Abandoning Ship

An egotist thinks of himself first, others later, if at all.  Others, if what befalls them impacts deleteriously on himself.  The horrifying realization that as captain of the Costa Concordia, he was responsible for its complete collapse and the fate of thousands of passengers and crew were in his hapless hands, must have been a sobering experience for Captain Francesco Schettino.

He'd had other things on his mind.  An titillating assignation for one thing, with an entertainer on board ship.  The work of steering his ship left to others, even though he had ordered a risky manoeuvre that would bring that ship too close to shoals in shallow waters metres from the coast of Giglio, off the coast of Tuscany.

The cruise ship Costa Concordia lies stricken off the shore of the island of Giglio as floating barriers are positioned to prevent pollution of the coasts on Jan. 18, 2012 in Giglio Porto, Italy. The official death toll is now 11, with some twenty people still missing. The rescue operation was temporarily suspended earlier due to the ship moving as it slowly sinks further into the sea. (Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images) 

 

The ship rammed into the reef.  And the passengers wondered what that huge shudder was.  "So are we really going down?" asked the captain of the officer in command of the engine room.  He then informed a bridge officer not to inform passengers that anything untoward had occurred.  "Say that there has been a blackout."

And when in fact he spoke to the coast guard that is precisely what he reported: "We've had a blackout, we're just evaluating...   At most we're going to need a tug boat."  He has since been accused of deliberately misleading the coast guard to avoid accusations of malfeasance in an episode of clear dereliction of duty that resulted in the deaths of 33 people.

The 305-metre luxury liner began to take on water, and eventually keeled over in the shallow water it was mired in.  The evacuation of the 4,200 passengers and crew was undertaken but not at the calm and collected direction of the Concordia's captain.  Panic was the order of that night, as evacuation commenced.

Captain Schettino telephoned his wife to inform her of what had occurred and that he had everything under control.  "We hit a reef, the ship is listing but I performed a great manoeuvre ... everything is  under control", he assured her, peculiarly ending the conversation with the statement:  "My career as a captain is over."  And so it most certainly was.

It did not end with the distinction of praise for the captain.  He had resisted his officers' insistence that the ship be abandoned.  However, claiming he had somehow "tripped", and fallen into a lifeboat, he was on shore while the evacuation of the liner was being undertaken.

Captain Schettino is undergoing investigation on charges of manslaughter, abandonment of his ship, and failing to communicate with maritime authorities.

Italian cruise, anyone?