Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy

I guess by sister, they mean flying the same corporate flag!
You are right, they so far in everything, design and dimensions.

Cheers.

Like that's really needed, with 127 agitated French passengers onboard...

It is true, the French have enough anger right now! But it is also true that the Italian coast guard incharge in that area annouced that the armed security aboard the ship would be enough after saying that it is not a high risk situation.

Cheers.

The anti-pollution vessel Aegis I is on station as a tanker moves in for the first major transfer of bunker oil. 09:10 UTC.

WebCam Giglio Porto Panoramica | isola-del-giglio | webcam

This second image capture, a few minutes later, gives an idea of Concordia's size as the tanker is completely hidden behind the hulk.

WebCam Giglio Porto Panoramica | isola-del-giglio | webcam

Aegis I is the red hulled vessel on the right of the picture, just the other side of the harbour wall.

Just in case anyone here has "missed it", this thread has since moved on from the Costa Concordia to the Costa Allegra

The passengers and crew of the Costa Allegra are currently being disembarked at Mahé finally - the main island in and capital of the Seychelles after enduring 3 whole days without air-conditioning in their cabins, without any working toilets, without cooked foods/meals etc. during the "tow-operation".

It becomes very clear that:

1) Costa Cruises and their cruise ships regularly navigate in areas of the globe where local rescue facilities / resources are wholly-insufficient to accommodate the numbers aboard their cruise ships in the event of any real emergency.

2) In the case of the Costa Allegra, Costa Cruises and their legal department are apparently "doing their very best to convince everyone" that this most recent episode was not a true emergency. That passengers can "complete their cruise iteneries", accommodated in various Seychelles hotels "free of additional charges" or else be repatriated to an Italian airport (even if that's not where they're really from)...

The entire "cruise-ship" industry is currently "held in disgrace". Whether or not Costa Cruises get their act together over the next few months, the repercussions affect all "cruise ship operators", whether or not they're somehow affiliated to "Mickey Mouse" operations...

Sorry for not "mincing my words" - YF are 100% responsible for" publishing" my comments above, or simply deleting them as they see fit.

Airship, your penchant for drama is tiring.

How is an entire industry responsible for the actions of one person in the first case, and a simple mechanical failure in the second case?

If someone driving a car does something stupid and people die as a result, does that disgrace the entire automotive industry? If an (insert brand name here) suffers from a mechanical problem does every car made by every car company suddenly become a lemon?

As for the Allegra... a similar situation happened to a Carnival ship just last year (off the coast of California, if I remember correctly) and there was barely any repercussions felt at all. Bookings may dip slightly for a week or two, but that's it. After the Concordia mess, cruise bookings were below seasonal averages for approximately a week, after which they went back to normal.

No it hasn't. The Allegra has simply been included because she also suffered an 'incident' and happens to be of the same line.

The events leading up to the tragedy and the recovery of the Concordia wreck (which is going to be a challenge) is of interest to most serious and intelligent mariners. Recording the cause of the tragedy and the salvage efforts is what this thread is for (and will hopefully continue to be) without irrelevant rants about the cruise industry as a whole.

I see you both have a valid point. You just have to look at another possibility, if two incidents happened with an "Airliner" not in individually driven cars, this would stir the industry because this is a "Managed" mass transportation, cruises are the same. On the other hand, I think not more than 25% of those who book cruises do actually notice or care for incident news about cruiseliners. After all, many do the planning and budgeting for their dream cruise for many many years and will be so focused on the cruise not on saftey factors.
The last thing is that it is not only one company in the business or even one or two ships. So the happy feedback would append the fear factor in favor of the industry unless the media runs out of buzz and try to make a living off bashing cruise industry. I feel for all the good men and women and families living on the returns of this industry, yet I still believe management should focus on quality more than volume, you all know that cruise liners work intensly back to back trips, and this should be looked at. (Like on Concordi, they couldn't manage the saftey briefing for new passengers boarding because of schedules and what not!)

Cheers.

Pps?

I was sent a nice .PPS of the Costa Concordia before and some after pics. Not sure that it is correct to post them here. Can somebody contact me for the PPS and try to put them on. It gives good pics of the size of this big ship.
,rc

Am ready for it if you want.

