Will Costa Concordia slip into the deep?

SHUG

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"What happened" has been well covered but "what happens next" is also important.
I see that the depth is 100metres+ quite close to the wreck but I haven't seen a chart with sufficient detail to consider if the wreck would slip into deep water when the Mistral gets going.
Suggestions regarding salvage options would also be interesting.
 

sailorman

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"What happened" has been well covered but "what happens next" is also important.
I see that the depth is 100metres+ quite close to the wreck but I haven't seen a chart with sufficient detail to consider if the wreck would slip into deep water when the Mistral gets going.
Suggestions regarding salvage options would also be interesting.

i think she will be salvaged
 

Twister_Ken

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"What happened" has been well covered but "what happens next" is also important.
I see that the depth is 100metres+ quite close to the wreck but I haven't seen a chart with sufficient detail to consider if the wreck would slip into deep water when the Mistral gets going.
Suggestions regarding salvage options would also be interesting.

Don't think the Mistral will blow strongly that far east. I'm not sure whether there are any 'named' winds (Bora, Tramontana, Scirocco, etc) that get into that top left corner of the Italian coast. Doesn't mean that a local gale couldn't do some pushing and shoving though.

Presumably, they could take lines ashore to try and hold the CC in position?
 

savageseadog

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Looks hard and fast but heard an interview on the radio of a pro diver who had dived in the area saying that it could be precariously placed. I think a refit could be a bit expensive!
 

binch

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cc

I have the largest scale British chart. You are right. That coast is steep to.
But she will be fairly stable I think. The mistral does not much affect Giglio, and the fetch where she is amounts only to a few miles.
I would expect that a salvage contract has already been signed, and that some preparations have already been made, though the full gear will take some time to arrive. She's a big beast to move, much bigger than anything I have ever toched, though I do not think it will be a difficult job.
Like everything to do with the sea, I can end up eating my words. I hope not.
 

Erik C

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I check the webcam every now and then but nothing seems to be happening. I understood they were only waiting to pump the fuel out until the rescue effort was finished.
 

haydude

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Don't think the Mistral will blow strongly that far east. I'm not sure whether there are any 'named' winds (Bora, Tramontana, Scirocco, etc) that get into that top left corner of the Italian coast.

The wind now blowing is Grecale which is NE.

See here the wind rose used since ancient Roman times.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_dei_venti

The Italian version contains the ethimology of winds names which is normally covered in primary schools. The same is currently dismissed as "obscure" in the english version. Clearly the primary school curriculum in the anglosaxon world does not include it.

To summarize, early charts showed the wind rose at the centre of the Mediterranean near Malta. Wind names derive from the origin of the ships brought by those winds, at the time sailing only downwind. So a NE wind would bring ships coming from Greece (Grecale), whilst a NW would bring ships coming from Rome, the leading city or Maestra from which Maestrale (or Mistral for the French) which were circumnavigating Sicily to the West. Scirocco blowing from the SE would instead bring ships coming from Siria. Libeccio from SO would bring ships from Libia (at the time including Tunisia and Algeria).
 
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haydude

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Will pumping the fuel out lighten her enough to shift :confused: I guess if she's still holed then 'fuel out: water in' = no real change(ish)

The process illustrated by SMIT involves pumping water in to push fuel out from the tanks to achieve neutral impact on weight and stability.
 

Boomshanka

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The process illustrated by SMIT involves pumping water in to push fuel out from the tanks to achieve neutral impact on weight and stability.

Ah, sounds like a good plan! They seem to be taking a while over getting on with the recovery/next steps though. Must be horrible for relatives of those still unaccounted for as well :(
 

haydude

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Ah, sounds like a good plan! They seem to be taking a while over getting on with the recovery/next steps though. Must be horrible for relatives of those still unaccounted for as well :(

The platform was removed last week because the swell was banging it over the wreck's hull. There is still quite a swell that has halted SMIT's operation. Divers have also been called back for good because conditions inside the ship have deteriorated badly. Tons of now rotting food, oils, detergents, paints, solvents have made impossible moving inside the ship under water. Search in the sections above water continues.

Yesterday the swell destroyed the roof over the swimming pool on the top deck releasing lots of large debris in the waters around the wreck to the point that the ferry service to the island had to be suspended for several hours to allow for additional clean-up.
 

