Shocking Titanic Mediterranean Disaster Maritime Schettino Tuscany Giglio Italy Italian Costa Concordia Carnival Cruise Ship Boat italy, Internet

My brother-in-law and his wife were aboard the Costa Concordia when it ran aground. Here is what they have shared with me by email so far. 

He writes, "We were watching a magician in the theater when we felt some jolts and heard some deep "grating" sounds. Without any announcement or explanation the performers left the stage. We left when the audience started leaving. 

We went up on deck and were astounded to see how close to the coast we were. Most of the guests were Italian or German so we had difficulty interpreting their animated chatter. But we were able to understand the ship had hit something hard enough to knock some people and a lot of things to the floor. A few wondered if maybe it had struck a fishing boat, but others believed it was a sandbar. 

Announcements in several languages that "Everything is under control." "Remain calm." were made. Though some guests trusted this, more than a few decided it was time to get their life jackets.  We decided "better safe than sorry" and went to get our life jackets and passports. 

We had made it to our cabin when the lights flickered. Afterwards we heard an announcement that they were experiencing "some temporary electrical problems", "they were working on the problem" and and "expected things to return to normal soon".  There hadn't been a lifeboat drill yet, but our life jackets displayed our muster station and we found a map to our lifeboat station, port side. We were making our way to our lifeboat station when everything went black dark. There were no emergency lights on in the hallway. We clasped hands and blindly felt our way onto deck. By now the Concordia was leaning enough to starboard that it was clear to us the ship was in trouble.  But crew members were nowhere to be seen.

There were other guests already at the lifeboat station, some with life vests and some without. But still no crew member was there. Some guests came by and told us they had been told "there is no danger" and everyone needed to "return to their cabins". I don't think anyone at our lifeboat station left. People at our station were really pretty calm, more frustrated with the non-actions of the Costa crew, until we got the news that there was water coming into some lower deck cabins. Crew or no crew, it was time to get into the lifeboat. Some Italians made sense of the instructions and succeeded in positioning the lifeboat so that others could climb aboard. "Women and children first." 

Most people at our station were already inside the lifeboat when a crew member finally showed up. But instead of assisting he ordered us out of the lifeboat! I don't know much German but I'm pretty sure that crew member got a real cussing out and probably had his life threatened if he didn't lower the lifeboat. But he ran away threatening to get Security. Later some other crew members came and put as many passengers inside our lifeboat as it could hold. One took control of the helm. Then they began lowering the lifeboat. We were just about all the way down when we scrapped the hull of the ship. Our lifeboat leaned over so far we felt like we were in danger of tipping over and people were really scared. But we kept jerking and sliding down the hull of the Concordia until we were into the water and could release the cables. 

A vessel shined a bright light onto us and we followed them to where some other lifeboats had gathered.
Eventually the Italian Coast Guard came and took charge of the rescue. They ordered us to go ashore right away. All lifeboats were needed back at the Concordia to get passengers "who were jumping into the water". 

We were led to a school and told to stay there and sleep on the floor. Some generous townspeople brought in some coffee and bread. More passengers arrived and revealed the misinformation, chaos and lots of passengers still aboard the Concordia. Still later other passengers, some in their wet pajamas added their experiences when the ship lay on its side to what was being compared to the sinking of the Titanic, almost 100 years ago. We could only conjecture at the number of lives that would have been lost if Concordia started sinking out in the middle of the ocean! Then came the maddening realization that many of the crew had abandoned ship long before passengers. I must admit, I now think Concordia's Costa/Carnival Cruise Line have a lot in common with Titanic's White Star Line! The Italian authorities had taken crew members somewhere else where we wouldn't be able to confront them. We wouldn't get the news that the cowardly captain and senior officers were among the first to abandon ship until the next evening. 

No one from Costa or parent company Carnival ever came to speak to us, apologize to us, or explain what we were to do next. The authorities came and took statements from us. By then the proof was mounting that the Costa crew, with some honorable exceptions, having no leadership, ignored their emergency drill procedures, saved themselves, and left the safety and survival of passengers into our own hands. Most unforgivable and inexcusable of all, some passengers died. The Captain is, and should be, the scapegoat.

We only recently learned that Captain Shittyanus broke Maritime Law, refused the Italian Coast Guard order to return to Concordia, and his hooker, a former Costa crew member from Moravia, publicly heralds her lover's "heroic" actions. But I'll quickly add the actions of his senior officers and most of his crew are equally to blame for passenger deaths. I suspect most will get a slap on the wrist and resume their careers aboard other Costa/Carnival ships. As for us, we are not trusting the safety of our lives into the hands of a Costa or Carnival cruise line ever again! 

We were among the very few that had our passports. Even so, we were ordered to contact the U.S. Consolate and make travel arrangements through them to get back home. We hope to finally leave Rome tomorrow.