CostaSmurfette

Abba and Dean are almost correct.

 

Try saying them together and see what it sounds like. :confused::D

 

Ron

 

Aberdeen....;)

So we have Abba and James Dean and we are looking for a Port or Place.

 

Ron

 

Bit of a stretch here...

 

 

Aden

 

"A" - Abba

 

Aden is same lettering as Dean

 

Not Adam but Aden

 

Hanging Gardens of Babylon (also known as Garden of Eden) said to be in Yemen, Aden being in Yemen and a former cruise port.

Liz,

 

First part "Abba" is correct. CS is also correct with East of Eden, the original clue for the second part is "Jimmy was no Adam when looking at the Sunrise" so we're looking for someone called Jimmy in East of Eden.

 

Ron

 

James Dean was in the 1955 version of East of Eden...he played Cal Trask, whereas Ray massey played Adam Trask..

Sorry no.

 

Here are some clues:

 

"Britain would not win this Waterloo; Jimmy was no Adam when looking at the Sunrise".

 

Last weekend was the ESC; where did Adam reside, which direction does the sun rise (film).

 

Ron

 

East of Eden - Sweden

Have a good cruise Mairi :)

 

Just taking a little break from my Greek mythology war game...I have 16 cities, all named after the Costa Crociere fleet past and present...#17 should be sorted by the end of the week. Been having alot of seriously late nights...or maybe that should be early mornings being online til 4am knocking seven bells out of enemies...all good fun though and no-one gets hurt, perfect for venting one's pent up frustration though...and I have a great pal to keep me company too, even if he is in a different country to me :o

 

Hope that everyone is tickety-boo...have a great evening peeps, TTFN :)

No she is getting a special paint job - see below.

 

Actually she smiled last week, well not exactly smiled as she fell off her bike and caught the handlebars in her mouth.

 

Ron

 

awww...you still giving your poor MIL grief, Ron....;)

 

Hope you're better half is getting stronger every day :)

 

I tend not to venture onto boards much thesedays...am well and truly into a browser based war game set in Greek mythology, Grepolis. I spend alot of time...7am thru 3am on average...playing. No money involved just quite alot of strategy and tactics :)

 

Got a great set of team mates too, especially one from Ireland, who I get along with like a house on fire, he and I have become very good friends...so all is pretty good apart from the body still trying to go into permanent hibernation...nowt to worry about though, I threaten myself daily to behave ;)

 

Hope everyone is tickety-boo...have fun :)

CostaSmurfette: You're a sly one matey! Keep a low profile!

 

Moi...low profile...you gotta be kidding ;)

 

Great cruise that you have lined up...take care of 'Tuna, please..she's mine in March :)

Thanks Chuck. Hadn't intended to do so many cruises in one year, but got such a bargain price for the Orchestra and Atlantica that I gave up on the idea of a land based trip.

 

Have a good cruise Mairi :)

CostaSmurfette: Seems like I know you from somewhere????

 

Yeah...you do, Chuck ;)

Pleased for you SO much - know you have been going through hell and back - wonderful to see you - chin up and planning your voyages - good for you!

How many nights for your Serena cruise?

 

Good to see you too matey, hope all is well with you :)

 

The Serena trip is 19 nights....my TA has an option on an inside cabin for me, they are transferring the deposit from Deliziosa once the Serena cruise enters the UK booking availability which will be within a fortnight, but they have confirmed the cabin hold for me.

 

So basically in March 2014 it is Fortuna Dubai-Savona for 18 nights and in November 2014 it is Serena Savona-Dubai for 19 nights...if all goes well, I might repeat it in 2015 since I like the route and the weather is usually superb too :)

Good afternoon from sunny Yorkshire :)

 

Hoping all are tickety-boo and that you, Mel, had a wonderful experience aboard Atlantica :)

 

My cruise plans have been changed due to medical reasons..dropped the December cruise aboard Deliziosa and replaced it with November 2014 aboard Serena from Savona to Dubai. The Fortuna cruise from Dubai to Savona is still going ahead as planned.

