Ship of Fools

[PP67]

This tradegy has so many ironies and parallels when you think about the world economy and the "ship of state" that the mind boggles: sinking ship, Italy, "unmarked rocks" that were obvious to virtually everyone, "tourist navigation system" on cruise control, arrogant, inflexible and authoritarian exhuberant daredevil captain who literally wanted to "toot his own horn" but then abandons his fiduciary responsibility to his passengers and crew that leads to confusion and death...  So much of the "mistakes were made but not by me" mentality...

Captain Schettino said on Italian TV that the boat collided with 'unmarked' rocks
The captain said the ship was “sailing along the coast with a tourist navigation system”? and that an unmarked “lateral rock projection”? appeared out of nowhere. “I firmly believe that the rocks were not detected […] on the nautical chart it was marked as just water at some 100-150 meters [328 to 492 feet] from the rocks and we were about 300 meters [984 feet] from the shore.”?

Yet local fisherman and others were amazed at the claim. They say the dangerous rocks are well known and clearly marked. Corriere della Sera reported divers confirming the spot where the ship tore a 160 foot gash in the port-side  hull as 310 feet away from a larger visible rock formation that rises out from the water.

In the past, the cruise ships have had permission to sail within 1,500 feet of Giglio island, often to salute the inhabitants with a whistle of the ship. However, on Monday, Costa Crociere chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi told a news conference that Schettino had steered the boat too close to the rocky shore and said that his company’s ships were fitted with alarms that sound when they deviate from the programmed route. "I can't deny there was human error," Mr. Foschi said. "We're talking about an initiative that Commander Schettino took according to his own will and contrary to our rules of conduct."

"If I had to make a comparison, we got the impression that he would drive a bus like a Ferrari," Martino Pellegrino, one of the officers on board the Costa Concordia, told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper.

Salvage work was expected to begin on the ship later on Wednesday, as hopes faded that any more survivors would be rescued. The search was suspended early on Wednesday morning after the ship shifted on the rock. 24 people remain missing, while 11 people have so far been found dead.

Mr Pellegrino said Capt Schettino was an "authoritarian" who was often "inflexible" in the way he commanded the giant liner as it cruised the Mediterranean.

Mario Palombo, a former Costa commander and colleague of the captain, said: "I've always had my reservations about Schettino. It's true, he was my second in command, but he was too exuberant. A daredevil. More than once I had to put him in his place."

[MediumTex]

I wonder what kind of screwed up promotion process resulted in that guy being a ship captain in the first place.

Probably the same kind of screwed up process that makes someone like Timothy Geithner the Treasury Secretary.

[Boeing737]

The captain bailed out of that ship like the chicken of the sea. Oh, I just tripped in the lifeboat....

[MediumTex]

The captain bailed out of that ship like the chicken of the sea. Oh, I just tripped in the lifeboat....

I always thought those cruise ship captains were more like cereal box models than actual sailors.

[AdamA]

The captain bailed out of that ship like the chicken of the sea. Oh, I just tripped in the lifeboat....

I always thought those cruise ship captains were more like cereal box models than actual sailors.

They don't make 'em like they used to.

[Boeing737]

Adam you beat me to it!

[AdamA]

Adam you beat me to it!

We were all thinking it. 

[Coffee]

Picard never really liked him, either:

[Ad Orientem]

Late in his life, Sir Winston Churchill took a cruise on an Italian ship. A journalist from a New York newspaper approached the former prime minister to ask him why he chose to travel on an Italian liner when the Queen Elizabeth under the British flag was available.

Churchill gave the question his consideration and then gravely replied.

'There are three things I like about Italian ships. First, their cuisine, which is unsurpassed. Second, their service, which is quite superb. And then - in time of emergency - there is none of this nonsense about women and children first.'

[Tortoise]

Late in his life, Sir Winston Churchill took a cruise on an Italian ship. A journalist from a New York newspaper approached the former prime minister to ask him why he chose to travel on an Italian liner when the Queen Elizabeth under the British flag was available.

Churchill gave the question his consideration and then gravely replied.

'There are three things I like about Italian ships. First, their cuisine, which is unsurpassed. Second, their service, which is quite superb. And then - in time of emergency - there is none of this nonsense about women and children first.'

Sometimes I wonder where the "women and children first" thing originated.

On average, women have a higher body fat percentage than men, so they float more easily. Think about that.

Also, you know how people are always complaining, "I don't know where in the world kids get all of this energy!" Well... energy is good to have when treading water in the middle of the ocean.

I'm just sayin'.

[AdamA]

Well... energy is good to have when treading water in the middle of the ocean.

That was a good one, Tortoise.

[Ad Orientem]

Sometimes I wonder where the "women and children first" thing originated.

The idea was long known as the Birkenhead Drill after the events during the sinking of HMS Birkenhead in 1852.  It was a very Victorian sort of ideal that appealed to men in an era when chivalry was still something many believed in.  See here for a brief history of the tragedy.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Birkenhead_%281845%29

I spent ten years in the Navy and it is still considered the unwritten law of the sea in any situation where there is great danger and not enough lifeboats to go around.  The captain of the Costa Concordia is a coward who has disgraced himself and shamed all seagoing men everywhere.

[Tortoise]

Thanks for the background on that, Ad Orientem. The unwritten law of the sea sounds pretty good to me.

BTW, I hope you know I was just kidding in my previous post

[Ad Orientem]

Thanks for the background on that, Ad Orientem. The unwritten law of the sea sounds pretty good to me.

BTW, I hope you know I was just kidding in my previous post

NP Tortoise.  And yes I did realize your post was tongue in cheek.