It was a Friday 13th, off the coast of Tuscany in the middle of winter 2012. At precisely 21 hours 45 minutes and 7 seconds a gigantic liner, the Costa Concordia, was wrecked not far from the coast of the island of Giglio, off the coast of Tuscany. A shipwreck that was “avoidable” and that took place, unfortunately claiming thirty-two victims. And above all by traumatizing thousands of passengers for life.
All about the history of the Costa Concordia
The cruise ship Concordia is a massive ship of 290 meters in length and a width of more than 35 meters (maître bau in maritime language). Its highest point was 70 meters (air draft), and its hull sank to 8.2 meters underwater (draught). And it was precisely the ship’s draught that played an essential role in the sinking of the Costa Concordia.
At 114,000 tons, the Concordia had the title of the largest Italian cruise ship ever built in Italy. It was the pride of an entire country, and above all, it was the flagship of the Costa Cruises fleet.
It was built in Genoa, by the Italian shipyard Fincantieri of Sestri Ponente. The ship was commissioned on July 7, 2006. But on this day of July, during the christening of the ship, the bottle of champagne will not break against the hull of the vessel. A bad omen for sailors all over the world. Legends have a hard life, especially in the maritime field.
This great liner, whose size was close to that of the largest ocean liners in the world, was a ship of excess. With 17 floors, 13 of which were dedicated to the passenger cabins. There were 1500 cabins on board, some without windows and others with a balcony and sea view. Costa Concordia had a maximum capacity of 3,780 passengers for 1,068 crew members. The cost of the boat was 500 million euros. A figure that does not represent much. Especially when you consider what it will cost to refloat the ship.
The sinking of the Costa Concordia on January 13, 2013
When the Concordia hits the shallows just a short distance from the island of Giglio, passengers are worried. Onboard, at first, there is incomprehension and then panic. Despite the noise of the shock, the stopping of the engines, and the general power cut, it will be necessary to wait about three-quarters of an hour for the evacuation operations to begin. During all this time the crew tries to reassure the passengers as much as they can by assuring them that everything is fine.
As much as to say it right away, the sinking is the result of a navigational error. Indeed, the captain used to get out of his rail to come close to the coast. A way to greet the population of the island of Giglio. An island located just in front of Tuscany and not far from the island of Elba. The inchino, the curtsy, is a practice that is certainly tolerated. But it requires getting off a shipping lane. This is forbidden for large units except in case of extreme emergency. Unfortunately, “reverence” is a tradition in this part of Italy. And once again a liner will break the rule to come and greet the eight hundred inhabitants of the island, for one last time.
A wrong position from the beginning of the manoeuvre
On this cursed day of January, the position of the vessel and the course are not correct. And this from the very beginning of the maneuver. The navigator on board, the helmsman, or the captain may not have been aware of the ship’s drift, the strength of the current, or the winds. But it is already too late. Going out of the channel was a mistake. What happened afterward is of very little importance. The damage was done. If nautical charts sometimes impose exact routes on ships, it is merely to avoid shipwrecks. Because depending on the weather and the currents, specific passages become real traps for boats a few days in the year. Cape Horn in Chile, the tip of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula in Iceland, or the Pointe du Raz are some of these places that are real hooks for ships.
The practice of bowing
Greeting civilians is a common practice among the military. Particularly among fighter pilots. They give their wives their time of passage over the marital home. And generally, the pilot who is concerned is the one who passes the lowest. Thus wife and children can recognize the head of the family in full training.
Well, that’s pretty much what happened on this day in January 2012. A sinister Friday the 13th. An Italian captain caused a tragedy when he wanted to come and greet the inhabitants of the island of Giglio with the wrong course. But the captain also created a colossal loss for the company that employed him. A loss that was partly covered by insurance. The cost of the accident would, therefore, be estimated at just under 2 billion euros. That’s a lot of money for a reversion (500 million for the construction of the boat and 1.1 billion for the refloating. Not counting the operating losses and various compensations).
At around 10 pm, the Costa Concordia will finally lie down on the starboard. She will first incline 20 degrees and will end up lying at nearly 80 degrees.
Inchino
The inchino is, therefore, a tradition in Italy. The captains usually get out of their rails to come and greet the islanders. The operation is simple; the ships turn away from a rail that is between two and three nautical miles from the coast. One nautical mile is equivalent to 1,852 kilometers. Upon arriving close to the coast, the liners turn on all their lights and give several long blasts of sirens. By digging a little in the archives of the local news site, we discover that this practice is indeed common in this part of Italy.
sources: the local site of the island of Giglio – https:// www.giglionews. it/2008/07/05/giuseppe-ulivi-18/ – thanks for the parade of July 5, 2008, by the captain of the Costa Concordia.
In the end, about 4,229 passengers and crew members were involved in the shipwreck. There were 460 French people on board out of the 3200 passengers. A total of 32 people lost their lives.
The evacuation of the wreck and its dismantling
The refloating of the wreck and its evacuation to the port of Genoa, where the Concordia will be deconstructed, will prove to be extremely expensive. It will eventually cost more than twice the price of its construction. It will have taken more than a billion dollars to refloat the wreck and transport it to Genoa.
Evacuating the wreck will therefore prove to be a very long and delicate operation. It took nearly two years to bring the liner back to the port of Genoa where it will finally be dismantled in 2017.
Today the ship has disappeared from the shores of the small island of Tuscany, the island of Giglio. But the nightmare continues for the families of the victims and for all the passengers who were on board the last Concordia cruise.
Jail for the captain
In this shipwreck, the most foolish thing and the one that will remain the most incomprehensible is the irresponsible attitude of the commander: Francesco Schettino, a 52-year-old man who cowardly abandoned the ship. At the same time, there were still thousands of people to evacuate. Journalists almost instantly nicknamed him “the cowardly captain”. With the captain’s escape, there was no one left to coordinate the evacuation operations. Onboard there will be panic for long hours. The last passenger on board would have left the ship the next day around 6 am.
After a few years of proceedings, the 16-year prison sentence against the captain was finally confirmed by the Court of Cassation.
As a reminder, the first sentence of 16 years in prison was pronounced in February 2015. A little more than a year later, in May 2016, the sentence was reiterated on appeal. For information, during the first trial, a prosecutor would have initially requested 26 years in prison against Schettino.
Sources:
Affaires Sensibles, March 21, 2017 broadcast, french radio France Inter, Fabrice Drouelle.
L’express. fr and AFP, article of May 12, 2017 – “Costa Concordia: 16 years in prison confirmed for the former captain of the ship”.
Wikipedia, Costa Concordia – general information about the ship