 

The Italy/UAE route is one that I enjoy greatly, and its about time I went outbound instead of inbound for once...and Serena calls at Aqaba too, so might get to go to Petra, something I missed aboard Allegra in 2010.

 

Anyway, stay safe guys, good to see the stalk from Ron...brought back many happy memories...

 

Take care, be good and catch you on the high tide one day...TTFN.

Morning peeps :)

 

Hope everyone is tickety-boo today...Happy Easter :)

 

Been a bit quiet lately...busy on a browser based war game based in Greek mythology, so that has taken up my time...it is quite addictive once you get into it. Also been spending time chatting with a great buddy from Ireland who is also my team mate on the game, so ultra late nights are common (along with a renewed taste for Grolsch too) LOL

 

Still hoping to stay on the two cruises, but the DWP thing is still dragging on endlessly and I will have to have some seriously major surgery again this year, so all is a bit up in the air right now insofar as cruising is concerned....

 

Anyway, take care guys and gals...try to be good and don't go munching too many Easter eggs ;)

 

TTFN :)

ello peeps....just thought I would say "ello"...good to know all is getting better Ron :)

 

enjoy the cruise Mairi, should make a nice change from the cold weather at home :)

 

and everyone else, have a fun one...whether it be cruising or just enjoying life in general :)

 

just trying to keep my two cruises at present...and my sanity which is a whole different ball game ;)

 

take care guys and gals...see/hear from you again somewhen ttfn...

There really IS something wrong with the Destiny platform designed ships....even if Arison prefers to ignore it and continue watching his blasted basketball...

 

Looking over the last 18-24+ months via various reports from crew, media & pax.

 

Destiny, Triumph, Splendor, Glory, Breeze, Dream, Liberty have ALL reported electrical and/or propulsion issues on a regular basis over the last 18 months, most complete power losses, some electrical fires..add in Concordia, Magica, Serena, Fortuna & Pacifica which have also reported similar problems during this timespan…ALL are Destiny platform design ships.

 

Compare that to the Spirit/Vista 1/Vista 2/Signature platform ships and you only get Legend one time and Costa Deliziosa one time with an azipod problem.

 

Concordia was reporting blackouts and other electrical problems right upto a few hours prior to her loss. She had been experiencing blackouts, loss of essential equipment (depth sounder, radar, black box and autopilot) several times in the THREE WEEKS immediately prior to her demise…indeed, a full repair crew were to meet and board on January 14, 2012 at Savona and they were to stay with the ship for 7-10 days to carry out repairs to her sail/no sail equipment…she was allowed to sail with her sail/no sail equipment out of service on the previso that the engineering crew were to meet her on the 14th.

 

There IS something VERY wrong with the Destiny platform family of ships.

 

The DIFFERENCE tween the Destiny platorm and the Spirit/Vista 1/Vista 2/Signature classes is simple…

 

Destiny platform have ONLY been built at Fincantieri from a design blueprint by Fincantieri.

 

Spirit & Vista 1 originated in Kvaener Mesa and were then adapted/enlarged by Fincantieri. The original blueprints had more than enough redundancy to allow for growth and design tweaks.

 

There is NO redundancy being built into the Destiny platform ships, which is why they are constantly suffering from systemic failures.

 

Had this been about a car, truck or bus...they would be recalled. Had this been about an airliner...they would be grounded.

 

But cos we are talking about a cruise ship type, carrying upwards of 4000 people each that generates millions in revenue....a blind eye is being turned by everyone...and one day there will be an even bigger loss of life from one of these ships...either by an uncontainable fire or structural failure or another grounding partially due to human error but partially due to equipment failure.

A little something to read....a first hand account of the night by a honeymooning couple...they have written a book about there experience too, a cathartic way of dealing with what happened.

 

You'll notice that they describe something quite typical in human behaviour...that of a few who started to panic and push which began to spread initially but then calmed down to a sense of resignation...even a certain amount of banter and good humour whilst weighing up their fates...

