Once the pride of Cardinal Cruise Lines, the elegant Costa Concordia cruise vessel sailed the seven seas bringing pleasure to countless thousands of happy passengers intent on enjoying the leisurely paced, if often over indulgent, cruising lifestyle.
Tragedy overtook her on the fateful night in January 2012. Due to a navigation error, at approximately 2145hrs. on the 13th. she struck a rock, ripping a 50 metre gash in her port side. The crew managed to steer her toward land where she came to rest just off the island of Giglio on her starboard side.
The following extract of the incident is from Wikipedia:
'On 13 January 2012 at about 9:45 p.m., in calm seas and overcast weather, under command of Captain Francesco Schettino, Costa Concordia struck a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea just off the eastern shore of Isola del Giglio, on the western coast of Italy about 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Rome. This tore a 50 m (160 ft) gash on the port (left) side of her hull, which almost immediately flooded parts of the engine room and caused loss of power to her propulsion and electrical systems. With water flooding in and listing, the ship drifted back to Giglio Island, where she grounded just 500 m (550 yd) north of the village of Giglio Porto, resting on her starboard (right) side in shallow waters with most of her starboard side under water.
Despite the gradual sinking of the ship, its complete loss of power, and its proximity to shore in calm seas, an order to abandon ship was not issued until over an hour after the initial impact. Although international maritime law requires all passengers to be evacuated within 30 minutes of an order to abandon ship, the evacuation of Costa Concordia took over six hours and not all passengers were evacuated. Of the 3,229 passengers and 1,023 crew known to have been aboard, 30 people died, and two more passengers are missing and presumed dead.
On September 26, 2013, human remains were found on deck 4, which could be the last two missing passengers not accounted for. Divers will try to recover the remains. The following day the remains were found not to be from the passengers that were missing.
On 17 September 2013, Costa Concordia was winched upright. The next stage is to assess and repair damage to the vessel before it will be floated away to an Italian dock to be scrapped although the tow is unlikely until Spring 2014.'
You can tell from this that Wikipedia is right up to date reporting on the current status of the salvage and re-floating operation.
For a more detailed look at the salvage operation and surrounding data you can go to this link from the UK Telegraph newspaper which gives a great in depth view of the salvage.
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| Costa Concordia cruising the Mediteranean |
The following extract of the incident is from Wikipedia:
'On 13 January 2012 at about 9:45 p.m., in calm seas and overcast weather, under command of Captain Francesco Schettino, Costa Concordia struck a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea just off the eastern shore of Isola del Giglio, on the western coast of Italy about 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Rome. This tore a 50 m (160 ft) gash on the port (left) side of her hull, which almost immediately flooded parts of the engine room and caused loss of power to her propulsion and electrical systems. With water flooding in and listing, the ship drifted back to Giglio Island, where she grounded just 500 m (550 yd) north of the village of Giglio Porto, resting on her starboard (right) side in shallow waters with most of her starboard side under water.
Despite the gradual sinking of the ship, its complete loss of power, and its proximity to shore in calm seas, an order to abandon ship was not issued until over an hour after the initial impact. Although international maritime law requires all passengers to be evacuated within 30 minutes of an order to abandon ship, the evacuation of Costa Concordia took over six hours and not all passengers were evacuated. Of the 3,229 passengers and 1,023 crew known to have been aboard, 30 people died, and two more passengers are missing and presumed dead.
On September 26, 2013, human remains were found on deck 4, which could be the last two missing passengers not accounted for. Divers will try to recover the remains. The following day the remains were found not to be from the passengers that were missing.
On 17 September 2013, Costa Concordia was winched upright. The next stage is to assess and repair damage to the vessel before it will be floated away to an Italian dock to be scrapped although the tow is unlikely until Spring 2014.'
You can tell from this that Wikipedia is right up to date reporting on the current status of the salvage and re-floating operation.
For a more detailed look at the salvage operation and surrounding data you can go to this link from the UK Telegraph newspaper which gives a great in depth view of the salvage.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10311659/Costa-Concordia-salvage-operation-as-it-happened.html
This video shows what a massive salvage operation it is which will cost a similar amount to the original cost of construction of the vessel:
Image and video courtesy of Google and YouTube.
For lots of other sailing stuff you can go to my website http://www.sailboat2adventure.com/ where you can also download my ebook 'Sailing Adventures in Paradise'
This video shows what a massive salvage operation it is which will cost a similar amount to the original cost of construction of the vessel:
Image and video courtesy of Google and YouTube.
For lots of other sailing stuff you can go to my website http://www.sailboat2adventure.com/ where you can also download my ebook 'Sailing Adventures in Paradise'
