1912...2012... We Still Haven't Learned That Ships Are NOT Unsinkable!

Yeah, we haven't even had snow, here. Kind of sucks.

Better than the three inches of snow we usually get. Kentucky winters are fucking awful. It's too cold to do summer stuff like you could do in Florida, and not cold enough to do winter stuff like you could do in Alaska. You're just stuck waiting for a laughable amount of snow (which, by the way, was enough to cause every inbred, bonus chromosome having redneck dipshit to shit a chicken) to melt.

Hey, at least you don't have a bunch of morons who fail to understand what "roads not plowed" means. I have seen so many idiots slide down the hills here because they cannot drive their too-heavy SUVs in this area. I swear, are snow-chains going extinct, or something?

Lapin wrote:

Hey, at least you don't have a bunch of morons who fail to understand what "roads not plowed" means. I have seen so many idiots slide down the hills here because they cannot drive their too-heavy SUVs in this area. I swear, are snow-chains going extinct, or something?

Do they yell "CANYONEROOOOOOO!" on the way down?

So I was reading a bunch of stories from those that were able to get off and wow... just wow...

There was chaos: Women and children got tossed out of the way by crew members; some lady and her husband were clinging onto the side a lifeboat yelling for help to get lifted on board and consequently ignored; and I feel really sorry for the crew member that went down to try and find more people, got his leg stuck and they didn't find him until late Sunday.

I hope that coward of a captain gets everything coming to him. He sailed close to the shore because he'd done it previously and the mayor of the place wrote him a letter of commendation for providing such "entertainment" for the tourists. I think he did it again this time for slightly different reasons, but that he'd done it before when he shouldn't have... geez this guy makes me angry.

Raine wrote:

So I was reading a bunch of stories from those that were able to get off and wow... just wow...

There was chaos: Women and children got tossed out of the way by crew members; some lady and her husband were clinging onto the side a lifeboat yelling for help to get lifted on board and consequently ignored; and I feel really sorry for the crew member that went down to try and find more people, got his leg stuck and they didn't find him until late Sunday.

I hope that coward of a captain gets everything coming to him. He sailed close to the shore because he'd done it previously and the mayor of the place wrote him a letter of commendation for providing such "entertainment" for the tourists. I think he did it again this time for slightly different reasons, but that he'd done it before when he shouldn't have... geez this guy makes me angry.

I theorized he just did at first as a mean of some kind of insurance fraud, but then I heard something on the radio that made me realize this twat was really just a selfish, cowardly bastard. I hope I hope when the courts are done with him, he won't even be able to ride paddle-boats anywhere.

They need to build some kind of underwater jail for this dumb fuck. Complete with a glass roof, so he can see the bodies floating past every now and then.

KelinciHutan wrote:

The Unoriginal wrote:

All about these ships from their design and construction to the type of tourism they are designed for makes me holler, and I wish fervently for the whole lot of them to be turned into diver attractions, but not with people dying like rats in the process.

Granted, I haven't looked into this particular incident in any kind of depth, but as I understand it, the design of the ship was quite good. The problem was the captain making a boneheaded decision that caused such catastrophic damage that virtually no amount of built-in fail-safes could compensate for, and then compounding his error by not immediately following procedure and ordering an evacuation.

Brackets opened.
I ought to have expressed myself better. These ships are soundly designed for their purpose: they have all sorts of devices to provide a smooth ride (in pics of the capsized Concordia you can see the stabilizers; the funnels on Carnival's Conquest class, Concordia's sisters, are T-shaped so that people on the rear deck don't smell the fumes), etc. Their purpose, however, is making cruises dirt cheap. A ship carrying 4,000 passengers has less crew than 4 ships carrying 1,000 each; it moors at a single dock, pays a single insurance, etc. These ships are doing for cruises what battery cages did for poultry farming. Their size is impressive, but everything else is IMHO horrid:

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Ship or housing project?

