Costa Concordia was a Concordia-class cruise ship built in 2004 by the Fincantieri's Sestri
Ponente yards in Italy and operated from 2005 until 2012 by Costa Crociere. It was wrecked
off the coast of Isola del Giglio in Italy on 13 January 2012. It was declared a total
loss and later towed to the port of Genoa where it will be scrapped. The name Concordia
was intended to express the wish for "continuing harmony, unity, and peace between European
nations." Costa Concordia was the first of the Concordia-class
cruise ships, followed by similar ships Costa Serena, Costa Pacifica, Costa Favolosa and
Costa Fascinosa, and Carnival Splendor built for Carnival Cruise Lines. When the 114,137 GT
Costa Concordia and its sister ships entered service, they were among the largest ships
built in Italy until the construction of the 130,000 GT Dream-class cruise ships.
On 13 January 2012 at about 9:45 p.m., in calm seas and overcast weather, under command
of Captain Francesco Schettino, Costa Concordia struck a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea just off
the eastern shore of Isola del Giglio, on the western coast of Italy about 100 km northwest
of Rome. This tore a 50 m gash on the port side of her hull, which soon flooded parts
of the engine room resulting in power loss to her propulsion and electrical systems.
With water flooding in and listing, the ship drifted back to Giglio Island where she grounded
500 m north of the village of Giglio Porto, resting on her starboard side in shallow waters
with most of her starboard side under water. Despite the gradual sinking of the ship, its
complete loss of power, and its proximity to shore in calm seas, an order to abandon
ship was not issued until over an hour after the initial impact. Although international
maritime law requires all passengers to be evacuated within 30 minutes of an order to
abandon ship, the evacuation of Costa Concordia took over six hours and not all passengers
were evacuated. Of the 3,229 passengers and 1,023 crew known to have been aboard, 32 died.
Concept and construction Costa Concordia was ordered in 2004 by Carnival
Corporation from Fincantieri and built in the Sestri Ponente yard in Genoa, as yard
number 6122. At the vessel's launch at Sestri Ponente on 2 September 2005, the champagne
bottle, released by model Eva Herzigová, failed to break when swung against the hull
the first time, an inauspicious omen in maritime superstition. The ship was delivered to Costa
on 30 June 2006. She cost €450 million to build.
Description Costa Concordia was 290.20 metres long, had
a beam of 35.50 m and drew 8.20 m of water. It had a diesel-electric power plant consisting
of six 12-cylinder Wärtsilä 12V46C four-stroke medium-speed diesel generating sets with a
combined output of 76.6 MW. These main generators provided power for all shipboard consumers
from propulsion motors to hotel functions like lighting and air conditioning. The ship
was propelled by two 21-megawatt electric motors coupled to fixed-pitch propellers.
Her design service speed was 19.6 knots, but during sea trials, she achieved a speed of
23 knots. Layout
Costa Concordia had 13 public decks; Deck 1 was the lowest:
Amenities Costa Concordia was outfitted with approximately
1,500 cabins; 505 with private balconies and 55 with direct access to the Samsara Spa and
were considered Spa staterooms; 58 suites had private balconies and 12 had direct access
to the spa. Costa Concordia had one of the world's largest exercise facility areas at
sea, the Samsara Spa, a two-level, 6,000 m2 fitness center, with gym, a thalassotherapy
pool, sauna, Turkish bath and a solarium. The ship had four swimming pools, two with
retractable roofs, five jacuzzis, five spas, and a poolside movie theatre on the main pool
deck. There were five on-board restaurants, with
Club Concordia and Samsara taking reservations-only dining. There were thirteen bars, including
a cigar and cognac bar and a coffee and chocolate bar.
Entertainment options included a three-level theatre, casino, a futuristic disco, and a
children's area equipped with video games. She also had aboard a Grand Prix motor racing
simulator and an internet café. Accidents and incidents
2008 bow damage
On 22 November 2008, Costa Concordia suffered damage to her bow when high winds over the
Sicilian city of Palermo pushed the ship against its dock. There were no injuries and repairs
started soon after. 2012 grounding and partial sinking
On 13 January 2012, at 21:45 local time, Costa Concordia hit a rock off Isola del Giglio.
A 53-metre long gash was made in the port side hull, along 3 compartments of the engine
room; power to the engines and ship services was cut off. Taking on water, the vessel started
to list to port. 24 minutes later, strong winds pushed the vessel back towards the island.
The water in the ship poured into the starboard side of the ship, causing it to reverse list
to starboard.
Without power, the ship drifted astern, but was now listing heavily to starboard. Costa
Concordia drifted back and grounded near shore, then rolled onto her starboard side, in an
unsteady position on a rocky underwater ledge. Almost half of the ship remained above water,
but it was in danger of sinking completely into a trough 70 metres deep.
