Costa Concordia (Titanic 2012)

[penfold]

The number that stays in my mind was that if that ship, an old fashioned pretty looking one, had been holed in way of the engine room to stabiliser flat bulkhead, breaching both compartments, she would have been upside down in a calculated 90 seconds. Which is why we kept the watertight doors closed.

A ship has two emergency lighting circuits; the principal one is run from the emergency generator(s), not located in the engine room, which start(s) automatically, and if that fails there is a battery bank for low level lighting and navaids. I don't recall the maximum angle of heel for operation of these, maybe someone here will.

The first you've noted isn't really emergency lighting, it's just the standard hotel lighting, perhaps with some load shedding to allow the emergency genny to cope with the load; LV lighting is the real deal, it runs off batteries, which given the newness of the ship may well be AGM or gel cells, so will work upside down if necessary(provided the 4/E in charge of them has put the clamps on properly so they don't fly across the space and set something on fire).

Reading some of the coverage I'm beginning to wonder how this happened; the initial grounding seems to have occurred yesterday evening, yet they don't seem to have started the evacuation until much later.

 

[oldrascal]

According to a report in the French press, 70 people can't be accounted for after a roll-call this morning. This is getting very, very nasty.

 

[BurnitBlue]

We think this happened as a result of sailing too close to an obstacle like a reef," he said."

Sounds like he may have been trained at the Hot Liquid PR School.

True question from a lawyer type in court ... "were you near the dog when it bit you?"

 

[Boomshanka]

I had a look at it on Google Earth. The gap in the rocks that they passed through is only 60m wide...

It's a bit wider now when you see this :

(photo lifted from a thread in the Lounge)

 

[Twister_Ken]

It's a bit wider now when you see this :

(photo lifted from a thread in the Lounge)

What can one say, except Crikey!

 

[photodog]

Its all a bit strange....

That damage looks horrific... and its on the opposite side to which she roled....

The change in course is interesting... but is in keeping with the Skippers statement that he steered the ship into shallow water to beach...

Did the initial accident happen at the point were she made the intitial 20 degree turn towards the island?

Did he intend to beach the ship between the two small islands off the main island?

Was the visible damage as a result of the attempt to beach... and in fact there is more.. (and possible less damage on the other side?

 

[photodog]

It's a bit wider now when you see this :

(photo lifted from a thread in the Lounge)

The bow is to the left in that picture I think....

does it look like he was travelling astern and hit that...... look at the angle of damage and were the rock ended up..

 

[Appleyard]

I had a look at it on Google Earth. The gap in the rocks that they passed through is only 60m wide and they approached it at an angle. No way they could get through there without hitting.

Serious human error.

The boat is lying at 180° with respect to initial course - ie facing South which suggests the captain did try to turn in towards the island to beach it.

And in doing this 180 deg turn to port, the boat listed to starboard (as it would normally) ,the water sloshed over to the starboard side,causing the ship to partially capsize.
The big rock looks as if it has been lodged in the hull following the initial impact.

 

[Appleyard]

The bow is to the left in that picture I think....

does it look like he was travelling astern and hit that...... look at the angle of damage and were the rock ended up..

The bow is indeed to the left of the picture..he was travelling forward ..look at the way each bulkhead is deformed under the hull skin, and the rock seems to have eventually broken off and stuck at the back of the gash.
It must have made a hell of a racket.

 

[photodog]

The bow is indeed to the left of the picture..he was travelling forward ..look at the way each bulkhead is deformed under the hull skin, and the rock seems to have eventually broken off and stuck at the back of the gash.
It must have made a hell of a racket.

Ahh yes..I was being a muppet!

 

[brianhumber]

Looking those latest pictures of the rock jammed in the hull it would seem the rock impacted as the ship moved forward and finally broke off as shown. The inrush of water at that depth and size of rupture would have been massive and given no chance of survival to anybody in that compartment.