Their construction. A coworker said he'd rather be building military vessels; the materials are poor, because the beanie counters at the company calculated that the finish will go out of style in 10 years anyway, so no need for it to last longer. Contractors employ Bengali workers who pull 10 hours a day for 6 days a week; competing companies may find themselves working on the same deck and it's "your death, my life". Pulling the plug from the socket when your competitor is at work becomes the favourite recreation. Safety training is perfunctory, most foreign workers don't speak Italian (but they can nod in five languages, the joke goes). I wouldn't be surprised if the Carnival Magic turns out to be haunted as the body of the poor guy who fell into the vent was recovered in bits and pieces and just about the 80% was accounted for.
Because the jobs are divided into subassemblies and sub-contracted, errors are swept under the rug or left to accumulate. One cruiser, cannot remember which one, had her entire electrical system replaced after the sea trial; miles of cables were pulled out, finishes were damaged and had to be patched, etc. A trained, motivated, "problem-solving", "objectives-oriented" worker comes back after a month at the shipyard as a grinder-yelding zombie who only cares about the hours he worked and the money he gets. It takes weeks to reprogram these people.

About the type of fun that goes on on board I cannot offer much, because like most people who have a job related to these behemoths I wouldn't board one to flee from a drought... but I've seen the pics from a friend who had a cruise for her honeymoon and I was bored to tears. Not to mention, what must be for the average "pictoresque Mediterranean village" the impact of 4,000 people who, in three hours, have to see everything, buy everything and climb on top of everything?
Brackets closed.

Just in case you spent the last days under a rock, I found a translation of the phone call between the ship's captain and the Coast Guard officer at the Il Giglio island. It's partial, and I heard that the CG had to call the ship and ask whether they were having a technical problem, or floating beside shore with the lights flickering was the new cool. The captain didn't contact the CG on his initiative; passengers on board the Concordia called the 112 (Italian 911) and the call was relied to the local CG.

Quote :

Coast Guard: Listen, Schettino. There are people trapped on board. Now, you go with your lifeboat. Under the bow of the ship, on the right side, there is a ladder. You climb on that ladder and go on board the ship. Go on board the ship and get back to me and tell me how many people are there. Is that clear. I am recording this conversation, Captain Schettino.

(Captain tries to speak but Coast Guard can't hear him clearly. Voices in the Coast Guard room.)

Coast Guard: Speak up! (captain tries to speak) Captain, put your hand over the microphone and speak in a louder voice!

Captain: At this moment the ship is listing.

Coast Guard: There are people who are coming down the ladder on the bow. Go back in the opposite direction, get back on the ship, and tell me how many people there are and what they have on board. Tell me if there are children, women and what type of help they need. And you tell me the number of each of these categories. Is that clear?

Listen Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Go back on board, dammit!

(Noise can be heard in the background. Apparently other Coast Guard officers are shouting to each other in the same room about "the ship, the ship")

Captain: Please ...

Coast Guard: There is no 'please' about it. Get back on board. Assure me you are going back on board!

Captain: I'm in a lifeboat, I am under here. I am not going anywhere. I am here.

Coast Guard: What are you doing, captain?

Captain: I am here to coordinate the rescue...

Coast Guard (interrupting): What are you coordinating there! Get on board! Coordinate the rescue from on board! Are you refusing?

Captain: No, I am not refusing.

Coast Guard: Are you refusing to go aboard, captain? Tell me the reason why you are not going back on board.

Captain: (inaudible)... there is a another lifeboat...

Coast Guard (interrupting, yelling): You get back on board! That is an order! There is nothing else for you to consider. You have sounded the "Abandon Ship." Now I am giving the orders. Get back on board. Is that clear? Don't you hear me?

Captain: I am going aboard.

Coast Guard: Go! Call me immediately when you are on board. My rescue people are in front of the bow.

Captain: Where is your rescue craft?

Coast Guard: My rescue craft is at the bow. Go! There are already bodies, Schettino. Go!

Captain: How many bodies are there?

Coast Guard: I don't know! ... Christ, you should be the one telling me that!

Captain: Do you realize that it is dark and we can't see anything?

Coast Guard: So, what do you want to do, to go home, Schettino?! It's dark and you want to go home? Go to the bow of the ship where the ladder is and tell me what needs to be done, how many people there are, and what they need! Now!

Captain: My second in command is here with me.

Coast Guard: Then both of you go! Both of you! What is the name of your second in command?

Captain: His name is Dmitri (static)"

Coast Guard: What is the rest of his name? (static) You and your second in command get on board now! Is that clear?

