Costa Concordia (Titanic 2012)

[Seajet]

Bow thrusters will pull a vessel forward (slightly), well known phenonemen.
Due to the hull shape forward, more water is pulled into the tunnel from ahead of the tunnel than from astern, so its not thrusted fwd, but pulled

Nigel1,

understood thanks; but would one use that to get the ship into shallow water ASAP ? As far as I can make out the main engines should have had some emergency power, if the lights were on as shown ?

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

If the quotes are true from Captain Bosio, then this is indeed what I would expect any captain (or skipper) to have done:

“Don’t call me a hero. I just did my duty, the duty of a sea captain – actually the duty of a normal man.

“I and the others with me just did our duty. We looked each other in the eyes for a second and then we Just got on with it.”

There has been a strong whiff of stereotyping in the media about how the behaviour of Captain Schettino is typical of Italians in a crisis. As a regular visitor to Italy and somebody who really likes the country and it's people, I'm glad that there are now stories emerging about individuals involved with the accident who acted with a strong sense of duty and concern for others. I hope this goes some way to repairing the image of Italy which has been severely damaged by this tragic incident

 

[Poignard]

There has been a strong whiff of stereotyping in the media about how the behaviour of Captain Schettino is typical of Italians in a crisis.

What nationality are the rescue divers?

 

[Seajet]

There has been a strong whiff of stereotyping in the media about how the behaviour of Captain Schettino is typical of Italians in a crisis. As a regular visitor to Italy and somebody who really likes the country and it's people, I'm glad that there are now stories emerging about individuals involved with the accident who acted with a strong sense of duty and concern for others. I hope this goes some way to repairing the image of Italy which has been severely damaged by this tragic incident

Deleted User,

apart from the Captain - and we all know there are prats of every nationality - my opinion of the Italians has increased considerably when seeing how this tragedy was dealt with so effectively; I didn't have a low opinion to begin with, but this has rated them up several notches !

 

[fergie_mac66]

Some more interesting witnesses accounts from last night's Matrix programme (yet another media trial):

1) crew in charge of passengers followed their training to manage panic

in the meantime

2) crew in charge of lifeboats prepared the lifeboats for launch long before the abandon ship alarm was sounded.

in fact when the alarm sounded passengers (who were complaining as usual) admitted that:

3) when they reached their muster stations lifeboats were there ready, chocks removed, covers removed, and with crew waiting for them.

Lots of passengers complained in the past few days about finding "cooks" and "waiters" at the lifeboats, however without knowing that these were in fact the people assigned, trained and qualified to handle the lifeboats and everything went according to plan. They still complained that they did not see officers at the lifeboats. The presenter was clearly biased against the crew, but it was struggling to find any wrongdoing, so eventually he said something like "well but the captain did wrong anyway"

Someone noted that had (1) not happened (2) and (3) could have been a lot more difficult.

To me this says that someone must have given order to prepare abandon ship to crew long before the passengers received it and the delay must have been part of the procedure to manage panic and to give time to the officers to assess the damage.

All but 2 lifeboats were launched eventually.

If the intention by someone giving the orders(if anybody ) was to beach her deliberately
that would mean that ships boats ,and passengers would need to be not launched overboard until way had stopped.
I would have thought that launching a boat while the ship was moving at a pace would cause problems

 

[Metabarca]

What nationality are the rescue divers?

Italian.
Italy has a very well-endowed crisis service that can put skilled people in the right place very quickly in response to earthquakes and other disasters of various types. All volunteers except for the armed forces and fire brigade, and with plenty of mountaineers, cavers and divers.

 

[Erik C]

Looking at the pictures of the interior of the ship you have to admire the courage of these men to dive there in pitch blackness, not knowing if the ship will move or what they will encounter.

 

[Poignard]

Italian.
Italy has a very well-endowed crisis service that can put skilled people in the right place very quickly in response to earthquakes and other disasters of various types. All volunteers except for the armed forces and fire brigade, and with plenty of mountaineers, cavers and divers.

Which just goes to show the stupidity of stereotyping people according to their nationality.

 

[3Sheets]

Life boat capacity ?

I have been wondering about the capacity of the individual lifeboats used on this ship - there appears to be 9 on each side making a total of 18, if these are required to evacuate only the passengers ( circa 3,000 ) then they would need to carry about 170 people each.

I understand that SOLAS requires that the lifeboats on each side alone should have the capacity to evacuate all the passengers, so they would have to accomodate well over 300 each - is that possible?

 

[Seajet]

very well-endowed

OK, no need to brag about it !

 

[FishyInverness]

Seajet... I caught that one too, but I thought it might be considered a stereotype to comment on the exact phrasing used.

3sheets Re : Lifeboat capacity - IIRC correctly from conversation with a mate who is an ROV operator on the rigs - the 7metre Lifeboats used in the North Sea have a 50 person capacity. Not sure what size the ones on the Concordia were.

 

[Kukri]

I have been wondering about the capacity of the individual lifeboats used on this ship - there appears to be 9 on each side making a total of 18, if these are required to evacuate only the passengers ( circa 3,000 ) then they would need to carry about 170 people each.