Cruise liners tend to have compartmentalised machinery spaces these days so not all power would have been lost, indeed some footage shows the ship listing right over at her final spot with accomodation and deck lighting on.

A sad day, I am reminded of the Free Enterprise in which an engineer I went to Marine college with lost his life. Would not be surprised if same has happened here.

Brian

 

[photodog]

And in doing this 180 deg turn to port, the boat listed to starboard (as it would normally) ,the water sloshed over to the starboard side,causing the ship to partially capsize.
The big rock looks as if it has been lodged in the hull following the initial impact.

This isnt a ferry... so I doubt there would have been the open space to allow the free surface movement like the HOFE....

I think the damage we can see is not the damage that sunk the ship...

I think there was a problem off shore... and he changed course into the island to beach.. (Which is what the skipper says...) and this visible damage is as a result of the beaching.... he had too much momentum... shot through the gap... ripped another big hole... and the boat spun and drifted down past the pier head and ended up were she is now... earlier pics seem to show her much closer to the town..

 

[Giblets]

Zooming in that "rock" looks a bit metallic to me!

Maybe they hit an old wreck.

 

[BurnitBlue]

Those are incredible photographs and the guessing game as to the cause of the grounding is interesting. I hope the death toll does not get any higher, but looking at those photographs it is hard to believe that it will stay at that figure.

To me it looks like the ship was really moving fast when it struck. Maybe an emergency turn to avoid the danger using the engines as well as the rudder. These high sided ships must have a restriction on the rate of turn to avoid capsize.

The course change 7 km from the impact was the main puzzle. Collision with a container, avoiding another ship? The reason for that course change will give the answer to the whole accident I think.

 

[Mark-1]

This is pure conjecture but some leisure market plotters allow auto routing.

This route is the kind of crazy route they can create.

I wonder if commercial software has a similar function.

I wonder if someone flicked the auto pilot on an un checked auto generated route.

 

[MapisM]

I think there was a problem off shore... and he changed course into the island to beach.. (Which is what the skipper says...)

I don't know... Judging by the AIS tracks, there's absolutely nothing which the ship could have hit, in the area where she changed its course heading towards Giglio island.
And if the course change was due to a technical problem, aside from the fact that it's hard to imagine any sort of problem which could have brought to the decision to beach such beast, there are much better/safer places along the mainland coast, for beaching in an emergency.
Besides, the ship cruised 10nm or so, from the moment when she deviated from her route to the grounding on the island... At 15kts, that still leaves some time for actions...
My guess is that someone made one of the worst mistakes of maritime history, sadly. Maybe combined with some sort of technical problem, as it often happens. Giglio island is not something which can go unnoticed on any chart and radar...

PS: according to the latest news, 70 souls are still missing...

 

[oldrascal]

I have just seen a helicopter 'fly-by' from an Italian site which seems to indicate that the ship spun through 180 degrees after transiting the narrow rocky channel (which I have ringed in the background). From this annotated screen grab, she seems to be heading bows to the port and facing the opposite direction from her reported track.

 

[oldrascal]

Reading back through the thread, I see that the 180 degree change of direction has already been noted and remarked upon. But as the ship now rests only 800 meters or so from the gap in the rocks, can we assume that the skipper used the azipods to spin on the spot whilst heeled over at 20 degrees? Crickey, that must have tightened a few rings..........

 

[MapisM]

But as the ship now rests only 800 meters or so from the gap in the rocks, can we assume that the skipper used the azipods to spin on the spot whilst heeled over at 20 degrees?

Actually a bit more than 800m, more 1000/1100.
Based on the pics available, I could place the final location of the ship on the charts with a reasonable accuracy.
Anyway, it seems to me that it wouldn't have made a lot of sense to spin the ship once established that it was sinking.
More likely that after the grounding between the rocks they headed offshore, steering to stbd, and once established that there was no way to recover the situation they returned towards the island with a U turn to port.
Though these are just speculations for the moment, of course.

 

[Erik C]

More pics.