Captain: Look, chief, I want to go aboard but the other lifeboat here has stopped and is drifting. I have called ...

Coast Guard (interrupting): You have been telling me this for an hour! Now, go aboard! Get on board, and tell me immediately how many people there are!

Captain: OK, chief.

Coast Guard: Go! Immediately!

I'm following the comments to news in a national paper (I have a morbid, masochistic interest for the national attitude) and unbelievably some of the people are defending the captain versus the Coast Guard officer who's accused (mix'n'matching multiple posts) of being "coarse, venting out his own hysteria against the poor captain who was afloat in the dark while the officer was safe and warm in his armchair". Because "even the captain is just a man" and "he's going to be the scapegoat when in truth there are shared responsibilities"... basically there's much shooting of the mouths with no basic knowledge of what one is going on about.

I'm sure there are shared responsibilities, now it comes out that the captain wasn't new to pulling stunts but his superiors were fine with that. I'm more and more reminded of "Bud" Holland, the guy who was allowed to run loose in the USAF until he crashed his B-52 on the Fairchild AFB, killing himself and other three people, and suddenly everyone was coming forward with stories of the stupid shit he had done over the years. At least Holland could claim there was a purpose in finding the exact limits of the B-52 flight envelope. No one other than Schettino would find benefits in finding the upper limits of his overinflated ego. In December 2010 he was interviewed by a Czech newspaper:

Some idiot who ran his ship aground wrote:

"[A mistake] would not be fatal as we are more prepared than in the past for facing emergencies... it is easier to take important decisions quickly. The captain's burden of responsability is lighter than in the past even if the final decision is not up to the machines but to the master... I like when something unforeseen happens, when one derails from the standard procedure. It's a challenge and I like it.... I have never found myself in a dangerous situation or one I wasn't able to face. I think this is due to the fact that I get prepared for every day of the journey. I must be constantly vigilant. I think though a good training we are able to control every situation."

It saddens me to witness the widespread sense of entitlement, not only of everyone for oneself, but even for others who screwed up. You'd say at least the most widespread human feeling, envy, would prevent the commoneers from siding with the guy who commanded a great white ship, dined in a five-stars restaurant and had a steady supply of fresh pussy from outgoing passengers.
What do these people think, that the captain's job is to look good in uniform and take orders from the autopilot? That the pay, prestige and stuff are "just dues" and not countervalues for the responsability of the position? I am wondering whether this wrong man in the wrong place just passed the selection process by chance or whether it's the final product of a society which for the last years has consistently chosen appearance versus substance, funny antics versus boring speeches, and sympathized with the smart alecks versus the sullen professionals. After all it's how the country's been run.

If the ship is ever raised again (which I think she won't, since Navy raiders are using explosives to open entry points into the hull), I propose that her name is changed to Costa Cowardia.

What's Italian for "stupid, entitled asshole?"

EileenK98 wrote:

What's Italian for "stupid, entitled asshole?"

There is no straight equivalent of "entitled" in Italian but there's "impunito": someone who's used to getting away with murder.

Now the captain claims he fell into a lifeboat and couldn't get back on the ship.

Obligatory "I've fallen and I can't get up!" joke.

Lady Anne wrote:

Now the captain claims he fell into a lifeboat and couldn't get back on the ship.

Obligatory "I've fallen and I can't get up!" joke.

And I laughed and I laughed...

Except I'm not laughing at the people defending him. He's getting paid to command a ship and look after its passengers, including their safety. The coast guard was well within his right to yell at the captain to get the fuck back on the ship, because the coast guard couldn't do his job to help people without having the captain do his own job.

Running your ship aground, even without significant damage and for circumstances beyond your direct control, is reason enough to end your career.

Negligent ship-driving culminating in a disaster of this magnitude?

No mercy. None.

Three's a charm. A Tirrenia ferry boat scraped an embankment while leaving harbour. Probably the strong winds pushed the boat sideways. Lots of fear, none hurt, captain stayed on board. Probably these things happen often and this made the news only because of the interest in the Concordia accident. A couple days ago I learned that another Costa ship ran into a dock in 2010, but because the three that died on the spot were crew members and brown-skinned at that (a Brazilian, a Honduran, an Indian. What happened to "Italy, country of sailors"?), no one gave a fuck.