Cruise Ship Runs Aground

[Talent312]

The luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its side after running aground in the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. The luxury cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, sending water pouring in through a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in the hull and forcing the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early Saturday, the Italian coast guard said. The number of dead and injured is not yet confirmed...

Photo By Gregorio Borgia

 

[alwysonvac]

Yikes !! Thanks for the info.

 

[Elan]

I guess we know where the Exxon Valdez captain took up employment.

 

[pedro47]

There are several excellent articles on this incident on cruise critics web site this morning.

 

[vacationhopeful]

Very early news reports had 7 dead and unknown numbers missing with some persons jumping off the ship and swimming to shore. Your photo shows the scope of the damage.

Dang -- if I had jump off and swam for my life, they would have to pull my wet self out of the closest bar I could find.

 

[Twinkstarr]

Wow, I saw the pictures last night and it was just leaning to one side.

 

[dioxide45]

It will be interesting to find out how it got that close to land. You can see visible rocks no more than 100 feet from it.

 

[Patri]

Certainly many more lived because it was so close to shore.

 

[Elan]

Certainly many more lived because it was so close to shore.

That's one way to look at it!

 

[Pat H]

I heard that the Captain ordered the ship towards shallower waters after the accident.

 

[Patri]

That's one way to look at it!

LOL I get it that when you run aground, that's where you are. But if you are going to swim to safety, wouldn't you prefer to be close? A cruise ship going down in the ocean (for other reasons) would have been so much more serious. This is not good, but thank goodness, few people died. (At least I hope few. The numbers aren't in.)

 

[DeniseM]

LOL I get it that when you run aground, that's where you are. But if you are going to swim to safety, wouldn't you prefer to be close? A cruise ship going down in the ocean (for other reasons) would have been so much more serious. This is not good, but thank goodness, few people died. (At least I hope few. The numbers aren't in.)

I think the point is that if they hadn't been so close, they wouldn't have gotten in to trouble in the first place.

 

[Talent312]

Per CNN, the Captain abandoned the ship before the passengers were off (a serious no-no), has been arrested and is being investigated for manslaughter.

 

[SDKath]

Per CNN, the Captain abandoned the ship before the passengers were off (a serious no-no), has been arrested and is being investigated for manslaughter.

OMG how scary! We just got off a Disney ship and planning a cruise in 3 months on the sister ship to this one that sunk, the infamous Carnival Splendor! Some reports say there was an electrical failure before the ship ran aground, and caused the ship to steer off course. Yiyeks. This ship is gigantic and now it's sitting in 200 feet of water, collecting dust (and hopefully not spilling gasoline). Costa is owned by Carnival/Princess and they have many ships in their fleet in the US just like this one. Totally tragic.

 

[suzanne]

Just heard Captain is in jail and more arrests are coming. Such a scary event.

Suzanne

 

[AnnaS]

How sad and tragic.

 

[Fern Modena]

This is a pretty good update, with more information and quite a few pictures.

 

[heathpack]

Duplicate post.

 

[heathpack]

This is a pretty good update, with more information and quite a few pictures.

Ok, y'all, look at the last picture in the series. The damage is clearly seen at the stern of the ship. The stabilizer just forward to it is undamaged. What does that mean? The ship was not steaming innocently straight ahead when she struck the reef. She was either drifting sideways or turning.

She could have been drifting if she lost both power and steering, but she would not have drifted 4 miles without the crew knowing there was a pretty big problem. Plus this captain stated that he believed he was in deep water, there was no reef on the chart at his location. That is incorrect, the reef he hit IS on the nautical charts.

Here is what Mr. H and I think happened: the ship was off course (actually a very hard mistake to make), they suddenly realized they were off course (depth sounder alarming?, someone spotted the reef?), they turned hard to starboard, swung the stern of the boat to port, striking the reef on the port side. The captain then partially did the right thing, steaming 45 minutes for the island off the coast of which they eventually ran aground. Of course, he then did completely the wrong thing in not alerting the passengers to the severity of the crisis. I would bet that he was purposely trying to run the ship aground, hoping to beach the ship, making evacuation easier. He seemed to have assumed (hoped) the ship would not list, without the listing it would have been easy to evacuate, they were in 20 feet of water.

