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Costa Concordia SINKING

ItalianGuest

By ItalianGuest,
in Costa Cruises

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nana541

nana541

Posted
Posted
To be fair on the crew they were given procedures to be put in place based on orders, they were taught what to do when certain orders were given.

When NO ORDERS were given they were left like most of us would have been having very little idea of what to do. I think the crew being the waiters, kitchen staff, cabin stewards who finally gave up waiting for orders and filled the lifeboats and dropped them to the sea saved my family and hundreds of others.

It is those who should have been giving commands that deserve all of the condemnation in my books. I wish I knew the names of the Indian man who drove our lifeboat, and the waiter who sat on his shulders to see, and the waiter who stopped people falling overboard when the waves splashed in as the boat was so overfull, or the other boys in white overalls, they were our saviours.

 

Wow....coming from someone who knows the real story! Blessings on you and your family.

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Esprit

Esprit

Posted
Posted
No way I would bring a pool raft on a cruise ship. Look at the night vision film, how would someone carry that down to the waterline? Forget about throwing it into the water and then swimming to it, the waves would just wash it away.

 

The way we can prepare for the worst case scenario is to pack your common sense. If there is an emergency, report to your muster station and wait for instruction. If everyone packs an extra bag of just in case stuff and brings that to muster stations, more people will lose their lives in the chaos of an emergency.

 

So you wouldn't recommend packing your own welding torch to patch up the ship yourselficon7.gif

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jofjltncb6

jofjltncb6

Posted
Posted
Because in the long run it might be less expensive to self insure than to purchase the insurance.

 

By definition, that is always the case. In total, insurance companies collect more in premiums than they pay in claims for any particular coverage. Insurance companies distribute the risk of catastrophic financial costs among all its clients. If a company has the financial wherewithal to cover its own potential losses for certain coverage, then statistically, it is cheaper for them to do so.

 

jc

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SomeBeach

SomeBeach

Posted
Posted
Phew for a minute I thought I read blow up dolls !!!! lol...

 

rgds

:D

 

 

On one of my cruises whilst I was on the balcony prior to sailaway I noticed that many of the officers on the Bridge kept looking out the window in my direction. As I was in a stateroom about a dozen rooms back from the Bridge, it was easy to spot them doing this. I was really confused as they kept going back and forth, just looking.

When I met up with some friends later they told me they had been out walking and looked down in the area where my room was and saw a blow up doll, complete with bikini and blonde wig sitting in a lounge chair. :p Course after hearing that, I went back to my room and looked around, sure enough, there it was.

Later that evening I met the Captain. I told him I noticed everyone from the Bridge had me confused as to what was so fascinating in the direction of my stateroom until I heard what was there. The Captain laughed but then proceded to tell me that he did have someone check on who was in that room.

I did meet my neighbors a few days later when I assisted in an air saving rescue of "Madonna," the name given the doll. She developed a leak and was slowly deflating. We used my clear nail polish that had strength fibers in it and it sealed the leak. The people told me they liked having the doll on the balcony in port so they could spot their room from shore whilst in port.

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Uniall

Uniall

Posted
Posted
Possibly but not always.

 

The 'facts' that we read about are sometimes inaccurate e.g. there were "unregistered passengers" on-board. Or there were, until it was discovered that three Hungarians were attempting to scam the cruise line.

 

Sometime in the future, all passenger, crew and officer statements along with electronic data will be assembled and presented to a Court and at that point justice will be served.

 

Until then we're at a stage of misinformation, lies and speculation.

 

So going back to 'possibly but not always', I recall an event in recent history where, in a story's early stages this guy in the US stated "There will be no whitewash in the Whitehouse". You can't always rely on statements (or statesmen!)

 

All the "facts" you encounter in life are always inaccurate. That's because even eye wtinesses see and remember things inaccurately. Then you add in the prevaricators (malevilent, innocent, embarassed). Everyone lies, its only a question of how big and how serious the lie is.

 

A good investigator looks at motive and opportunity and human nature to come as close to the truth as humanly possible.

 

I once interrogated a "bad guy" and told him I had the evidence of what, why and how he'd done the crime. He laughed at me at said I was stupid. That's not how I did it and he proceeded to tell me how he'd really done it. The moral of the story was my "evidence" would have convicted him any way. The only way for him to disprove my conclusions was to admit the truth which was just as damning.

 

You can never know the complete truth about anything. The goal is to get as close as possible.

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TheBestIsYetToCome

TheBestIsYetToCome

Posted
Posted
So you wouldn't recommend packing your own welding torch to patch up the ship yourselficon7.gif

 

I'll bring my Jaws of Life and a few hundred cases of Gorilla Tape. :D

 

I cannot say the thought of having my own liferaft with me on a cruise did not occur...not that I would bring it, but it definitely crossed my mind...

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EVALUATOR

EVALUATOR

Posted
Posted
Query: How many cruisers are now taking inflatable liferafts in their luggage to have on hand if an emergency happens and the life boats will not suffice for some reason.

 

I am seeing and hearing more and more passengers that are talking about buying their own life raft, kind of what you can buy for a swimming pool, as why just be swimming in the sea?

 

You blow these up and then use them if need be to float on them.

 

Anybody think this is okay to do to bring along now or just forget about it and don't prepare for the worse case scenario?

 

How about this.

