Costa Concordia capsizes off the coast of Italy

[José M. Rico]

By now all of you must have seen the sad news about the Costa Concordia.
I'm attaching an impressive video I found on youtube.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... scene.html

[Karl Heidenreich]

Still the whereabouts of some passengers are unknown. The causes are quire misterious.

[RF]

Well, the ship was six miles off course, it hit a rock ''that shouldn't have been there'' if the captain is to be believed, it was holed and took on water.

You only have to look at this vessel to see how high its centre of gravity is.

The British press have compared this to the Titanic. No, I don't think so. More like the Herald of Free Enterprise, a ferry ship that sailed with its bow doors open. The Titanic sank; this vessel semi-capsized in shallow water that permitted its enormous girth to largely stay above the water line, no doubt saving many lives.

[wadinga]

All,

Anybody notice the hull damage is all aft of midships port side and the huge stabilizer fin is undamaged? Looks to me like the power failure happened first and with the huge windage of that gigantic superstructure she blew sideways onto the rocks portside to. With that profile even a light wind can generate a lot of "push".

They managed to get power back, moved ahead flooding badly, circled through 180 degrees offshore and then rolled to starboard (compartmentalisation/double hull?) Heeling over to starboard meant they were unwilling to use starboard lifeboats in case she rolled over on top of them. One photo shows her in final location, heeling c 20 degrees, lights still on but starboard lifeboats undeployed. I see only two port lifeboats still in davits.

Thank the Lord the casualties are so light.

All the Best

wadinga

[Ken Thompson]

Looks like the wreck of the Normandy but without the fire. I see a lot of SMIT tugs around it trying to figure out how to salvage it. On another website the owner claims it might be out of service for up to a year !?!

[Pandora]

one thing I dont really understand is, if the damage is on the port side why is the ship resting over its starboard side?
... and considering the low depth of the water, could the crew try counterflooding so the ship sank vertically.

[Pandora]

On another website the owner claims it might be out of service for up to a year !?!

I read the ship is a total loss. dont think it will sail again.

[Ken Thompson]

Well the hole is up where they can patch it easily then as in the case of the Normandy they can plug up the other openings and pump the water out after that who knows.

[RF]

I read the ship is a total loss. dont think it will sail again.

Who in their right mind would want to sail on that vessel?

[frontkampfer]

Who in their right mind would want to sail on that vessel?

I agree. A fresh coat of paint, name change and new owners will not refloat this boat. The thing that will be in everyone's mind would be it could happen again only worse.

Hope the salvagers can right it and get it off the rocks in one piece otherwise it will be even a bigger mess. At least the world supply of razor blades will be safe!

[José M. Rico]

Vada a bordo, cazzo!"

[Ken Thompson]

Not only are they tearing up the ship to find the missing victims of this calamity, but they are yet to remove all the fuel before they think of salvaging it. Most likely it will be a water front tourist attraction for a long time to come.

[wadinga]

All,

I found some photos making it clear they got all the starboard side lifeboats away as well. Whether the Captain was onboard or not, somebody got an efficient evacuation underway eventually. This may have been the dumbest ship loss since HMS Victoria, but at least Admiral Tryon did the "decent thing".

Well done those crew members who made the evacuation happen!

As for re-entering service, well its just a big chunk of metal, I sailed in a ship which had sunk twice!

HMS Thetis came back as HMS Thermopylae for instance, and the CSS Hunley killed several whole crews. 350MUSD of hull would make a lot of razor blades!

All the Best
wadinga

[RF]

Whether the ship is salvaged and brought back into service or not, this episode and the alleged conduct of the captain has to be the public relations disaster of the year. And we haven't even got to the end of January.

The one saving grace - and no comfort really to the famillies of those lost - is that the death toll was nothing like that from the Titanic, to which this disaster has been compared by the more populist media.

[Pandora]

The one saving grace - and no comfort really to the famillies of those lost - is that the death toll was nothing like that from the Titanic, to which this disaster has been compared by the more populist media.

one thing can be compared both had about the same displacement: Titanic 52.000 and C.Concordia 50.000 tons.