Martin_J

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not exactly a chart.. but an interesting 3D picture showing the depth
_57961572_costa_concordia_ledge.gif
 
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SHUG

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Brilliant visualisation. Haven't seen that before.
It confirms my impression that the ship is sitting on a ledge above a 80m cliff.
I expect it is fairly simple, in salvage terms, to weld up the gash, pump out the water, tow it away, repair it and rename it "LUCKY" before "carrying on cruising"
 

Kukri

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Not simple at all.

Welding a patch on the visible hole is the easy bit.

The ship's upperworks are very lightly constructed for obvious reasons. Most of the strength is in the barge shaped hull. You can't simply put ropes around her and pull her upright, assuming that you could lay a suitable anchor pattern and had suitable flat top barges to lay out multiple part tackles on deck, etc.

By virtue of the ship's size, the nice graphics showing the ship being refloated with airbags are impractical. The ship was displacing probably around 55,000 tons when she was intact and afloat and so any salvor would need to provide that amount of flotation. But the superstructure is largely submerged, everything is sodden so the real figure is higher. That's an airbag the size of the underwater body of a Panamax bulk carrier -220 metres x 32 metres x 11 metres...

But all this is approaching the problem from the wrong end.

The first question must be "would it be worth it?" and the answer is "no". Most of the ship's value was in her plant, equipment and furnishings - all destroyed. Even if the steel hull and upperworks were salvaged intact, the cost of repair and replacement would be higher than the cost of building a new ship because these ships are assembled from prefabricated sub-sections which are almost fully fitted out when assembled.

Therefore the likely cost of repairs exceeds the ship's value when repaired. The "salved fund" - the amount available from which a salvage award would be made - would only be the scrap value.

For this reason, too, the ship is, in insurance terms, a CTL (Constructive Total Loss) and the hull and machinery underwriters will pay out on that basis.

So, what will happen?

The Italian Government will issue an order to the owners requiring them to remove the wreck and the ship's P&I Club will place a wreck removal contract.

Things are much simpler on that basis; the upper works will be cut down in sections and removed, using cranes and barges, and without their weight the hull can be rotated upright, refloated and towed to a shipbreaker.

Job done. Allow about a year, depending on weather,

This assumes that she does not simply slide down the slope, which would complicate matters to some extent. In that case the hull must be sawn up using the diamond encrusted wire rome used for the Kursk and the Tricolor and the sections lifted using barges, dragged into shallow water, cut up and carried away.

Again, job done, allow a bit longer.
 

SHUG

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Thanks Minn That was a very informative piece. Sounds like you have professional experience in this area.Its good to get some informed commentary rather than the usual speculative stuff.
 

Sailfree

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Not simple at all.

Welding a patch on the visible hole is the easy bit.

.

Thanks for another of your very informative posts Minn.

Is it not practical to weld a patch over the gash and other (now underwater) openings and pump the ship dry with massive pumps or is internal debris blocking the pumps a problem?
 

Kukri

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Thanks for another of your very informative posts Minn.

Is it not practical to weld a patch over the gash and other (now underwater) openings and pump the ship dry with massive pumps or is internal debris blocking the pumps a problem?

You need to replace the water with something. It is easier to pump compressed air in than to pump water out. What you can do is to seal all the upper openings of the ballast tanks and fill them with compressed air, or if you suspect that they are not going to be airtight you can use expanded polystyrene granules (I think Smit had a patent on this once, but it must have expired by now).

This compressed air trick works a treat with dry cargo ships, and brilliantly with tankers, because they have big ballast tanks, but the CC being a passenger ship only carried around 8,000 tons of ballast and around 3,500 tons of fuel with a displacement of around 55,000 tons so it won't work for her, until you can get the total weight of the structure down to that level.

The whole ship below the "bulkhead deck" (the deck that the watertight bulkheads run up to, and which is designed to be above water with two compartments flooded) is divided into watertight compartments so theoretically you could press all of those up with air but I don't think that the bulkhead deck is anything like strong enough to take the weight of the ship. The tank top (the bottom of the holds) in a bulk carrier is amply strong for this but that is different).
 
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