Michael Holloway's FilterBlogs: Costa Concordia - First Sinking of 'Apartment Building' type Ship

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Costa Concordia - First Sinking of 'Apartment Building' type Ship

In a blog I posted on January 14th and 15th on the Costa Concordia sinking - the first sinking of these 'Apartment Building Ships' - I warned people that these ships are dangerously top heavy and that the extreme listing that the Costa Concordia experienced immediately after hitting a sunmerged reef made abandoning the ship extremely difficult.

In another incident in Feburary 2010, the captain of another Costa Cruise Lines ship, the Costa Europa, used the ships ballast tanks to list the ship in order to lift a breach above the water line.

Costa Europa lists to port while docked at Sharm el-Sheikh - 26 Feb 2010. The Captain listed the ship to port in order to keep 20 metre starboard breach above the water line.
Image coutsesy The Sun UK - http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2869843/Brits-hurt-in-Egyptian-boat-crash.html http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2869843/Brits-hurt-in-Egyptian-boat-crash.html http://www.cruisejunkie.com/

By some accounts the Costa Concordia listed to port immediately upon impact with the submerged rock - which sliced into the hull to the stern of midships. The impact caused the bow of the ship to turn to port and caused the coincident list to port. As the ship stopped turning on the reef it became apparent to the Captain that the ship was taking on water. I think, as per normal procedure on Costa Cruise ships, the Captain ordered the starboard ballasts filled to right the ship -- but by the time this was done there was already so much water in the lower decks that the maneuver basically sunk the ship.

Here's a radio conversation between the Captain of the Italian Coast Guard at Livorno, Captain Del Falco, and the Captain of the Costa Concordia, Captain Francesco Schettino - about 2 hours into the sinking, at approximately 11:00PM local time Friday 13 January 2012.

During the conversation he tries to deflect criticism of why he is not on board directing the the evacuation of the Costa Concordia, by revealing that the ship’s 2nd officer Dimitri Christidis, and 3rd officer Silvia Coronia are also with him on the same life boat. ???

Question: How does a 14 year old get to be the Captain of one of the biggest passenger ships in the world?

Next question: We now know Captain Francesco Schettino has taken this bravado route between the Island of Giglio and the rock outcrop just outside the Port of Giglio at least 4 times (see video). Was Costa Cruise Lines aware of this? If so, what steps did they take to make the Captain stick to the programmed route? And as well, was the Captain and/or Costa Cruise Lines taking this dangerous route in order to sell cruise tickets to wealthy tourists that frequent this elite Tuscan coast island?
Via "daiquiri" at "Boat Design Forum" - http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/open-discussion/last-voyage-costa-concordia-cruise-ship-41313.html

daiquiri
Engineering and Design
Join Date: May 2004 Rep: 2261 Posts: 2,426
Location: Northern Italy (lake Garda) and Croatia (Istria)

It turns out that it was a deliberate passage of the ship close to the Giglio island, and it has been done several times in the past for the joy of islanders. This is video shows the same ship doing the same thing last summer: http://video.corriere.it/nave-concor...2-5f77182bc574

Excess of confidence?

Video via "CorriereTV" - http://video.corriere.it/nave-concordia-al-giglio-/9dfa5ea6-3e9b-11e1-8b52-5f77182bc574

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Occupy Movement

10 February 2014

The general perception is that Occupy is over.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The System is critically broken. You can help replace it with one that represents the People's interests - rather than the interests of the few - represented now by a dieing Republic and her allies in a New World Order - an American Empire.

This end of democracy - and possibly of the enlightenment - ushers in a corporatism - a reflection of the Nazi state - refined now with the social barometers of the surveillance state in an IT revolution. With it's endless global war, and it's rapacious 'always on' dog-eat-dog economy, the corporate state creates nothing but fear and loathing, via the terrorism of the market place: a thin strata of highly-paid professionals serving the 1%; feed by a great under-class of skilled, subsistence workers - it creeps thus into every street, into every mind, in every country of the globe.

The grotesque thing is a relic of the past - a desease that wants to bury us all with it as is contorts like a cancer into death itself.

The People's Movements are digging in to protect our democracy; developing deep roots and strength in every community.

This spring may be an awakening of every mind; of every town square. Of every country.

The plus-side as great as the likely fascist horror we face.

Tour de France Coverage

The past 2 years I covered every stage race of the Tour de France at BikingToronto. "Live Blogging" almost every stage, I also wrote a summary pieces on many stages which included some funny takes on the metrics of team bicycle racing. Also you can re-live the progress of Victoria BC's Ryder Hesjedal who, after rising to, and holding on to 3rd place for several stages, finished the 2010 Tour de France in 7th place over all. Have a look my BikingToronto Blog, "@Blog_FreeWheel" "2010 Tour de France" and the "2011 Tour de France" tags.

Longtail Posthumous Aperitif (added to after, before)

At the top of more and more articles in the FilterBlogs archives who'll see this:

After some articles are 'put to bed' at FilterBlogs they get a Longtail Posthumous Aperitif ; links to related articles published after my original post linked at the top of articles - towards a better user experience for you, the reader:

A breakdown of "Posthumous Longtail Aperitif":

After, after, before.
Finished but not finished and at the beginning.

As I continue to add these relevant 'Tweets' the result will be an ongoing re-crawl by search bots; better connecting my posts in search and adding to the 'intelligence' of the Google Search algorithm. Your welcome :)