Princess Chatter

The stricken cruise liner Costa Concordia off the Isola del Giglio in January 2012. Greenpeace warned that chemicals from a cruise ship wreck were oozing into the sea around Italy's picturesque Giglio Island but the environment ministry said the levels were not "significant".

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-greenpeace-pollution-italy-cruise-ship.html

“Costa is beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, but it will take some time to get there,” [Carnival Corp. vice chairman and chief operating officer Howard] Frank said in the teleconference call with analysts. “So there should be no doubt, we view Costa as a great company and a great brand, with a terrific management team and with a great future.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/09/2684790_p2/carnivals-micky-arison-speaks.html

"Costa Concordia is being written off as a total loss by parent company Carnival Corporation.

The company is to receive $515 million in insurance for the crippled vessel which run around with 4,200 passengers and crew on board with the loss of at least 25 lives off the Italian island of Giglio in January.

This will offset the value of the six year old vessel which has been deemed to be a “constructive total loss”. It was originally thought the ship could have been salvaged."

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2012/03/09/39833/costa-concordia-a-total-write-off-says-carnival.html

"More likely, salvagers would rely on cranes. It would not be easy—the wreck is far too massive for any single crane, Lacey says. The cranes not only would have to turn the ship upright, but hold it in place to keep it from sliding downward. To make their task easier, salvage teams would want to pump out as much water as possible, which would mean patching the massive gashes in its hull so that water does not rush back in, says Peter Tromp, manager at Dutch wreck removal company Euro Demolition.

Tromp doubts it could be done. Euro Demolition and Texas-based salvage firm T&T Bisso are partnering on a proposal to cut up the ship. "We think there's too much weight and too much damage to refloat it," Tromps says. Using cranes armed with metal shears capable of slicing five-centimeter-thick steel, the companies would carve the wreck into liftable chunks 200 to 300 metric tons in weight. Afterward, they would use electromagnets three meters in diameter to clean the seafloor of debris.

Towing, if it can be done, would be faster. "I've heard it's feasible to do it within six months," Lacey says. If Tromp and his colleagues do end up doing a chop job on the Costa Concordia, they estimate they can have it done in eight to 10 months."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=raise-it-or-raze-it-how-will-italian-cruise-ship-be-salvaged&page=2

"Leaked documents published on Thursday contained claims of a hard-partying atmosphere on board two Costa Crociere ships including the Costa Concordia, with officers seen snorting cocaine and getting drunk on a regular basis.

The revelation was made as former Costa Cruises employees told prosecutors investigating the Concordia disaster that officers 'took drugs' while on duty and molested female staff members.

One woman, a nurse identified only as Valentina B and who worked with under fire Concordia skipper Francesco Schettino, claimed he regularly 'used women as goods to be bartered with.'

She described how she had been on the liner Atlantica with spineless Schettino, 52, who is accused of abandoning the Concordia after he steered it on to rocks and left more than 30 people dead, for a month between January and February 2010.

Her damning revelations to investigating prosecutor Francesco Verusio, were published by La Stampa newspaper and she said of her experiences with Genoa based Costa: 'I found corruption, prostitution and drugs.

'Do not tell me it’s my word against them - I saw directly with my own eyes senior officers take cocaine.

'To prove it all you need to do is carry out an examination of their hair.'

Her claims come just days after a cocaine test on strands of Schettino’s hair tested positive for cocaine but his legal team have asked for a second examination as they dispute the results and he has insisted that he does not drink or take drugs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108790/Costa-Concordia-Captain-Francesco-Schettino-crashed-ANOTHER-cruise-ship.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

"It was also claimed that Capt Schettino had previously crashed another cruise ship.

In June 2010 he sailed the Aida Blu cruise ship too fast into the German port of Warnemunde causing damage.

“I did not know the speed limit and have not received notification of an infraction from the relevant authorities,” Capt Schettino told his employers in writing, adding there were “probably other factors” behind the crash."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/travel/news/cruise-captain-not-wearing-glasses/story-fn32891l-1226288485908

"Captain Francesco Schettino 'manoeuvred at a speed of 7.7 to 7.9 knots during entry into the port of Warnemunde, causing damage to the Aida Blu cruise ship.' The incident happened in June 2010.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108790/Costa-Concordia-Captain-Francesco-Schettino-crashed-ANOTHER-cruise-ship.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

"GROSSETO, Italy — The first hearing of the criminal investigation into the Costa Concordia's shipwreck was held in a theater Saturday instead of a courthouse because of high demand, with angry survivors seeking compensation, justice and the truth.

The judge at the hearing assigned four experts to analyze the cruise ship's data recorder and ordered them to report their findings in July, confirming predictions by Prosecutor Francesco Verusio that examination of the data, as well as of conversations involving officers on the ship's bridge, could take months.

Prosecutors must decide whether to seek a trial against the captain, other top officers and officials of Italian cruise company Costa Crociere SpA, which is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp. Crucial to their decision could be what the experts determine are such details as the Concordia's velocity when it slammed into a reef the night of Jan. 13 off Giglio island, its exact route and what commands were given by whom and when.

Participants acknowledged that the search for truth and justice will be a long one."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2017670672_webcosta05.html