Costa Concordia (Titanic 2012)

[Searush]

I did wonder if this is one of those cases where the GPS is spot on, but the chart from a 200 year old survey isn't...but that would still mean someone was pushing their luck in a big way.

It also occurred to me that as this was the last night of the cruise, was the Captain hosting the traditional 'Captains' Table' meal so absent from the bridge ( I bet he wishes he had been ) or was this later on...

My money is on the autopilot or chartplotter being on a different datum. So they thought they were outside the rocks when they were actually between them. Sometimes it's a good idea to look out of the window rather than rely on electronics.

 

[Kukri]

Enter Smit

http://www.smit.com/

Since Smit are also members of the Standard, that's almost a racing certainty, if its a wreck removal. There's a porthole from the Leonardo Da Vinci, the last big Italian liner to be wrecked in Italy, presented by Smit, in Standard's office.

 

[SailorBill]

My money is on the autopilot or chartplotter being on a different datum. So they thought they were outside the rocks when they were actually between them. Sometimes it's a good idea to look out of the window rather than rely on electronics.

Different datum?! That would be such a basic error for a professional ships captain to make that it borders on being criminal.

 

[Erik C]

Since Smit are also members of the Standard, that's almost a racing certainty, if its a wreck removal. There's a porthole from the Leonardo Da Vinci, the last big Italian liner to be wrecked in Italy, presented by Smit, in Standard's office.

Smit has been taken over by Boskalis.

 

[Kukri]

This isn't a cargo ship; there will, I feel sure, have been two officers on watch.

Which leaves us, if the AIS trace is right, with either a bizarre machinery fault or something that seriously distracted everyone on the bridge.

The MCRM* fraternity will be having a field day.

*MCRM = "maritime crew resource management" - the seafarer's version of aviation's "cockpit resource management". Taken very seriously by cruise lines.

 

[penfold]

The Daily Telegraph have an entirely different hypothesis:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ster-what-could-have-caused-the-accident.html

That article is a travesty; it would be easier to list what's right with it than what's wrong, because there's nothing right.

 

[Kukri]

Smit has been taken over by Boskalis.

Nearly everyone in Holland has owned Smit at one time or another... it's a sort of Dutch maritime corporate virility symbol...besides, someone has got to do it!

 

[Plomong]

Yes, weird indeed. But I have just come across a supporting photo which, from the angle of list, seems to have been taken at the same time and is clearly adjacent to the port. I have appended a copy of MapisM's chart/diagram which shows the ship's approximate final resting place - clearly nowhere near the position in the photos. So how did the ship get back to where it finally foundered? Perhaps it was only when the list became dramatically worse that the Captain backed her up to avoid blocking the port.........all will become clear soon enough.

In your left-hand thumbnail there are at least 13 lifeboats still unlaunched. On your second photo, there are only about 6, so some time has elapsed between both photos.

Plomong

 

[peterb]

My point exactly: I can't see the fwd allround white, only the 2 reds.

It's a strange set of lights. The after masthead light seems to be on, together with the double red and what could be the starboard side light (just below the red glow). At anchor the after all-round should be lower than the forward one, so the light on her funnel doesn't seem to be an anchor light, but a NUC ship doesn't show 'steaming' lights, so it shouldn't be that either.

 

[MapisM]

My money is on the autopilot or chartplotter being on a different datum. So they thought they were outside the rocks when they were actually between them. Sometimes it's a good idea to look out of the window rather than rely on electronics.

Naah, if it was "only" a mistake in the bridge, it must have been even worse than that.
It's the deviation from the original course of the ship, heading towards Giglio island, which doesn't make any sense.
After that, trying to go through the two islets must have been just a desperate attempt of the last minute.

 

[Seajet]

I'll mention it again; have a good look at the 'rock' stuck in the hole; it seems to have holes & cracks, metallic; wreck ?

 

[Erik C]

I'll mention it again; have a good look at the 'rock' stuck in the hole; it seems to have holes & cracks, metallic; wreck ?

But surely a wreck at that dept would have been marked on the charts? The captain has stated that his charts showed no obstacles and he should have had enough water under the keel.

 

[Seajet]

Well, he did say that what he hit was uncharted; have a look at the photo's, there seem to be cracks & holes in that object, also a very flat top edge ???

Page 5 here.

 

[Norman_E]

As this thread refers to the Titanic, I have lifted this paragraph from my post in the Lounge:
I have long made comments about cruise ships looking like floating blocks of flats, with anything up to 15 decks above the waterline, which means that they must have a pretty poor angle of vanishing stability, as this tragedy appears to prove. It is notable that when the Titanic sank, it stayed upright and plunged bow first. Maybe it is time that cruise liner design was re-thought to make future ones look a bit more like ships and less like blocks of flats.
__________________

 

[MapisM]

I'll mention it again; have a good look at the 'rock' stuck in the hole; it seems to have holes & cracks, metallic; wreck ?

Just seen some videos on TV, I'm pretty sure (ok, let's say 99%) that it's a piece of rock.

 

[Erik C]

As this thread refers to the Titanic, I have lifted this paragraph from my post in the Lounge:
I have long made comments about cruise ships looking like floating blocks of flats, with anything up to 15 decks above the waterline, which means that they must have a pretty poor angle of vanishing stability, as this tragedy appears to prove. It is notable that when the Titanic sank, it stayed upright and plunged bow first. Maybe it is time that cruise liner design was re-thought to make future ones look a bit more like ships and less like blocks of flats.
__________________

They need to look this way because of their business model, enormous amounts of affordable accommodation. Cruises on ships that look like ships are much more expensive because there are less passengers.

 

[photodog]

Proper looking ships sink too.


Andre Dorea.
Titanic.

Spring to mind....

 

[larger top dave]

as an ex merchant navy deckhand take a good look at that ship
lifeboats and liferafts still in there stowages what were the crew doing whilst the passengers were running around like headless chickens
this is what happens with undertrained flipflop crews and officers

 

[Kukri]

A friend just posted this in Another Place:

Same ship, same place, same time of day, last year...

http://video.corriere.it/nave-concordia-al-giglio-/9dfa5ea6-3e9b-11e1-8b52-5f77182bc574

It may be horribly simple.

 

[david_bagshaw]

I'll mention it again; have a good look at the 'rock' stuck in the hole; it seems to have holes & cracks, metallic; wreck ?

totally agree.
there is a close up pic on the times site, cant link as pay wall will prevent viewing.

object looks like a white nav post bent over with a reinforced concrete block and re bar loops at the bottom.