Posted on 01/17/2012 8:45:17 AM PST by Red Badger
GIGLIO, Italy (WLS) - Audio recording of the conversation between Capt. Francesco Schettino and Port Authority officials after the doomed Italian luxury cruise liner Costa Condcordia struck rocks Friday was released Tuesday morning. At least 11 people were killed in the aftermath, according to Italian media, and dozens more are still missing.
The following is a translation of the recording, which was posted on the news website Corriere della Sera:
Captain Schettino: It's Capt. Schettino.
Port Authority: Schettino, listen to me, there are people trapped onboard, now you go back, you will go with your rescue boat under the stern of the ship, there are some steps, you climb those steps and you get onboard and you get back to me letting me know how many people are on board. Is that clear to you? I am actually recording this conversation captain.
[inaudible, captain mumbles]
PA: Speak in a loud voice.
Captain: So, the ship right now [inaudible]...
PA: Speak in a loud voice! Put your hand by the microphone to cover it and speak up! Is that clear?
Voices in the background: "Tell him to come here. Tell him to come here."
Captain: So, right now the ship is tilted
PA: I understand that. Listen to me, there are people that are getting off using the rope ladder on the stern side, you go back there and you go up that ladder the opposite way, you go onboard the ship and you tell me how many people [are there] And what they need. You tell me if there are children, women or people that need assistance and you give me a number for each one of these categories is that clear? Look Schettino, you may have saved yourself from the sea but will put you through a lot of trouble it will be very bad for you! Get back on board for [expletive]'s sake!!!
Captain: Officer, please.
PA: There are no "pleases"! Get back on board! Please assure me that you are going back on board.
Captain: I am here on the rescue boat. I'm right here, I didn't go anywhere else, I'm here.
PA: What are you doing captain?
Captain: I'm here to coordinate rescue operations.
PA: What are you coordinating? Get back on board and coordinate rescue operations from onboard the ship.
[silence, sound cuts out]
PA: Do you refuse to do that?
Captain: No, I'm not refusing to do that.
PA: Are you refusing to back on board?
Captain: No, I am not refusing to go back. I am not going because the other rescue boat stopped.
PA: Get back on board! This is an order! You don't need to make any other assessment. You have declared that you have abandoned ship, therefore I'm in command. Get back on board right now is that clear?
Captain: Officer
PA: Can you not hear me?
Captain: I'm getting back on board.
PA: Then go! And call me right away when you are on board. There's my rescuer there.
Captain: Where is your rescuer?
PA: My rescuer is on the stern side, go! There are already bodies, Schettino! Go!
Captain: Officer how many bodies are there?
PA: I don't know. I know about one I've heard about one, but you must tell me! [expletive]!
Captain: Do you realize it's dark out here and we can't see anything?
PA: What do you want to do? Do you want to go home? It's dark, so you want to go home? Get on the stern of that ship climb the ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people are there and what they need. Right now!
Captain: I'm here with my second officer.
[Schettino identifies second officer.]
PA: You and your second officer must get back on board right now is that clear?
Captain: I just wanted to tell you that the other rescue boat here with other rescuers stopped. It's just stopped. Now I've called the other rescuers.
PA: You've been telling me the same thing for an hour now get back on board! On board! And you get back to me right away telling me how many people are there.
Captain: It's fine officer, I'm going.
PA: Then go, right now!
ABC News Radio contributed to this report.
Some people just keep getting lucky... until their luck finally runs out.
I haven’t found other confirmation on this, but the Wikipedia article on the sinking is saying that Schettino brought the ship so close to Giglio because the Concordia’s maitre d’hotel was from the island, and he wanted to give them (and the guy’s family who lived there still) a treat. Can you believe that? Four thousand people under his responsibility, the largest ship ever built in Italy under his command, and he throws it all away to do a showoff pass of a tiny town for one person?
Then after the ship rammed the rocks and coasted about a kilometer past the town, he ordered the ship about to try and ground it near town or in the harbor. It looks like the abrupt left turn (from northwest to south) may have been what heeled the ship over. I wonder if it had already extensively flooded and the turn sloshed all the water over to the starboard side past the point where it could right itself. Because the damage is all to the port side, yet the ship rolled over the opposite direction.
}:-)4
I don’t know who this guy is , but he is no ship’s Captain.
He says the ship is tilting.Any ship officer would say “listing”.
Maybe his Mama owns the ship.
Another thing he say’s his second officer is there with him. What’s he doing there? He is as bad as the Captain.
Greek Maritime history DOES have a women and children first.
In fact you will find quite a few Greek Officers on cruise ships. (with a few thousand islands making up your nation a maritime tradition is inevitable, they even decorate small ships for Christmas :-))
I was very tame in words I used on FR compared to the words that I wwould have used.
I would have also ordered one of the PA officers on site, to forcably if necessary, to put these TURDs back aboard the ship and if they refuse or resist, slap them both in irons and haul them back.
In that photo he strikes me not as a seaman, but as a guy who used his rank to party and get laid with the coolest passengers.
If you look that video was taken in 2011. The captain was probably trying to repeat the maneuver when he collided with the reef. Despite his claiming the rocks were “unmarked” they are well known locally and are even named the “School Rocks”
There may be a language issue here, rather than a vocabulary issue. Even if he uses English for emergency communications, it's likely that he uses Italian for ordinary discussions of ship performance. "Tilting" may be a case of not knowing the English word for a nautical concept that he probably would have described correctly in his native language.
He even makes Gopher look competent.
The ship ran aground and capsized just offshore from where a ridge comes down from the center of the island and plunges into the sea. You don’t need any geological training, just observation and common sense, to know that ridge is going to continue underwater for at lease some distance. He was way to close to shore.
That is the best idea I’ve heard yet.
Did they do a blood test on the so-called “captain?” Reading the conversation, it sounds like the captain is drunk or on drugs. He’s not responding like a normal person at all.
Can’t say it better than the others on this board. What a worthless POS.
This so-called captain sounds like hes the President of the Bruce Ismay fanclub.
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Money quote!
Is there any way to vote for the Port Authority guy? Like put him in charge of the UN or something? It’s comforting to know there are still real people out there - real and honorable. The captain’s a jerk - anyone who hires that guy is nuts.
“”If you look that video was taken in 2011.””
Where did you find the 2011 date? On the website it shows 14 Gen 2012 as the date it probably aired on an Italian TV station.
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