Cheers.

Kevin wrote:

I'm not sure what you mean by "the actions of one person in the first case" and whether or not that's related to both the Costa Concordia or Costa Allegra "incidents". So far as your contribution of "a simple mechanical failure in the second case" is concerned, I do take some exceptions:

1) If a small French "fishing vessel" was able to take the Costa Allegra "under-tow" initially, before more suitable tugs arrived, that is largely thanks to the very clement weather and sea conditions prevailing at the time.

2) The initial destination of the "stricken cruise-ship" would have seen the vessel arrive at a small Seychelles island within 12 hours or less, but whose airport could only accept airplanes carrying 20 passengers max. and would quite clearly not be able to handle all the passengers adequately.

3) If you were a passenger aboard at this stage, would you have preferred disembarking on "dry-land" within a few hours, instead of being forced to endure a further 3 days without air-conditionning, working toilets, cooked food etc. whilst being towed to Mahé?!

Nevertheless, Costa Cruises ostensibly took the decision to subject their passengers (and crew) for a further 3 whole days of severe inconveniences. Gambling everyone's lives aboard on the basis that the weather conditions would remain clement, so as to avoid "the very high costs involved in a true emergency"...?! As I mentionned before, the prevailing weather conditions allowed Costa Cruises the possibility to delay the evacuation of all passengers instead of immediately evacuating them at the closest "dry-land", as would be the usual situation concerning any ship which "had lost all power to manoeuvre" in addition to providing basic services aboard.

I repeat (addressed at all cruise-ship operators including Costa Cruises):

Over to you Kevin...

Hi,

Airship, It wasn't one of those little fishing boats out of Antibes that took it in tow. It was a Purse Seiner - something well used to pulling a load.

It takeys very little power to move a ship at steerage speed, the large amounts are needed for higher speeds

Thanks(?) K1Wi,

A "Purse Seiner" as you put it, usually involved in fisheries - how many "loads of tuna" comparatively to the 1,000 or so passengers and crew aboard the Costa Allegra...?!

I believe that on this Friday afternoon, you're much more inebriated than oneself. So see you back here next Monday...?!

Considering that tuna seiner is about a 40 meter vessel with an engine producing around 1200kW geared for heavy pulling, it makes for a very effective vessel of opportunity for emergency towing purposes.

Please try to understand the subject before ridiculing other posters, it isn't nice.

Trévignon - ShipSpotting.com - Ship Photos and Ship Tracker

not really a ''small fishing vessel''

The .PPS i have is 6.2 mb. I keep getting upload errors. Can I e-mail it to some computer-guy and they post the pictures?
,Ralph

Sure thing, check your private messages.

Cheers.

Dear Marmot,

So let us all read here on YF very soon your own comparison between the real capabilities of the French fishing-vessel and any "commercial tugs" (designed and built for the purpose of towing vessels) involved...?! Explaining to us all just how this small French fishing-vessel was able "to adequately and safely take under tow" a 188m and 28,430 gross tonnage cruise ship carrying over 1,000 passengers and crew.

IMHO, your last post invites a certain amount of ridicule all by itself without futher information on your part... I'm not completely disagreeing with your opinion that the French fishing-vessel indeed provided a service to Costa Allegra, just taking exception to comparing fishing-vessels with purpose-built tugs etc. and somehow ignoring "the fortunate and clement weather conditions". Together with some here who prefer to treat what could so easily have become a major catastrophe involving major loss of life if the weather conditions had been worse...

Most rational people would accept the fact that since the 80+ meter seiner successfully towed the ship to port at 6 knots it was adequate for the task.

If you are going to keep editing your rude post in a lame attempt to backpedal I guess I can edit mine:

Please show where and when I posted anything comparing "purpose built tugs" to a fishing vessel.

I very clearly stated, and the seiner's performance proved it, that that vessel made an excellent "vessel of opportunity" and was completely adequate for the task of emergency towing. Even the cruise ship owners agreed that the tow was safe and should continue as is rather than be turned over to the salvage tugs that arrived days later.

Find someone else to argue with about this stuff, I am fed up with poseurs trying to pick fights.