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/09/we-honeymooned-on-the-costa-concordia

 

 

 

 

 

Experience: we honeymooned on the Costa Concordia

 

It was 9.45pm on a Sunday evening and my wife, Emily, and I were relaxing in our cabin on the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia. We'd married two weeks earlier and this was our honeymoon: 17 days cruising around Europe.

 

At first we thought nothing of the soft scratching noise, although later we'd realise it was the sound of the hull being ripped open by a rock. Moments after, we felt the ship tilt ever so slightly to the starboard side.

 

A wine bottle inched across the table and toppled off, then all our papers flew off the desk. We decided to walk up to the emergency meeting point, on the fourth deck, to see what was happening. We grabbed our life jackets from the cupboard. Still, we weren't really worried. We figured it was a drill and we'd be back in our cabin a few minutes later.

 

When we got there, a large crowd had already gathered. Crew members were trying to keep everyone calm, but it was clear they had no idea what was going on either.

 

Forty-five minutes later, the captain ordered us to abandon ship. People started pushing towards the lifeboats, hysterical mothers clutching babies, elderly couples rooted to the spot with fear. The crowd was becoming panicked, aggressive. Emily grabbed my arm. "I don't want to push," she told me. "Is that OK?"

 

"Yes," I replied.

 

"You know we might die, right?"

 

I nodded. It just didn't feel right to shove someone else out of the way to save our own lives.

 

Somehow we managed to find our way on to one of the last lifeboats but the ship was by then at such an angle that when the crew tried to lower it into the water, it just slammed against the side. After a few tries they gave up and hoisted us back up on deck.

 

The screaming had stopped now and an eerie calm had descended over the several hundred remaining passengers. We felt we'd been left to die. The ship was by now almost on its side and we could feel it being sucked downwards, water rushing in. Inevitably my mind flashed back to the movie Titanic. "We have to climb over the railing, on to the underside of the ship," I told Emily.

 

We found a length of rope and used it to lower ourselves. We instructed the passengers behind us to do the same. Then we all sat there, about 130 of us, and waited. "We should say goodbye to each other now," Emily said, "in case we don't get a chance later." We kissed and said we loved each other. Then I sang her a song I'd made up. "I'm glad we got married before this trip," Emily said.

 

It was sad, and surreal, but somehow we were smiling, too; we were just so grateful to be together. An hour or so later, we realised the ship had stopped sinking. It had tipped so far over, it was like we were sitting on a gentle slope.

 

There was an air of resignation and a strange sense of camaraderie as we sat with the other passengers, holding hands and hugging each other, talking, laughing, crying and telling silly jokes. "I never imagined this was how I would die," Emily said. At least it was an interesting way to go, we reasoned.

 

Finally, three hours later, one of the lifeboats returned. We clambered in, terrified, exhausted, but elated to be alive.

 

It dropped us on the tiny nearby island of Giglio, where 4,000 of our fellow passengers would eventually end up, too. After a sleepless night we were transported, via ferry and bus, back to Rome. We had no money or documents, and only the clothes we were standing in.

 

It was a couple of days before we finally arrived home. We were tired and traumatised. I found that writing helped me work through it, and I published a memoir.

 

For many months after the shipwreck, we struggled. The news was full of reports of the disaster, so we could never switch off. We swung between gratitude for surviving to crippling guilt that 32 other people hadn't. Day-to-day life seemed so trivial for both of us – we found it hard to sleep or concentrate on friends and work. It was frustrating when some friends remarked that surviving the wreck was "a cool story to tell the kids". Emily and I went to counselling together, and it helped that we understood what the other had gone through. If just one of us had experienced this, we agreed, our marriage may well not have made it.

 

• As told to Jacqui Paterson

 

The experiences described above almost match those of pax aboard Pacifica who were aboard Concordia and who were sailing the route again to assist in their healing from that night. The pax aboard Pacifica were all Europeans bar one Canadian couple. All quite level headed, all showing a remarkable level of forgiveness to Captain Schettino and his bridge crew that night.....one couple I actually knew from a previous cruise in 2010.

