Posted on 01/19/2012 5:05:43 AM PST by SLB
It won't be removed in one piece. It weighs more than an aircraft carrier. There are no barge/cranes in the world capable of lifting it.
Really?? If he couldn't navigate a life boat (small craft) how could he captain a huge liner?
This story gets goofier all the time.
Cruise Ship: Costa Concordia. Stats: 114500 Tons ... Tonnage, 114500 Tons, Normal Crew Size, 1100. Length, 950 feet, Crew Nationality, N/A. Beam, 116 feet ...
USS CARL VINSON (CVN-70) – Displacement 91300 Tons, Dimensions, 1088’ (oa) x 134’ x 37’ 8”
? Geez, that's why the ship crashed into the rocks.
And it comes out this AM that the captain was dining with an unauthorized (24 yo lady) passenger when the crash occurred.
I said that when it first happened. It reminds me of a Ferry Boat crash in Puget Sound in the 1980s. The Captain was steering close to shore to greet a lady friend on an island when he ran aground spilling cars and people into the icy waters. Idiot.
They have pictures of him under a blanket in a lifeboat...I guess he fell under the blanket, too? This was before he hopped into a cab when he got to shore and told the driver to take him as far away as possible. I wonder how he explains that.
The guy is an embarrassment to Italy. I read one Italian commentator who was lamenting that the story makes the rest of the world think that all of their negative images of Italians have ample confirmation. Frivolous, dishonest, cowardly, liars...the “captain” looks like a walking Italian joke.
Sadly, I think it’s going to do a lot of damage to the Italian cruise industry among foreigner travelers.
A think his smile, charisma and how he looked in an Armani-designed silk captain’s uniform counted for more than his sea experience or judgement.
The Italians DO have to answer for that.
You won’t hear of anything like this from a Norwegian or Scottish captain. (They provide many of the officers for the world’s merchant fleets.)
Remember about 15 years ago, the cruise ship that sank off of South Africa? The captain and crew were first off in the boats, leaving the mosty British entertainment crew to run the evacuation by small boats and helicopters.
Same story. Like the old joke gun ad, “Italian Mannlicher Carbine, almost like new, never fired, only dropped once.”
I cried when I first read this story at Annapolis many years ago, and again today. The first time was both out of admiration for the Captain and out of sadness that America had lost such a great man. The second time was out of despair for our Navy, which has gone from naming ships for heroes to naming one the USS Murtha!
...out of despair for our Navy, which has gone from naming ships for heroes to naming one the USS Murtha!
What’s the problem? He was simply “leading from behind,” like Obama.
Yes, seeing that picture of him where he looked like everybody’s mental picture of an oily Italian cruise-ship gigolo certainly didn’t help the Italian image either!
Traditions do matter.
“The Birkenhead Drill”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Birkenhead_(1845)
HMS Birkenhead, also referred to as HM Troopship Birkenhead or steam frigate Birkenhead,[3] was one of the first iron-hulled ships built for the Royal Navy.[4] She was designed as a frigate, but was converted to a troopship before being commissioned.[1]
On 26 February 1852, while transporting troops to Algoa Bay, she was wrecked at Danger Point near Gansbaai on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. There were not enough serviceable lifeboats for all the passengers, and the soldiers famously stood firm, thereby allowing the women and children to board the boats safely. Only 193 of the 643 people on board survived, and the soldiers’ chivalry gave rise to the “women and children first” protocol when abandoning ship, while the “Birkenhead drill” of Rudyard Kipling’s poem came to describe courage in face of hopeless circumstances.
(My comment: The ordinary English soldiers stood in ranks, as the ship went down, in order not to contribute to any panic as the women and children were placed in the boats.)
If you ever see any vessel, even a dinghy, named the USS BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, it will mark the end of the USA! Well, on second thought maybe we should commission a one man rowboat with that name just to remind people what a tiny excuse for a man he is.
See #13, on “the Birkenhead Drill.”
But for all of those who question Italian masculinity I have the following anecdote from Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem": During WWII at one point the Italians and the Germans were occupying separate areas of Yugoslavia. The SS noticed that the cattle cars intended to ship Jews north were returning from the Italian sector empty and so they summoned the Italian general: "where is your quota of Jews?"
Said the Italian, "Rounding up people for slaughter is beneath the dignity of the Italian Army"
Here we see the pitiable Italian Army of WWII showing a dignity far beyond the grasp of the mighty Wehrmacht.
Hang the Merchant Marine captain.
One of my favorite stories. I wonder how many would do the same when faced with certain death as those soldiers were?
Those ordinary British soldiers set the standard we must all try to live up to. And if required, die for.
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