Ship of Fools
Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:15 pm
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."
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."