 

Like many on Pacifica told me, feeling angst against a fellow human being will eat you alive if you let it...by moving on with life and dealing with what happened in their own way...whether it by continuing to cruise, writing a book or however they choose to heal...they don't all hold Captain Schettino as a villain but as a man who simply became afraid of a situation he had no control over (and by that, they meant the aftermath, not the reasons why they got there in the first place).

 

Life is short...too short to hold a grudge and certainly too short to lose the ability to live life to the fullest.

Tonka & CT...plus those who still believe that the captain should go down with his ship no matter what the circumstances and that had Concordia been under the USA interpretation, her captain and any other crewmember would/should be prosecuted to the highest level of US law...despite the fact that the accident happened in foreign waters with a foreign interpretation of SOLAS1974 which is allowed by the way that SOLAS1974 was ratified by the IMO.

 

Cast your mind back to 2008....although this does not feature a passenger vessel, the end result was sadly similar both in loss of life, poor interpretation of the rules of the sea and basic mistakes in seamanship...

 

A severe storm had hit the fishing fleets off Unalaska. One vessel, the 98ft long FV Katmai, sent out a distress signal telling the USCG that she was going down by the stern in stormy seas and in the dark of night.

 

Eleven men were aboard, the youngest was a greenhorn of 19 who was on his forst ever Bering Sea fishing trip.

 

Four survived and were picked up by USCG Jayhawk.

 

Five bodies were recovered, two were never found....including that of the 19 year old greenhorn.

 

One of the four survivors was the Captain.

 

The joint investigation tween the NTSB and USCG was pretty damning...watertight doors left open, weight of cod in the hold was double that the ship was capable of handling, the Captain was cited for staying out in the storm when in reality he should have found shelter to ride it out, there were also problems with the safety equipment on board too...the condition of the liferafts came under scrutiny.

 

The Captain was not persecuted, nor was he prosecuted...instead he was left to deal with his "survivor guilt", which some might say is enough of a punishment.

 

So here we have a US registered vessel, operating in US territorial waters that sinks in a storm, overweight, watertight doors left wide open and questionable liferafts...5 med made it home in coffins, 2 were lost to the sea forever.

 

Well....judging by the way that you have hung, drawn and quartered various people aboard Concordia and keep saying that such things would never happen on a US registered vessel in US territorial waters without the Captain being persecuted and prosecuted, how then do you explain how the Captain of FV Katmai was not thrown to the wolves for operating a substandard vessel, fishing in extremely poor conditions when other boats had looked/found shelter, having approx double the weight of cod in the hold that the boat was designed for, having almost every watertight door left wide open and having questionable life preserving equipment...hmmm?

 

Smacks of double standards really.....7 lives against 32...but lives lost regardless of how many and regardless of type of vessel...a dead person is a dead person.

 

What possible explanation could there be as to why Katmai's Captain was not prosecuted and no furore about him not being prosecuted....maybe the lives of seven fishermen just don't matter, least not to ambulance chasing lawyers...

 

Just goes to show how different interpretations of rules of the sea can be lost in translation...one life lost, seven lives lost or 32 lives lost...cannot bring any of them back...but rules is rules....

Individual countries or states MAY require a captain/master to stay with his/her ship...BUT...under IMOSOLAS1974 there is NO LEGAL requirement to do so...they have left it to the individual states/countries to add that into their rules and regulations if they so wish.

Now, whether or not Italy has made it a requirement under THEIR maritime laws is one thing but it is certainly NOT a requirement under SOLAS1974 to remain with the ship.

It IS however, EXPECTED, that a captain should remain with their vessel under traditional circumstances.

The US may have made it mandatory to remain with the ship but you should NEVER measure any other country's standard by that of the US, the SOLAS1974 is open to interpretation, purposely so by the International Maritime Organisation.

People on this thread need to remember that just cos it is done in a certain way in the USA does NOT mean that the rest of the world is the same or that the rest of the world must comply with what the USA does.