She was carrying 3,229 passengers and 1,023 crew members, all but 32 of whom were rescued;
as of 22 March 2012, 30 bodies had been found, with two people known to be missing and presumed
dead. There may have been other people not listed on board. The search for bodies was
canceled at the end of January and resumed after the parbuckling maneuver in September
2013, after which additional remains have been found. On September 26, 2013, remains
were found on deck 4, and were reported as being the two passengers reported as missing.
The following day the remains were found not to be from the missing passengers. In October
2013, the body of one of the missing passengers was found and confirmed to be that of Maria
Grazia Trecarichi. Scuba divers had discovered her body in an advanced state of decay, near
the third deck of the salvaged ship. An investigation focused on shortcomings in
the procedures followed by the crew and the actions of the Italian captain, who allegedly
left the ship prematurely. About 300 passengers were left on board, most of whom were rescued
by helicopter or motorboats in the area. Salvage
An initial assessment by salvage expert Smit International estimated that the removal of
Costa Concordia and her 2,380 tonnes of fuel could take up to 10 months. Smit advised that
the ship had been damaged beyond the hope of economical repair and recommended it be
written off as a constructive total loss. Smit was soon contracted to initially remove
only Concordia's fuel. During the fuel removal operation Smit reported
that the ship had shifted 60 cm in the 13 months since her grounding but that there
was no immediate prospect of her breaking up or sinking deeper. Removal of the fuel
from the various fuel tanks distributed throughout the ship was completed in March 2012, later
than Smit's initial estimates. This cleared the way for the making of arrangements for
the ultimate removal and salvaging/scrapping of the ship.
It was announced in May 2012 that the American salvaging firm Titan Salvage and Italian underwater
construction firm Micoperi had won the salvage contracts following competitive bidding. The
expected cost of their salvaging plan, which comes to more than US$300 million, makes it
the most expensive salvage operation ever. The Titan–Micoperi salvaging plan included
the following operations: Secure the hull to the land using steel cables,
to stop her falling deeper Build a horizontal underwater platform below
the ship Attach airtight tanks, called sponsons, to
the port side of the hull Bring the hull to vertical, by winching the
hull onto the platform Attach sponsons to the starboard side of the
hull Refloat the hull and tanks
Recovery tow to an Italian port On 17 September 2013 Costa Concordia was brought
to a vertical position through a parbuckling procedure. The cost for salvaging the ship
increased to $799 million. In addition, the ship had suffered severe hull deformations
in two places. Titan Salvage, the company directing the salvage operations, estimated
that the next phase of the salvage operation would be completed by early summer, 2014.
After this "floating" operation, the ship would be towed to a salvage yard on the Italian
mainland for scrapping or "breaking". On 14 July 2014 work commenced to refloat
Costa Concordia in preparation for towing. At this point the costs had risen to 1 billion
euros. Including tow cost, 100 million for the ship to be broken up for scrap and the
cost of repairing damage to Giglio island, the estimated final cost was expected to be
€1.5 billion. On 23 July, having been refloated, the ship commenced its final journey under
tow and a 14 ship escort at a speed of 2 knots to be scrapped in Genoa. It arrived at port
on 27 July, after a 4 day journey. It remains moored at the port, awaiting dismantling processes
Culture and media In 2010, Costa Concordia provided the decadent
setting for Jean-Luc Godard's film Socialisme. A documentary broadcast in the United Kingdom,
titled Terror at Sea: The Sinking of the Costa Concordia, and another first broadcast on
11 April 2012 on Channel 4, titled The Sinking of the Concordia: Caught on Camera, featured
footage recorded by the passengers and crew. Furthermore, a documentary, titled Cruise
Ship Disaster: Inside the Concordia, was first broadcast on the Discovery Channel, CNN Presents:
Cruise to Disaster, first broadcast by CNN on 14 July 2012, and another, titled Inside
Costa Concordia: Voices of Disaster, was first broadcast by the National Geographic Channel.
The season 39 Nova episode "Why Ships Sink" discusses the sinking of Costa Concordia.
ABC's 20/20 aired a special on the sinking and interviews with the survivors on 15 February
2013, following the engine fire on Carnival Triumph. 12 days later the generator room
of Costa Allegra was on fire so the ship was unable return to service. The ship was beached
at Aliaga, Turkey, for scrapping. The wreckage of Costa Concordia also featured
in Paolo Sorrentino's 2013 film The Great Beauty.
References
External links "My very own 'A Night to Remember' by Peter
Grajda" Last registered track and speed—on Google
Maps Slideshow of capsized ship
Rome newspaper nautical chart and satellite photo
Flickr Blog 16 January 2012 : Costa Concordia run aground off the Italian coast
US NOAA Nautical Chart of Area Live 24Hour webcam view of Costa Concordia