Nearly 100 years after the Titanic disaster, it seems history is repeating itself in Italy.
Saturday evening, the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia struck a rock, which tore a 160-foot hole in its hull. The ship then ran aground, took on water, began to list on its starboard side and is now partially submerged off the coast of the island of Giglio.
More than 4,200 passengers, including 1,000 crewmembers, had to evacuate the ship. Eleven people thus far have died and as many as 25 people are still missing. Underwater rescuers are breaking windows in an attempt to see if people are still trapped inside portions of the submerged ship.
The similarities to Titanic seem unbelievable following 100 years of advancement. Granted, the ship didn”t go down in isolated, icy waters after striking an iceberg. But, aside from similar details in crashing into a blunt object, both ships had problems in getting people safely into lifeboats.
The Titanic crew enacted the well-known “women and children first” rule, which meant many lifeboats left the ship well under capacity. The Concordia crew and passengers had not run a lifeboat drill, resulting in a chaotic scramble when the order to evacuate came.
You would think that in 100 years, there would be much better safety procedures in place aboard maritime vessels carrying high volumes of passengers. It seems quite apparent that, while those safety procedures are in place, they were ignored on the Concordia.
Many news reports tell of passengers being ordered by crewmembers to move up and down the decks in order to find and board a lifeboat. Other news reports have crewmembers alleging the ship had struck something, telling passengers instead that an electric generator had blown out, which caused the loud grinding noise and following thud.
This was either a lie to ease the nerves of the passengers or a dangerous denial by the crew. I”m not one to cry, “cover-up” so freely and accuse them of lying, so I”ll hope for the best that this was to ease the passengers” nerves.
Whatever the case, the delay in getting passengers to their muster stations in order to start evacuating the ship by lifeboat in an efficient, safe manner resulted in 11 people”s deaths thus far, with many still missing.
The Concordia”s captain, Francesco Schettino, alleges he did not deviate from his assigned course. Costa Crociere SpA, which is owned by famous cruise ship operator Carnival and the owners of the Concordia, alleges Schettino deviated from his assigned course on purpose.
Reasons allegedly given for this deviation have varied from giving the island of Giglio a “fly-by” to show off the ship or to please a crewmember on board who was from the island.
Honestly, neither reason is good enough to put more than 4,000 lives at risk. I seriously hope these aren”t the true reasons or it is a sign of the sheer vanity of the times we live in.
Audio tapes of a conversation with a member of the Italian Coast Guard and Schettino have emerged, allegedly taken after the captain abandoned his ship with many passengers still on board.
The tapes show the Coast Guard member ordering a man who identifies himself as Schettino to get back on board his ship to coordinate the rescue of any other passengers in need. The man pleads with the Coast Guard member to not go back aboard because he is with another lifeboat and that it was dark and the cruise ship had no electricity, making it difficult to see.
Whatever happened to the captain going down with his ship? How despicable.
And now, this 17-deck behemoth lies on its side, constantly in danger of emptying more than 500,000 gallons of fuel into waters that are protected as a dolphin sanctuary. It makes me sick.
How in the bloody hell is this happening in the 21st century? We may not be able to map out the entire ocean floor but modern GPS technology is consistently applied on ships.
Perhaps we may never be able to view the ocean floor the same way we see a road and its obstacles in front of us. Aside from that, crashes occur on roads every day, so perhaps maritime disasters are inevitable.
But a disaster more-likely-than-not caused by human error in an act of vanity is inexcusable. Cruise ship operators better make sure they have their safety protocols in place or they will watch their profits vanish.
And the Concordia”s story has only just begun.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