Had there been no US citizens on the ship, this thread probably wouldn't have even been started anyway...one certainly wasn't when Sea Diamond sank in 2007 with two lives lost...

Some of you are so fixated on the USA way of doing things that you are blind to what is actually happening....and those who decry the way that Carnival Corp do things and see them as doing no wrong are either stockholders scared that their stock will dive when the truth comes out or just selective readers who are in total denial.

Get your heads out of the sand, leave the USA way of doing things to one side and start looking at this for what it is...an accident that was bound to happen and an accident that has been asking to happen for decades.

Carnival Corp DO put pressure on ports...I know this as a FACT from discussing it with those who have been watching what has been going on from a distance for many years...Concordia was not 100% functioning and had she belonged to ANY other corporation or company she would definitely have been impounded until fixed...but due to the size and weight of Carnival Corp and their huge number of ships that use the ports that Concroda was in prior to the accident, they most certainly put pressure on the ports to let her sail regardless of her condition.

You guys need to wake up and smell the coffee....The USA way is NOT the world way.

[quote name='Uniall']Skipper

Perhaps the female smurf's purported background as an airline accident investigator in the UK causes her to fall prey to the maxim: " If you are a hammer, everything you see looks like a nail".[/QUOTE]

awww sweetheart...you got it WRONG yet again, honeybunch...

I said I have STUDIED aircrashes for over 35 years...not INVESTIGATED them...

It would have been a great job had I the qualifications that it requires, such as a CPFL, for example (Google that if you are at all unsure what it might be, there's a good lad).

As for the SOLAS1974 regarding masters/captains staying aboard...some reading matter to enlighten you, my dear...

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16611371[/url]

And I quote :

[quote]The first version of the treaty was passed in 1914, directly as a result of the sinking of the Titanic.

[B]The current version, passed in 1974, does not specify that the captain should stay with his ship but states that the captain, or master, has the ultimate authority aboard his ship.[/B]

In addition, it says all passenger ships must have a system for emergency management, which would set out who is responsible for what during an emergency situation. [B]This may or may not stipulate that the captain has to be the last to leave.[/B] [/quote]

[quote]"As the ship's master, you are trained to take command, to do everything so that the number of fatalities are reduced to the minimum," says Mr Schroder-Hinrichs.

"That said, when the ship is sinking, you do try to rescue your own life, but it's hard to quantify when. As long as your own life is not at risk and there are passengers on board, there is a strong moral obligation to stay," he says.

"If the captain of the Costa Concordia really left at such an early stage, it is not what the industry would expect in a legal or moral sense."

[B]As such, he says, it could prompt international regulators to re-assess the need for more precise rules.[/B][/quote]

;)

I wonder who wasn't concentrating on this one then....any canoodling with female ratings, perhaps...or was it divine intervention....ah..but wait...naval crews NEVER make mistakes, now do they?

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21072275

 

A US Navy minesweeper is stuck on a coral reef off the Philippines after running aground early on Thursday.

 

The USS Guardian struck the reef in the Sulu Sea south-east of Palawan island after completing a port call at the former US naval base of Subic Bay.

Schettino was NOT OBLIGED by law to remain on board or even organise the current solas 1974 rules.

 

 

 

I cant speak for Solas in detail' date=' I can tell everyone as FACT, as I have posted before, by the Maritime regulations of most countries the Master as a LEGAL and MORAL duty to stay with his vessel and do everything possible to save is vessel including supervise the safe evacuating of his passingers and crew......

 

Once he as done all he can, or everyone else is safely away or his life is in danger he can then leave his vessel.

 

This is not a tradition it is a LEGAL and MORAL part of being a MASTER and for that matter a Crew member and to suggest otherwise domostrates a lack of facts and knowledge, not to mention stupidy of a office *know it all*

 

 

AKK[/quote']

 

Tonka....if it is, as you state, a legal requirement rather than a tradition...please explain why capt Avranas of Oceanos was AQUITTED of abandoning ship before his pax when Oceanos sank?

