Cruise Ship Costa Concordia - MERGED THREADS

[David M]

Those discounts better be transferable.

[Silverado6x6]

Costa PR team would like you to know that everything is just a matter of perspective...

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by St. Elsewhere

The Guardian's web site reports fuel removal is about to start, and that Italy's civil protection agency is assuming control of activities:

"On the island of Giglio, the head of Italy's civil protection agency Franco Gabrielli arrived on Saturday to take over the search for passengers left on board the listed vessel after mounting concern over the duplication of efforts – and the conflicting information given out by – the various police, military and emergency services who have been involved.
Gabrielli may decide that salvage teams can now start working on removing fuel from the vessel even as the search for passengers continues, suggesting that the Dutch salvage workers waiting on Giglio could have been sent into action days ago.
Fears are growing that the ship could slip into deeper waters, even though the predicted arrival of bad weather that could disturb the Costa Concordia is now thought to be further off."

It must be a very difficult task to secure tankers or barges near the ship with the rocky sloping sea bed, and to have hoses and lines connected to a 1000 foot ship that is currently unstable. It is even more surprising is that "Gabrielli may decide that salvage teams can now start working on removing fuel from the vessel even as the search for passengers continues."


I hope it works!

More details here: Costa Concordia captain claims company ordered 'salute' to island | World news | The Guardian

It is about time the government took charge…

I have been involved in similar salvage work and fuel removal can be controlled with the right methodology and team of experts.

Displacing the fuel oil with liquid mud from fixed connections will address the stability issues and still allow the search for survivors to continue.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Great , drink four so,

I would never do that, but especially not on the boat. If there were an emergency ...

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Silverado6x6

Costa PR team would like you to know that everything is just a matter of perspective...

Man -- I've heard about those rogue waves, but I never saw one before now!

[Silverado6x6]

I found an interesting article about the shipbreakers at Alang India.


SHIPBREAKERS - USS BENNINGTON

[chala]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Yes I don't know what not integrating your autopilot has anything , anything to do with the costa Concordia accident which was clearly caused by manually steering the boat and looking out the window and goofing that.

I do not know that. The ship may have been on auto the impact may have changed the course of the ship with an immediate correction from the autopilot further trusting the stern toward the rock. Just a possibility.

[chala]

Originally Posted by Cotemar

Expect a decision to be made within 10 days or so about what to do with the Costa Concordia.

1) Pump out 17 full tanks of fuel oil
2) Patch all holes
3) Pump all water from inside & Re-float ship
4) Tug boat it to a scrap yard
5) Cut her up for scrap

I think the most likely thing is that she will be scrapped.
I think it will just be too psychologically demanding on anybody to expect them to go on this ship in which many had died. That's another reason I think it might well end up being scrapped."

There is normally a time frame for how long a ship can be submerged. Past that time the value of the ship is the value of the scrap.

[chala]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

So far, this has been a bad month for ships.

The accident may have been due to: an inaccurate chart, a failure of the electronic navigation system, erroneous data sent by the Global Positioning System and by the captain putting to much trust on the above. Visual navigation, with dusk starting around 17.18 Local and a moon expected to raise around 21.30 GMT, would have to be done in darkness and would have required total attention.

[St. Elsewhere]

The following is from the SMIT Salvage web site:

This is an update regarding the involvement and work of SMIT Salvage, a subsidiary of Boskalis, on the stranded cruise vessel Costa Concordia at the island of Giglio, Italy. For any general information, we would like to refer you to Costa Cruises, www.costacruises.co.uk.

