is offer a cheap passage for fun and drink and the idiots would line up.
Dewayne-788645, Just like the thousands of ships that have been salvaged repaired or just sold this ship will be repaired and renamed.
The company may decide to scrap it, depending on the damage. But if it is salvageable, it will go to some second or third tier Asian or European cruise company. It will be rebuilt, rebranded and rechristened, and the vast majority of the passengers will never have a clue. Let's face it, it wasn't the ship itself that was faulty, it was the captain and the lax attitude towards the emergency procedures.
Uh Newflash Dewayne, airplanes are repaird and put back in the air all the time. And guess what? People still line up to get on them. Will be no different with a ship.
All you have to do is promote a "cheap" cruise, and this ship would be full once more.
Who gives a crap about repairing the ship! Lets get the people/bodies out. Too many lives lost and now has a black cloud hanging over it. The fish need another reef or scrap it. The capt should be hung by his balls and the families should sue.
I'd be interested to hear what damage control efforts were undertaken, such as counterflooding, maintaining watertight integrity, pumping etc. How much training in damage control does the crew of a cruise ship receive? Obviously this ship wouldn't be equipped the same as a combat ship to deal with flooding, but it sure seems like it would have sank pretty quickly had it not been beached. How much flooding was it designed to sustain and still stay afloat? Also it would be interesting to know the extent of the damage and flooding to the engineering plants and what attempts were made to cross connect systems to restore at least some electrical power. They must have had at least one of the plants still providing power for main propulsion. Did emergency generators start up? I can't believe a ship this size that carries so many passengers wouldn't have independent emergency lighting circuits to make evacuation to the lifeboat stations easier.
It's a cruise ship, not a navy vessel, they are completely wide open inside, no watertight doors from the waterline up, wich makes me wonder how they will ever get this ship floating again.
Really, Rob? You'd "be interested to hear what damage control blah, blah, blah...". 'Cuz that would be useful to those on-site experts that are actually DOING something about this to have a blogger from MSNBC to critique what has happened and to oversee their activities.
Jeez!
Geez, cowboy. He was just commenting that he wondered about some things.
Settle down Cowboy. If you had read what I posted, you would see that I am curious about the ship's capabilities and the crew's actions during the emergency. Maybe the real heroes in this story are the folks working in the machinery spaces. Maybe their actions bought some critical minutes that helped avert a more catastrophic event. Also, a thorough examination of the events (otherwise known as a critique) will provide valuable lessons learned for the cruise ship industry. I'm certainly not taking pot shots at anyone. Can't say the same for you.
Be nice to cowboy. If he feels compelled to admit he's conservative he's dealing with inner issues. He may be one of those who think that libs are bad and cons are good.