 

He even returned to being a cruise ship captain afterwards too.

 

Likewise the captains of Scandinavian Star, Express Samina...why were they not prosecuted or had their convictions overturned after leaving pax to either burn to death or drown?

 

If it is a LEGAL requirement, surely those captains should have been tried and convicted...but since they all got away with it, despite the death of 159 people in Scandinavian Star's case....do please explain how they managed to dodge the bullet?

 

It is not obligatory for the captain/master to be the last off the ship in distress...traditional, yes...legality, no.

CS, don't be so insulting about people "whining." People are questioning, which we have a right to do. The only way to get changes is to question.

All many of us are saying is that no one has reported that the Captain ddi one dang thing to help anyone once he left the Bridge. Where are the people in the lifeboat that he was helping? Were they just the Bridge Staff? Was the boat full? Could he have gotten some others stuck on the low side and put them in there? Why couldn't he take that boat around to the high side to see what was going on there?

I don't expect a Captain to die saving others. However, I do hope that he has at least tried to save others from a disaster he created. If he, or even one of his Officers, had at least run down or shouted to those remaining to jump, it would have been something. Then, how could the man say he could not get back on the ship from the high side when the Deputy Mayor of Giglio was able to. Schettino didn't even try. He went straight to land and tried to blend in/hide from everyone.

 

You don't get it, do you?

 

Schettino was NOT OBLIGED by law to remain on board or even organise the evacuation under the current SOLAS 1974 rules.

 

He COULD have stayed on board if he so wished, infact under maritime TRADITION he was EXPECTED to stay on board...but in REALITY he did NOT break any rules by evacuating himself prior to everyone or a proportion of everyone else.

 

So essentially the legal stance of having him imprisoned for running away could be null and void by technicality...that technicality being that he was under no obligation under current SOLAS to remain on board.

 

This is how the captain of Oceanos that sank off South Africa was aquitted of all charges...read this about what captain Avranas actually told people after the sinking of his ship in shark infested waters...

 

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/08/news/08iht-ship.html

 

His exact words in the aftermath : "When I order abandon the ship, it doesn't matter what time I leave. Abandon is for everybody. If some people like to stay, they can stay."

 

There is EVERY chance that Schettino will get off when in court, along with the other implicated personnel, due to the totally out of date SOLAS1974 rules.

 

The only way this can change is by ratification of rule changes by the International Maritime Organisation which is currently evaluating evacuation and design changes, along with some training changes as a result of Concordia, even if ratified they will not be made law for at least 2 years. No changes have been put on the table regarding the evacuation time of captains and officers, that has not entered the equation and is unlikely to.

 

Some way back on this thread it was asked whether or not any rules or laws were broken when Schettino got off Concordia....the answer is NO. He broke with tradition and the traditional idea that a captain goes down with his or her ship but tradition does not hold up in court.

 

This is how Avranas from the Oceanos walked free from court and went on to return to passenger ship duty and why captains Express Samina, Scandinavian Star and others where the captain has gotten off before all pax/crew were accounted for have suffered little or no penalty under law.

And before anyone starts whining that SOLAS is currently 2010...the 2010 update is ship design, build and evecuation standard...NOT the captains and crew.

 

SOLAS 2010 is why so many older ships went to scrap cos they were not fit for use anymore, it absolutely nothing to do with ship's personnel or their actions.

SOLAS....

 

The current version, passed in 1974, does not specify that the captain should stay with his ship but states that the captain, or master, has the ultimate authority aboard his ship.

 

In addition, it says all passenger ships must have a system for emergency management, which would set out who is responsible for what during an emergency situation. This may or may not stipulate that the captain has to be the last to leave.

 

Considering the cases of Scandinavian Star where a captain left 159 on board his ship to burn to death, Oceanos where a captain left all 600 pax to save themselves from the sinking ship miles from anywhere (and who subsequently was aquitted fo all charges relating to running from his ship and went on to become a cruise ship captain again), Express Samina where a captain left 60 to drown as his ship sank and he evacuated himself....to name but a few...