 

An inflatable device and a captain all in one.:D

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chabre

chabre

Posted
Posted
My last post and others I have made have been with complete understanding of the position the crew is in. If you took it wrong, I'm sorry that I didn't make that clear. My final sentence in the last post means they must risk saving others before they can save themselves. That's a lot to ask of another person. I found what the crew did to be very brave.

 

 

On the contrary, I read your comment as you were in favor of the crew, I wanted to add to your comment, because before I read some other comments or news links, stating that the crew wasnt doing their job and there it was chaos because of the crew. Now it is my turn to say to you sorry if my comment wasnt clear ( english is not my first language).

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EVALUATOR

EVALUATOR

Posted
Posted
Did they make announcements between 5 and 6?

 

If not, that would have been one long hour for me! :)

 

It was right at 6 am. Sure it was an hour. But those that were up and out, it was pretty clear everything was under control.

 

But to come on the intercom only 1 hour after, and wake up most on the P.A. system and say all is well was good.

 

They were able to stop the ship, back up, evaluate the situation, call the port authorities, set up divers, reschedule excursions, and tell the pax all is ok in an hour.

 

Point is, a lot of passengers knew something went wrong immediately. RCI didn't hype it or down play it.

 

I'm sure the first thoughts were, was there damage to the ship, and did they rupture a pipe carrying flammable liquids.:eek:

 

I hate to think of what events would have been if it had been a ruptured gasoline transmission line.

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jopocop

jopocop

Posted
Posted
How about this.

 

An inflatable device and a captain all in one.:D

 

I guess cruisers could op for blow up ladies and men, depending on your preference, as a love raft during an abandon ship episode.

 

Watch out if the Cruise lines in their gift shop start selling personal life rafts.

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Hebersgyll

Hebersgyll

Posted
Posted

Just a thought.. never been anwhere near a shipwreck, fortunately. But reading about those who jumped and swam & about all the concern about the lifeboat evacuations, reminds me of a mental plan I made after reading about many shipwrecks over the years.

Leaving aside the 'women & children first aspects', I would never be in too much hurry to climb aboard a lifeboat.

 

On many occasions, especially in 'close to shore' shipwrecks, usually in stormy weather conditions, those who left the ship often drowned or were seriously injured (including hypothermia). Very often, again emphasising a shallow water situation, the vessel, or some part of it does not completely sink. Staying on board (especially if you are fit enough to cope with steep lists & & other physical factors) and waiting for rescue can often be the best idea?

 

Remember, this event was very atypical. Ships don't normally run aground on a calm sea during good weather. Ships, very often, don't completely sink after collisions with other ships or objects. We need to think what the lifeboat evacution would have been like and the casualty rate if the situation had been different - pouring rain, gale-force winds, 15-20 foot waves, colder sea temperatures & all, with hard, jagged rocks close by that would cut you to shreds if waves tosed you against them.

 

It might even make you think about a universal women & children first policy? It should certainly make you think that general rules and procedures are all very well and necessary - but if an 'event' ever happpens to you its a really good idea to pause, evaluate the situation, consider & review options and only then take whatever action you decide upon (all whilst doing your best to assist others, of course!).

 

Lastly, & again, because the circumstances of this disaster were so atypical, there may be a need for caution in applying the 'lessons' learned from it to the somewhat different circumstances in which most other shipwrecks happen?

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Sunny AZ Girl

Sunny AZ Girl

Posted
Posted
To be fair on the crew they were given procedures to be put in place based on orders, they were taught what to do when certain orders were given.

When NO ORDERS were given they were left like most of us would have been having very little idea of what to do. I think the crew being the waiters, kitchen staff, cabin stewards who finally gave up waiting for orders and filled the lifeboats and dropped them to the sea saved my family and hundreds of others.

It is those who should have been giving commands that deserve all of the condemnation in my books. I wish I knew the names of the Indian man who drove our lifeboat, and the waiter who sat on his shulders to see, and the waiter who stopped people falling overboard when the waves splashed in as the boat was so overfull, or the other boys in white overalls, they were our saviours.

Well said. I am glad that you and your family arrived home safely.

 

I agree with other posters that IF there had been a semblance of calm authority given by officers of the ship, communicated to the crew and through them to the passengers this tragedy may have had a different outcome altogether. Most people do not tend to panic when they have a sense of competent leadership.

 

I wonder if the tradition of cruise ship "fly byes" will now be suspended in Europe?

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SomeBeach

SomeBeach

Posted
Posted
On the contrary, I read your comment as you were in favor of the crew, I wanted to add to your comment, because before I read some other comments or news links, stating that the crew wasnt doing their job and there it was chaos because of the crew. Now it is my turn to say to you sorry if my comment wasnt clear ( english is not my first language).

 

Thank you.

I try to be careful in my wording out of respect for those that do not have English as a first language. I also try to make a point of rereading before posting to make sure I have the correct word for a particular sentence. We do have some words that are spelled differently but sound the same (ie: there, their, or they're; whether or weather) and have different meanings. Spell check won't make a correction for them.

Not to say the brain and eye always make the connection but I try. ;)

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cls711

cls711

Posted
Posted

About all the reports of "Tourist Navigation" and "Tourist Routes," and whether it was it ordered or encouraged by Costa as the Captain claims. It all seems to come down to if it was announced on the ship so the passengers (tourists) could enjoy. Was it advertised on Giglio so the islanders could enjoy? (very few tourists there in the winter) I've read that it was not in either case. Just a few people knew so it could not be a Public Relations act. IMO

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