Until proved otherwise.
You know, social media is a wonderful thing, but frankly I’m not sure we deserve it. The “with great power comes great responsibility” line comes to mind.
I’ve seen endless brain-dead and prejudiced views in the media, all over the comments columns, and on FB & twitter. The standard view, particularly from America I’m sad to say (take a look at CNN comments), is that Italians are incompetent, they screwed up the evacuation and they should never have been so close to land in the first place.
Most people don’t have a clue about maritime matters, but even the thickest reporter/commentator should have been able to see what had happened the moment the sun came up.
Q. Where was the ship going? A. It was on the first leg of its normal cruise itinerary from Rome (Civitavecchia) to Savona, Italy. So…. come on Mr shit-for-brains commentator, which way would that be? Yes! NORTH!
Q. Which direction is it pointing now? A. (You could use Google maps for this one or just take one look at which side of the ship is illuminated in the morning sun) …. still waiting… yes! That’s right! SOUTH!
So now, what do you think happened? …. C’mon you genii… Yes! The ship WASN’T sailing so irresponsibly near the shore. It was probably in the channel between the island & the mainland when it hit something. It wound up within yards of the shore right off a harbour because….? Yes, the Captain deliberately turned his ship round through 180 degrees (they don’t turn on a sixpence these things, he was probably 3-4 nautical miles offshore) and brought her right up onto the coast to the nearest harbour entrance. He probably hoped he might still be afloat there, but even if he ran aground again, or the ship settled in the water, he wouldn’t sink giving his passengers the best chance of survival and rescue.
And we don’t know if he even had engine power. Costa Concordia is one of the new generation of azimuth pod-driven ships. If she lost power, without a rudder she would be very difficult to steer.
So, getting his ship to shore was pretty heroic I’d say.
Was the evacuation chaotic and disorganised?
Well, what do you think? The power goes out at night and the ship starts listing heavily. You think the passengers and crew were the model of self-discipline and fully organised? This is real life (& death) at sea. Not a queue for the January sales! And yet, the reports are that while some passengers panicked, and many felt they weren’t given enough information/instruction… others report moderate calm and steady progress getting lifeboats away and passengers off the ship.
So far three tragic deaths and around 70 missing, but the majority (hopefully all) of the missing are thought to be accounting errors – people who have wandered away on shore, not been counted, ended up on the mainland not the island, weren’t on board in the first place.
Now I’d say that is an amazing heroic achievement! A ship with 4,200 passengers & crew on board! I would be proud to be a member of a crew, or a company, or a nation that had achieved that. (I don’t want to be callous, but what is the average number of ‘normal’ deaths per cruise on a ship that size?)
The only thing that has worried me is a report that the ship never sent out a Mayday call. They should have done that, even if they knew there was a rescue response from the shore a matter of yards away… but then, maybe a technical problem.
Either way, let’s start from the position that this has been a successful ‘disaster’ and that the captain, crew and company are judged heroically innocent until proved guilty of something.
Image: Il Fatto Quotidiano