I understand that SOLAS requires that the lifeboats on each side alone should have the capacity to evacuate all the passengers, so they would have to accomodate well over 300 each - is that possible?

SOLAS section 2 regulation 21.1, I think - "additional requirements for passenger ships on international voyages" - "sufficient lifeboats on each side to accomodate 50% of the total number of persons on board" - up to 12.5% of this may be subsituted by liferafts, if the flag state permits.

I.e. cargo ships with conventional boats must carry enough for 100% of the complement on each side OR one freefall boat at the stern (bulkers must now have a freefall boat) but passenger ships only need 100% in total, of which 25% can be rafts.

With 3000 pax and 1000 crew that would equate to boats for the pax and rafts for the crew, more or less.

Unless of course you are operating under the Simla Rules (but let's not go there...)

 

[AuntyRinum]

...He insisted that he never saw anyone more senior than the 2nd officer and that it was the 2nd officer directing most of the rescue efforts......

According to a report in The Telegraph, the 1st and 3rd officers were in the lifeboat with the Captain.

 

[alant]

According to a report in The Telegraph, the 1st and 3rd officers were in the lifeboat with the Captain.

As featured in a recent B&W Richard Todd film, the Brit POW's, were seen to "advance like Italians" as they ran backward.

Leaving like that (if true), would seem to confirm that stereotype view (certainly not my own).

 

[haydude]

I have been wondering about the capacity of the individual lifeboats used on this ship - there appears to be 9 on each side making a total of 18,

13 lifeboats on each side for a total of 26, plus several liferafts.

Now this triggers some information about the numbers:

13 were the bridges named after the 13 European countries.

She sank Friday 13/1/2012, 99 year and 9 months after the Titanic, 999 turned upside down is 666.

Friday 13/10/1307 all Templar knights were arrested. Giglio (Lily) is one of the symbols most used by Rosa Croce Masons.

 

[Twister_Ken]

13 lifeboats on each side for a total of 26, plus several liferafts.

Now this triggers some information about the numbers:

13 were the bridges named after the 13 European countries.

She sank Friday 13/1/2012, 99 year and 9 months after the Titanic, 999 turned upside down is 666.

Friday 13/10/1307 all Templar knights were arrested. Giglio (Lily) is one of the symbols most used by Rosa Croce Masons.

Hope you crossed your fingers, drank a virgin's blood and munched on a chocolate coated eye-of-newt as you retailed that.

 

[[32511]]

I did, thanks; are you suggesting the ship got there by carrying way ? ( momentum )...

The first collision with the rock certainly slowed the ship down, but did not stop it. The graphics even show the stern of the ship bouncing to the starboard a bit after it collides. I think from memory someone posted that the ship was doing 15 knots, which the collision reduced to 6.5 knots, so still plenty of way on. The bow and stern thrusters must have been used to produce the sideways movement noted.
So- theory is that the thrusters can be powered by the emergency generators, whilst the main engines/ generators and electric motors are in the flooded engine room and U/S.

 

[nigel1]

Nigel1,

understood thanks; but would one use that to get the ship into shallow water ASAP ? As far as I can make out the main engines should have had some emergency power, if the lights were on as shown ?

The fwd pull of as bow thruster is pretty much an unwanted effect.

If the lights were on it could well be from the emergency geny, well above the water line.
I have no idea if the engine room on the CC had been flooded or not.
You can use the emergency geny to restart engines, once you get one main engine going the situation improves somewhat-
All sorts of variables and what ifs, what if the day tanks were breeched, or pipe work damaged. Someone may have inadvertantly tripped the quick closing fuel valves, wont know until the report is published

 

[nigel1]

The first collision with the rock certainly slowed the ship down, but did not stop it. The graphics even show the stern of the ship bouncing to the starboard a bit after it collides. I think from memory someone posted that the ship was doing 15 knots, which the collision reduced to 6.5 knots, so still plenty of way on. The bow and stern thrusters must have been used to produce the sideways movement noted.
So- theory is that the thrusters can be powered by the emergency generators, whilst the main engines/ generators and electric motors are in the flooded engine room and U/S.

it would have to be one really big emergency geny to power the thrusters. I know ours wont, it keeps the lights on, will power some of the fuel, lube pumps etc, and power half the steering system.

On a lot of ships, much of the power required by the heavy consumers comes from shaft genys driven off a main engine. No engine, no shaft geny, and not much power. But, I have no idea of the CC power management system

 

[VicS]

I've been wrong about this before - as was gleefully pointed out by some prat keener to have a go at me than discuss the notion - but in Pic 4 on that link, is it an anchor chain in the background ?

I still think it would be lucky to deploy an anchor in the time available, but someone said he did it...

I dont know what link and picture you are referring to but I do remember a picture that showed a chain.

From what I remember it was not the main anchor chain. That was pointed out at the time.

It seemed to come from deck level and IMHO was a lot lighter that the main anchor chain would be.