Tuesday, January 17, 2012

What??? Really???

Yes, I am taking this Costa Concordia thing personally. For several reasons (I am a seasoned cruiser of over 30 voyages, I have many friends in the cruise ship industry and I am concerned about their safety and the effect this will have on their income and, lastly, I am a shareholder in Carnival Corporation LLP and, however minutely, it reflects on me) I am quite angry with the Captain especially but also the others in the crew who seemed to have abdicated their responsibilities.

This latest:

00:32am

The port authority asks the captain, Francesco Schettino, how many people are left on board. He says 200-300, therefore claiming unrealistically that 4,000 people were evacuated in only 40 minutes. It quickly becomes clear he has already abandoned ship.

...

00:42am

PA asks how many people still need to be evacuated.

Schettino:"I called and they told me there are about 100 people. I am coordinating the operations. But I can't go back on it. We have abandoned the ship."

PA:"Captain, did you really abandon the ship??"

Schettino:"No, no, I am here, I am coordinating the evacuation."

PA:"Captain, this is an order, now I am in charge. Get back on that ship and coordinate the operations. There are already casualties."

Schettino:"How many?"

PA:"You should tell me that! What do you want to do, go home? Now you get back on that ship and tell us what can be done, how many people are still there and what do they need."

Schettino:"OK, OK, I am going."

(The captain will not get back on the ship)

...

Hanging is too good for this guy. You know why he chose to hazard his ship and put 4000 souls in grave danger? This is why:

...

The captain of the luxury cruise ship that capsized after hitting rocks off Italy had sailed perilously close to the coast to "make a bow" to people on a Tuscan island, according to media reports.

Francesco Schettino made the dangerous maneuver so that the Costa Concordia's head waiter could salute his family on land, according to reports.

...

I think keelhauling would be appropriate.

Cross-posted at Worlds.

8 comments:

CAFKIA said...

Wow, that waiter must give GREAT head!

Fixer said...

Ha!

Anonymous said...

hmm,el Fixer, methinks i smell a rat,to wit:long ago&far away,was parts mgr & got mooned by the tire guy...ya gotta figure he'd risk his job only if he'd TOLD to do so by a HigherUP & indeed, this was so,the Sales mgr dood it...sooo,CC corporate shenanigans should not be ruled out...just sayin'
cheers

Fixer said...

They did this maneuver once before, from what I've heard, and it was sanctioned at the corporate level but just for the one instance. There is a deep water shipping lane on the east side of Giglio (which was the "sanctioned route" on the one occasion) but several miles closer to mainland Italy.

Besides, the more I hear from the captain, in his own words on tape, it's been shown he's nothing but an irresponsible, arrogant bastid.

Labrys said...

I've been following this with growing incredulity. And after hearing how pissed the Italian Coast Guard guy was? That cruise captain should have feared him more than returning to his stricken ship!

Gordon said...

"Arrogant" is right. The fucker thought he was smarter than about 5000 years worth of mariners who've managed to miss that rock.

Fixer said...

I remember being aboard Westerdam a couple years back when we were called to rescue duty by the Coast Guard for a freighter who'd torn its belly open. Westie's captain wouldn't get within miles of it, only sending launches and motorized lifeboats so he wouldn't hazard Westie on the same reef.

I've been on ships where we've blown off going into deep water ports because the wind was so bad they didn't want to get blown into the pier.

Every captain I've sailed with put ship's safety before anything else. This guy is an aberration. Unfortunately it took this tragedy to weed him out.

BadTux said...

Well, they put him on a puddle run in the first place, so clearly they didn't have a lot of confidence in the guy to begin with or they would have had him in charge of one of their prestige routes. I mean, the route he was in charge of, you have to go *looking* for trouble, it's pretty much impossible to get things wrong unless you actually *try*.

Unfortunately, this moron did. Reminds me of folks from back home where I'm from, folks with names like Cooter and Joe-Bob, makes me wonder if the last thing before he did this numbskull move was "Here Cooter, hold my beer and *watch this*!"

Is there such a thing as an Italian redneck?

- Badtux the Astounded Penguin