Princess Chatter

"No alarm was sounded until more than an hour after they felt the ship shudder."

"When they heard six short whistles and a seventh long one, the signal to abandon ship and board life boats, the Lofaros said that it seemed the crew members didn’t know how to navigate the boats. They described the life boats bumping into one another like “bumper cars.”

http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/12/12701697-costa-concordia-survivors-describe-goliath-fight-against-cruise-industry?lite

"Capt Francesco Schettino's extraordinary claim came as Italian judges released him from house arrest but said he must remain in his hometown of Meta di Sorrento, south of Naples, as he waits to go on trial on charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship.

He has been accused of gross negligence by sailing the 1,000ft luxury liner into a rocky reef off the Tuscan island of Giglio, ripping a massive gash in its hull.

But he claimed that rather than being responsible for the 32 dead, he had saved lives with his nautical skills and quick-thinking.

"If I had continued on that path the ship's prow would have hit the rock. It would have been carnage," he wrote in a letter to his lawyers.

"A divine hand surely touched my head. There are those who say the impact with the stern was caused because I was suffering from a hallucination.

What hallucination! It was rather my instinct, my skills, the ability to know the sea and suddenly change direction," he said.

To his critics, the extraordinary justification may fall into the same category as his now infamous claim that he did not deliberately flee the sinking ship, but "tripped and fell" into a lifeboat.

The lifeboat took him to the safety of shore even as hundreds of panic-stricken passengers and crew were trying to flee the listing ship in the darkness, inching their way down rope ladders and clambering into wobbling lifeboats.

"I created the most optimal conditions to save everybody, independently of how events were unfolding," he wrote.

It was "pure luck" that he had seen the white wash of breaking waves on the left side of the ship as it hit the rock, and had managed to immediately steer the vessel to the right "out of sheer instinct".

He defended himself from accusations that he delayed giving the order to abandon the ship for far too long.

"A ship is in fact the best lifeboat that exists. The captain needs to take his time to evaluate the emergency without creating panic. It is he alone who is responsible – first before God, and then before men." Francesco Verusio, the chief prosecutor in the case, said: "Schettino is playing his game, but it will be the judge to decide how things went that night."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9379731/Costa-Concordia-Capt-Francesco-Schettino-claims-divine-hand-guided-him.html

"A Dutch movie company has begun filming the events taking place at the site of the sunken Italian liner, the Costa Concordia. The goal is to produce a time-lapse movie of the refloating and towing-away of the ill-fated cruise ship.
Bo de Visser of Prorama Films, has told Digital Journal in an email interview that he has twice gone to the ship, which went down off the shore of the island of Giglio on Jan. 13. The time-lapse filmmaker said the "main challenge lies within being able to contact the right people in Italy" while 1600km (1100 miles) away in the Netherlands. His first visit was to get permits and take care of electricity needs and other technical requirements, his second saw him begin the filming."

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/326231

"Here are the dates and jobs expected to be done by them: site inspection is ongoing through July 31; "securing and stabilizing" the ship until August 31; installing and stabilizing of caissons (watertight chambers) and building marine platforms by Nov. 15; installing what De Musso called 'boxes' on the right side of the ship by Dec. 1; up-righting the ship by Jan. 15 and towing it to an Italian port by Jan. 31.

There will be work on the flora and sea-bed, cleaning and replanting, that is expected to take, De Musso's email said, up to the end of April. Titan Salvage of America and Microperi of Italy are the two principal companies undertaking the boat refloat and are part of the clean-up."

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/326867

"A massive chunk of rock which ripped a hole in the side of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, causing it to capsize six months ago, is to be removed and made into a permanent memorial to the victims of the disaster."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9329217/Costa-Concordia-rock-which-ripped-hole-in-liner-to-be-memorial.html

"The vessel is expected to be stabilized by the end of August to prevent it shifting down the rocky ledge it is resting on and plunging into the deep waters of the surrounding marine reserve.

Two cranes attached to an underwater platform beside the 114,500 metric ton (126,215 ton) ship will then pull it upright, helped by the weight of big water-filled tanks that will be fitted on the part of the ship above water.

Once upright, more tanks will be fitted to the other side of the hull. They will then be emptied and filled with air to refloat the huge liner, which will be towed to an Italian port and broken up."

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/06/20/costa-concordia-salvage-operation-begins-in-italy/

"Salvage operations for that capsized Italian cruise ship began today and are expected to take a year.

The 870-foot Costa Concordia with 4,200 people on board capsized off the Tuscan coast after hitting rocks on January 13.

At least 30 people died and two people are still missing.

The captain is accused of wrecking the ship and abandoning it before all the passengers were rescued."

http://www.ksby.com/news/massive-undertaking-is-underway-to-salvage-the-capsized-costa-concordia/