Upon becoming aware of the evacuation of the vessel, SMIT approached the owners and underwriters of the Costa Concordia. SMIT has an extensive track record relating to marine emergency response, refloating stranded vessels and wreck removals. In the days following the accident, a contract was awarded by the Owners to SMIT and local partners Tito Neri for the removal of the bunker oil and pollution control. The estimated amount of bunkers in the vessel is 2200 MT of IFO (intermediate fuel oil), 185 MT of MGO (marine gas oil/diesel) and lubricants, distributed over 17 tanks.
We will keep you informed via www.smit.com and www.boskalis.com as new developments occur regarding the operation. Alternately you may contact:
Martijn Schuttevaer, spokesman for Boskalis and SMIT
T +31 78 69 69 822
M +31 62 00 10 232
E m.l.schuttevaer@boskalis.nl

Saturday, 21 January 2012

10:30 CET There are currently no significant new developments regarding the removal of the oil from the ship. The Italian marine authorities have yet to grant SMIT a go-ahead for the fuel removal.

Friday, 20 January 2012

Currently there is a team of approximately 35 employees of SMIT and Neri on the Island of Giglio, preparing to remove the oils. Equipment to remove the fuel include a crane-/work barge with pumps, hoses, air diving equipment and steam/heating plant onboard have been mobilised to the island and are ready to start the work.
The team is on standby to start with the vessel survey, ahead of the removal of fuel. Due to (perceived) instability of the vessel, our operations have not commenced yet. We are awaiting the go-ahead from the Italian marine authorities, to start the preparatory works for pumping out the fuel. We expect this to start once the vessels has been declared stable by the authorities.

[chala]

Originally Posted by MacG

Are there any political games played in the background of this disaster?

If it involves the Global Positioning System then you may have another Lusitania.

Maybe time to buy a sextant and a radar.

[MacG]

I am pointing at the shift in the authority of the decisionmakers. Who is going to decide whether and who is getting the job?
By declaring Giglio as "disaster-area" they are able to collect money in Brussels.
Get the point now?

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by chala

The accident may have been due to: an inaccurate chart, a failure of the electronic navigation system, erroneous data sent by the Global Positioning System and by the captain putting to much trust on the above. Visual navigation, with dusk starting around 17.18 Local and a moon expected to raise around 21.30 GMT, would have to be done in darkness and would have required total attention.

Sorry, but no. The accident was caused by going too close to a land mass, on purpose, to show off.

If it's an uncharted rock, well I guess one might expect such a rock close to shore, right next to a bunch of other rocks.
If it's an error in chart datum, well, I guess keeping 1/2 mile off would have ensured that such an error was negligible.

I trust my GPS, but trust and abject stupidity are two completely different things. I don't go 11 knots right next to a rock, no matter how much I 'trust' the GPS.

[nigel1]

Originally Posted by Astrid

The thrusters are hydraulic with reversible pitch propellors situated in thruster tunnels so they can be used for either side. Starting is normally done at the bridge along with the other controls for them.

Been trying to find out what the power plant on the CC is/was.
Far as I can make out she was fitted with 6 x Wartsila 12V46C engines, producing 75,500kW in total.
The vessel had two engine rooms, each with 3 engines
The main propulsion was 2 shafts driven my electric motors, rated at about 21,000kW each, which leaves about 33,000 kW for thrusters and domestics etc
She was fitted with 3 x bow thrusters and 3 x stern thrusters, not sure the power on those, at a guess, about 2000kW each.
These are electric driven, with variable pitch blades operated by hydraulic servo's

There would also have been an emergency geny.
In the event that both engine rooms flooded, that would leave only the emergency geny, enough for emergency lighting and a few other essentials. I would think that there would be no power for thrusters.

You may remember the fire on the Carnival Splendour, a newer and similar design to the Concordia class. A crank case fire on the No 5 engine left the vessel with only the emergency geny. Thsi incident has prompted IMO to re-examine power redundancy on passenger vessels

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by chala

The accident may have been due to: an inaccurate chart, a failure of the electronic navigation system, erroneous data sent by the Global Positioning System and by the captain putting to much trust on the above. Visual navigation, with dusk starting around 17.18 Local and a moon expected to raise around 21.30 GMT, would have to be done in darkness and would have required total attention.

The captain has stated he was driving the ship manually by sight and ordered a turn to late. ( he actually saw the foam on the rocks. There is no evidence that any of the factors you spelled out had any bearing. The Concordia accident is not germane to the issue of electronics and complacency

Dave