Maybe more info will prove us wrong, but the captain seems to have made some pretty bad decisions here.

H

 

[SDKath]

You could be right. I did hear some reports on CNN saying the power went out and THEN they heard the scraping sound of the ship hitting rocks. THEN they were told there was a power failure and there was a good 30 min delay before the abandon ship signal was given (probably as they made quick haste toward the island). The listing and filling with water probably happened a lot quicker than the captain anticipated. Also, most modern ships can "close off" certain compartments of the bottom of the ship to avoid the whole ship from filling. I think because of the power failure, this was not able to happen, hence it taking water on very quickly.

I am just glued to the news now. This is beyond imaginable for someone like me, who has taken almost 20 cruises now and has always felt like this simply cannot happen to modern ships!

On top of it all, over 1/2 of the life boats could not be launched because of the listing of the ship 20 degrees. I don't think any modern day design takes into account this possibility. In 2013 are booked on the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas, which has twice as many passengers and twice as many crew as this ship. The thought of 6000 people being on a floating island and 1/2 of the life boats potentially not working is a frightening one to me all of a sudden!

Insane all around!!! Katherine

 

[AnnaS]

I am just glued to the news now. This is beyond imaginable for someone like me, who has taken almost 20 cruises now and has always felt like this simply cannot happen to modern ships!


Insane all around!!! Katherine

I try to think the same thing since we like to cruise - that this would never happen today with all the new ships, technology, etc. Who knows really. Scary.

 

[MULTIZ321]

This is a pretty good update, with more information and quite a few pictures.

The Link provided by Fern has been updated
since last night with new pictures and
additional information.

Thanks Fernn.

Richard

 

[heathpack]

The Link provided by Fern has been updated
since last night with new pictures and
additional information.

Thanks Fernn.

Richard

Aw, the picture that we refer to has been removed & now it is harder with the remaining pictures to see where the ship is damaged.


I don't buy the "lost electronic navigation and steering" theory. That does not happen on a boat without it being obvious. We have lost all of our electronics while making a passage from Newport to LA in the fog. First clue: all the electronic screens went blank. Second clue: when that happened, looked at the compass, boat had been turned 90 degrees (very obvious, not from line-of-sight inspection, too foggy for that, but from looking at the compass). OMG, what to do? Um, we had been paying semi good attention, but we immediately plotted our approximate position on a paper chart, then got the back-up GPS out (purposely an independent system) to determine our exact position. From the engine RPM and compass (non electronic), we knew our approximate boat speed and exact heading. So from there we can continuously plot our position on a paper chart. We know the waters, so we know what hazards are where and how to try to avoid them. There was no navigational crisis and we are casual cruisers not a professionally trained crew. Losing electronics on a boat like that would also cause you to lose steering (which would be a very big problem), but you would know that had happened and be able to alert the passengers and crew. And you probably would not be saying to the press, "We were in deep water according to the charts."

The one thing I find curious is that we see damage on the up side of the listed boat. It would not take on water and list on the undamaged side. There must be even more damage on the down side of the boat. I speculate the up-side damage was from hitting the reef and the down side damage was from running aground at he island. Maybe the captain was initially right in expecting the damaged ship to stay upright- possibly they were able to pump water out of the damaged side fast enough to keep her upright. But then he damaged the boat further running her aground and the later damage was what caused the listing?

All I know is that I have zero sympathy for a major navigational error in this day and age, with modern equipment and a professional crew that has the expected level of situational awareness.

H

 

[SDKath]

All I know is that I have zero sympathy for a major navigational error in this day and age, with modern equipment and a professional crew that has the expected level of situational awareness.

H

Totally agree! No way, no how could they not detect their position or the depth of the water or the rocks given the GPS, sonar, satellite and written charts, all available on the bridge at all times. Even our 20 foot boat at home can tell me where we are at any given point in time, regardless of the electrical power, fog, etc.

Someone was asleep at the wheel, that's for sure. Especially given that they do this route every single week, all year...

Katherine

 

[Talent312]

.
I'll stop grumbling and pay more attention at the next muster drill.