 

Maybe it is time that the 1974 SOLAS regarding captains leaving ships in emergencies was rewritten, eh?

CS, uummm, DUH, did you read the link we were discussing?

"Carnival denies it has any duty to protect passengers from damages while they are on board. We will ask the court to interview all safety and training personnel, and everyone who was in charge of emergency equipment and evacuation," said attorney John Arthur Eaves Jr. "We will also ask for testimony from everyone responsible for what happened at Giglio, and who allowed the captain to deviate from his route".

However, court documents filed by Carnival state: "passengers' negligent or careless behavior were among the causes, if not the only cause, of the alleged injuries and damages."

 

 

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/01/12/Carnival-blames-passengers-for-damages/UPI-10121358035775/#ixzz2I3mF2YJd

 

SOLAS aside, Carnival is saying that it was the passengers fault for their injuries. Did the passengers force the Captain to go off course, to hit a rock, to delay calling for Muster, and put them in the position of having to save themselves. No, they responded to the position the Captain put them in.

Carnival Corp, which includes Costa and all the other lines that sail under them, has an obligation to keep them safe. SOLAS sets the standard and those employed by Carnival are expected to follow and carry out those standards. The Captain did not follow the rules set forth, leaving the passengers open to the injuries they received trying to save themselves.

 

Nowt more than typical corporation pass the buck...perfectly common practice when authorities or lawyers get too close "we know nuthin, we see nuthin, we do nuthin...it was THEIR fault"...heck you can almost hear the backsides squeak as they walk down the hallway ;)

 

All the corporations do it...."have fun on your cruise, do the regulated things that are forced upon you by law...and oh btw...if anything untoward does happen, don't come crying to us cos we don't care...just pass your money to us and we will laugh our way to the bank"

If, as is being claimed here, the ship's radar had problems and was due to be fixed, then why did the Captain make the decision to go off the charted course. It's not like he didn't know what problems the ship had.

How difficult would it have been to say no. The Captain has the final say. When the ship is on the water, he has the responsility to keep not only the ship but his passengers and crew safe.

 

The minimum equipment list failings are well known and documented....so lets look at it this way....

 

As Tonka correctly points out, the ship theoretically should never have sailed...Civitavecchia, Barcelona, Marseille and Savona all could/should have pulled permission to sail...they did not...why?

 

Carnival Corp may well have placed undue pressure on the port authorities and Francesco Schettino....realease the ship, its being repaired on the 14th....you will do as requested and take the ship past Giglio on the 13th..

 

The corporation is a very big animal, you do not say "no"...probably never know if money changed hands with the port authorities that allowed the ship to sail on a promise of repairs...just as we probably never know who Francesco Schettino was talking to on the phone prior to the accident..."bloody Giglio" sounds more like frustration from a phone call pressurising him to go despite the problems with the ship...most of us have been there....having to do something that we really do not want to do and feeling pressured, obliged to do so regardless of our own thoughts and feelings..

 

All the cruise lines/corporations have alot to lose over this accident....Concordia was on a very high revenue itinerary and Carnival were not about to pull a ship off that high revenue itinerary for a week or two in order to fix faults...especially the cruises prior to the accident since it was the highest revenue weeks, that being Christmas and New Year.

 

Carnival Corp knew full well the ship was not functioning properly and no amount of arguing against taking her out from Costa or her crew was ever going to make any difference.

 

No pun intended but its well known in industry circles that Carnival and the other lines/corporations sail close to the wind and using just the bare minimum SOLAS that they can get away with.

 

Since I know port authorities will allow a damaged ship to sail on the promise of repairs later (Discovery), I see no reason why Concordia wasn't allowed to sail on the same repair promises...I would hope that no palms were greased but you cannot rule it out and that truth will never be known.

 

Corportations have a huge amount of power over authorities and their employees..."you will go to Giglio if you want to keep your job"..."you will allow our ship to sail if you want to see any of our Corporations ships in your port in future"....

 

Not a pretty picture but nonetheless a common one.