Cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off Tuscany

Brazil's paper, O Globo, confirmed 43 Brazilians aboard the Concordia. Also, Yahoo article says there were quite a number of Brits on the ship.

Horrible news. Shocked to see it was a Costa ship. Last year the National Geographic channel ran a series called Cruise Ship Diaries, about the behinds the scenes activities of one of their other vessels. Obviously accidents can happen to anyone, but they seemed to run a tight operation...holding all their crew to the highest standards. Based on what I saw on the TV show most of their clientele appear to be Italians, and Germans

I seriously looked at Costa for my Italy trip this past May (I was traveling with my mother and looking for someway to reduce stress) Didn't do it because the port stops were too short, but everything looked good. I know Americans do travel on Costa, but I feel for everyone who was lost.

There is a big story about it on Yahoo News this morning. Several Americans quoted. Such an awful thing!

We took our first cruise last April and didn't take the safety thing at the muster area seriously at all. I have a friend who hides out in her cabin and doesn't even bother. If I ever cruise again I definitely will pay attention and make sure I know the drill. Apparently Costa is owned by Carnival.

As tragic as this is, I mentioned to my wife, "Who would get on a boat that looks top heavy"'

The ships really aren't top-heavy. They're 15 stories above the water and at least five below, about the normal ratio for any ship. They also have sophisticated stabilizers that eliminate any sense of rocking unless the seas really kick up - and as modern of navigation system as anything on the water. Becoming Captain of one of these ships is the culmination of a very successful professional career. It's amazing to me that this guy performed so poorly. How did he get to this level of responsibility?

I considered a Costa cruise, once. After reading cruisecritic.com, and learning what "Crusing Italian Style" meant (no service, if there's a mistake they won't correct it, essentially no one cares), I decided to avoid Costa. The ships travel set itineraries through well traveled sea lanes by GPS. There's no reason for this type of accident. It appears the Captain of the ship, who has the authority to change course, ordered the ship to leave the lane and sail closer to the island so his head waiter could wave at his family on the island. What a totally preventable disaster. Not only the end of the Captain's career but a good chance he'll end up in prison.

I've seen these behemoths pull into the port in Venice. Their size dwarfs the churches and other building of that delicate city. I think I will continue not cruising.

The bizarre-ness level of this accident seems only to increase. They leaked the voice calls between the captain and the coast guard. The captain didn't know what to do, and had to be "instructed" by the coast guard officer who promptly took charge of the situation. Maybe he was in shock, but people on his position are supposed to be prepared to react professionally by not taking a giant cruise ship to shallow waters first place, and then taking charge of an evacuation. As cited above, there is quite a controversy in Italy about cruises docking in certain areas. Some people in the travel industry are adamant supporters, others say they are a form of "predatory" tourism in places like Venezia or Genova because they now hold 1500-2500 passengers each, disembarking at the same time and travelling on a hurry. Hard to strike a balance there.

I'm with you, Swan.

Brad, I didn't know you are a naval achitect too! It still looks top heavy to me, but then almost all my boating experience is in a canoe.

What doomed this ship was a collision with shallow rocks and the grounding. A collision with an iceberg in the open waters would have been far less catastrophic because the ship would still be floating for a while.

'A collision with an iceberg in the open waters would have been far less catastrophic ' Nope. A hole's a hole no matter what makes it. If it's big enough to make it go to the bottom, it's going to go. What made this one less catastrophic was that the bottom wasn't far away - -the ship could only partially sink. I'm betting the watertight doors between compartments were wide open. Elaborating on what Brad said: Area above water is mostly windage. Stability is a function of center of gravity vs center of buoyancy. Ships have the most weight way the hell below the waterline - - if they tip over for some reason (and don't flood) they'll pop back upright. Stabilizers don't do much more than dampen motion, mostly for passanger comfort. Obviously the captain got to where he was due to the Peter Principle.