[BITList] ‘Go back to the ship, that is an order,’ coastguard told captain | The Times

Tue Jan 17 07:49:24 GMT 2012

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Tuesday, January 17

‘Go back to the ship, that is an order,’ coastguard told captain

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James Bone Giglio Island
Last updated January 17 2012 12:27AM
The captain of Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, allegedly refused an order by the coastguard to return to his stricken cruise ship to oversee the evacuation.
“Go to the bow, you climb up the emergency ladder and you co-ordinate the evacuation,” the coastguard official reportedly bellowed in one recorded call. “You must tell us how many people, children, women and passengers there are and the exact number of each category.
“What are you doing? Are you abandoning the rescue? Captain, this is an order, I am the one in charge now. You have declared ‘abandon ship’.”
The official told Captain Schettino: “There are already bodies.”
“How many?” the captain asked.
“That is for you to tell me,” the official said. “What are you doing? Do you want to go home?”
Details of the repeated calls made to Captain Schettino’s mobile phone, and information from the ship’s “black box” were obtained by the Italian news agency ANSA. They reveal that the first person to call for help was a passenger — and the captain resisted making a distress call. He did not do so until 49 minutes after the impact, saying: “Va bene (OK), let’s declare distress.”
The discovery of another body this morning brought the known number of dead to seven, with 28 missing, including four crew. The Italian Environment Ministry declared a state of emergency after a liquid, suspected to be oil, began leaking from the ship.
Captain Schettino, 52, who became a captain in 2006, is under arrest facing possible charges of multiple homicide and abandoning ship.
The father of the ship’s head waiter told The Times that the captain was intending to salute his son’s island home, when the ship hit the rocks. Giuseppe Tievoli said that his son, Antonello, had told him to watch out for the ship on Friday night. “He called me and said, ‘We are passing by at 9.30pm’,” Giuseppe Tievoli said.
The waiter’s sister, Patrizia, posted a message on Facebook more than half an hour before the accident saying: “The Costa Concordia will soon pass by very close. It’s a big salute from my brother who will finally disembark in Savona to enjoy a bit of holiday!!!”
The elder Mr Tievoli said that the sail-by salutes, with a three-horn blast, were a regular occurrence, adding that there had been one a week earlier.
Pier Luigi Foschi, the chairman and chief executive of Costa Cruises, part of the US giant Carnival Corp, yesterday accused Captain Schettino of changing the route without permission.
“He wanted to show the ship and pass by the island of Giglio, so he changed the route of the ship to go closer,” Mr Foschi said. He added that the captain was not authorised to change course except in response to unforeseen events.
Mr Foschi said that a salute to Giglio in August, on the island’s saint’s day, was the only previous sail-by of which the company was aware.
“We have over 100 passages a year on that piece of water. The company is aware  of only one time it happened . . . That was on the night of August 9-10, under the authorisation of the maritime authority with the authorisation of the island authorities and with the permission of Costa.”
The course then was no closer than 500m from the island, he said, adding that the rock Costa Concordia hit was 150m offshore and visible above water.
“It was correctly marked, depending on the scale of the chart,” Mr Foschi said. “There are certain charts used by cruise ships that indicate the route they are to take, and certain charts that are smaller that are used by sailing boats.
“I am not sure which chart the captain used at the time.”
Despite initial reports that Captain Schettino was at the first-night dinner with passengers, Mr Foschi said that he was on the bridge at the time of the accident. 
Data from the “black box” suggested that the ship approached Giglio on Friday evening on a course of 278 degrees at a speed of 16 knots. At 9.40pm, 500 metres from the island, she turned north when the crew apparently realised they were heading for the rocks.
At 9.45.05, however, she hit the rocks. Her speed dropped to 8 knots within a minute and to 3.9 knots by 9.52pm.
The data suggests that the captain did not steer into shallower water inshore to make the rescue easier, as was originally claimed. Instead, it appears that the engines were flooded and the ship drifted to her final resting place just outside the island’s port.
The alarm was raised at 10.06pm after a passenger telephoned police, who relayed the message to the maritime authorities.
At 10.14pm the authorities contacted the bridge, but were told that the only problem was a blackout.
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Ken Broadbent
January 17, 2012 7:45 AM
Wow every decision he made seemed wrong, craven and self-serving. Was his previous command as boss of a uk trade union?
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Liam *B* (Now down under)
January 17, 2012 5:09 AM
I am increasingly convinced this was an act of irresponsibility. He should be rightly charged.
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John Lynch
January 17, 2012 5:16 AM
Good Heavens. Are you really? What took you so long?
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Michael Jones
January 17, 2012 6:33 AM
If only he had attempted a beach landing. It would have made it so much easier for you.
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Ade Davidson
January 17, 2012 7:45 AM
Oh! Freedom of speech - you either ignore the man or you show yourselves as equal or lesser men of integrity.

The continuing kindergarten-like bashing is stifling serious discussions. You could some more time at your local pub for instance.
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john blyther
January 17, 2012 1:10 AM
Take a look at Google Earth speculate your graphic is not quite right there is a rock clearly visible at 42°21’20.71”N 10°55’48.24”
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