The captain was heard later saying, "It's just a scratch. It'll buff out! Really!"
Posted on 01/16/2012 5:12:26 PM PST by NCjim
The captain of the Costa Concordia has become the most hated man in Italy.
Francesco Schettino, 52, is at the centre of a Facebook hate campaign after being squarely blamed for the cruise liner running aground.
Thousands have taken to the web to vent their fury at the so-called ‘Captain Coward’, who is now claimed to have ‘skimmed’ past the Tuscan isle of Giglio not just to salute a retired officer but also to impress his head waiter’s family on shore.
Many scorned his decision not to remain with his stricken ship.
The official death toll rose to six yesterday when a man’s body was pulled from the tilting wreckage. The number of those still unaccounted for rose to 29 – 25 passengers and four crew.
Schettino, who faces up to 12 years in jail for manslaughter, will face court today after his company chiefs accused him of an ‘unauthorised and unapproved’ decision to sail so close to the eastern side of Giglio.
The £400million liner, with 4,200 passengers and crew, was sailing just 300 yards from the island’s rocky coast when it should have been at least four miles out to sea. It came to grief on Friday night after sustaining a 160ft gash in the port-side hull.
After swiftly escaping from the listing liner, Schettino – the Concordia’s skipper for six years – was arrested along with first officer Ciro Ambrosio. The captain was spotted wrapped in a blanket on his way to the shore at around 11.30pm – more than four hours before the evacuation of the vessel was completed and breaking the maritime tradition of remaining with his ship.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
For that he should be hanged.
It would have been a piece of cake for the Eli Wallach of "Good, Bad and Ugly" fame (I know, sadly, 2012)
Yea, but, I don’t get that either.
What ever happened to watertight bulkheads?
The evacuation is complete.
I would think the proper bulkheads could be sealed, the hole temporarily covered with a pre-formed patch (over the ping-pong balls?) , and the bulk of the water pumped out.
Of course this would have been easier before it capsized.
Now it will have to be set upright, somehow.
It’s going to be mess no matter what is done, but from such shallow water I would be disgusted to find they gave up and scrapped it.
Or to get a few quick ones. Years ago, my car got whacked by a driver in a POS at an intersection, he immediately drove 1/2 block to a nearby restaurant bar. When I pulled him out of the bar, he said, "I am an engineer with a good job, but do not have insurance,if I go down for a dui (he was picking up beer cans when I went back to see if he was hurt) I lose the job and your car doesn't get fixed, can we work a deal?"
Perhaps the best advice: Chatting once with a SF attorney who remarked that he always told his high-profile clients, "If you have been drinking and the cops stop you, get out of the car, very carefully get on the ground and do not say a word until you hear my voice."
Back to boat driver school for a refresher course?
Not much different than the Italian high brass once it became wise to switch sides to the allies, huh?
So the pilot was able to outrun you?
Think of it this way, it was already bottomed out on the port side, as the water rushed in, the only direction it could roll was to starboard where there was still clearance.
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I remember we had an Admiral Scot killed during the night battles off Guadalcanal. He must have been a lower ranking one.
If you look at the article’s pictures and map, the ship came to rest with the bow pointing in the opposite direction it was originally headed.
If that is true then the ship did do a 360. I want to know what the captain did after the rock was struck until the ship finally came to rest? How did he overcome initially listing to port and end up aground and listing to starboard, going in an opposite direction?
The ship should have sunk without an island there to prop it up.
"Oh, Francesco...WHY?!?!?"
>>>I meant 180 degrees not 360.<<< The ship came to rest in the opposite direction it was originally headed.
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