To hear my spy novel writing partner, Holmes, tell it, I have spent the past few days in Italy teaching the maritime safety class, Don’t Put the Big Floating Thing In the Rocks. I’m happy to report that only one bozo in the whole of Italy actually needed the class. Unfortunately, I was too late.
The details of the wreck of the Costa Concordia are sordid, and that’s without even mentioning the fact that it’s captain, a man named Schettino, was busy dining with a young lady (not his wife) for another hour after the big floating thing hit the rocks.
Since Holmes is a man who has spent a bit of time on ships now and again, I will turn the blog over to him to apply a serious CyberSmack to this modern-day Nero.
HolmesÂ
One of the more outrageous pieces of recent news from Europe has been the crash of the cruise liner, Costa Concordia, on the rocks at Giglio, Italy. The grounding of the ship has thus far lead to 16 confirmed dead and 16 missing passengers.
Any maritime disaster that leads to dead passengers and crew is sad news, and sadder still if they happen to be your loved ones. This accident is also infuriating, though, because it easily could have, and absolutely should have, been avoided.
At approximately 9:35 p.m. (Italian time) on January 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia, loaded with 4200 passengers and crew, was cruising past the island of Giglio off the coast of Italy. In order to impress the island’s residents, Captain Francesco Schettino committed his first of many crimes by ordering a course change to steer the ship close to land as a sort of “hot dogging” maneuver.
No normal merchant captain in Italy or in any respected maritime service would take such a risk. A cruise liner makes as few unscheduled course deviations as possible and never makes a close approach to rocky coastlines. Captain Schettino is clearly not a normal member of the Italian maritime community.
Out of respect for the many legitimate, honorable members of the Italian maritime community, I will refrain from calling Schettino “captain” for the rest of this article. I will instead refer to him by the more suitable title of “Bozo Schettino.” I wanted to grant him the title of “Pagliaccio Schettino,” but the Italian Clowns Union threatened me with a libel suit.
At 9:40 p.m., the ship struck rocks and was badly holed. Bozo Schettino then proceeded to commit his second major crime of the day. After becoming aware of the serious damage, he lied to his own crew and passengers, telling them that there was a temporary problem with the electrical system.
Crime number three followed. He failed to give the order to evacuate the passengers to the life boats.
Outrageous? Absolutely. But Schettino was by no means done for the night. Moments later, he committed his fourth major crime of the day. He lied to the Italian Coast Guard about the condition of the ship. As a result, the well-trained and highly capable Italian Coast Guard was now hampered in any rescue mission because, thanks to Bozo Schettino, they believed that no rescue mission was needed.
As the stricken ship took on water, she began to list to starboard. The more a cruise ship lists, the more difficult it is for ill or aged passengers to walk the passageways or climb stairs. Once a cruise ship reaches a list of 40 degrees, it becomes very difficult to man-launch lifeboats.
The cruise ship was perched on the edge of an underwater cliff. If it slipped, it would be at risk for sinking to a deeper bottom or capsizing and trapping anyone on board.
As the ship’s list increased, most of the rest of the crew decided to mutiny against the captain and begin an evacuation of the ship. Mutiny is called for in rare cases. This is one of those rare cases when failure to mutiny would have been dishonorable. Thanks to the mutinous crew, the evacuation was belatedly begun. Unfortunately, the majority of the lifeboats could not be lowered because the ship’s list had increased too much.
Having created and then badly exacerbated a ship wreck, Bozo Schettino then committed his fifth major crime of the day. He decided that perhaps his crew was right about evacuating, and he left the ship while over 300 passengers remained on board. He claimed he and all of his officers fell from the deck and were coordinating the evacuation from a lifeboat. I’m not making that up. It really is one of those rare occasions when life is more outrageous than a joke I would make with Piper.
Normally, a cruise ship captain would not leave the ship until his executive officer reported to him that a thorough, systematic search had concluded that all passengers had been evacuated. The captain would then give the abandon ship order to the crew, and he would be the last member of the crew to leave.
An Italian Coast Guard rescue vessel showed up and quickly realized that they had been lied to. They made phone contact with Bozo Schettino, sitting safely in his lifeboat, and ordered him to return on board and conclude the evacuation of passengers. Piper has included another conversation with Commander Gregorio De Falco of the Livornia. I encourage you to listen to it to get a feel for how outrageous Schettino’s behavior and attitude was that night.
After that night, Schettino continued to make insulting statements. One of his gems was, “That rock should not have been there.” What? The passengers lost their lives because of a badly behaving rock? That one didn’t fly too well with the Italian maritime community or with the general public in Italy. Most Italians might not be trained sailors, but they know that large rocks don’t throw themselves in front of cruise ships.
Bozo Schettino decided that in his tired state, he could not be expected to deliver all of the outrageous quotes on his own, so he hired a willing mouthpiece. Italian lawyer Bruno Leporati has been explaining to Italy that Bozo Schettino is a hero because, “…by beaching the ship in shallow water, he saved thousands of lives.” This is, of course, utter nonsense. The better way to save ALL the lives on board was to not ground the vessel on rocks.
I feel sad that, on behalf of the honorable Italian maritime community and the families of the dead passengers, we cannot deliver more than a Cyber Smack to Bozo Schettino. But fortunately for the Italian public, he’s by no means off of any hook yet. There is, in fact, a silver lining to this story.
After living through eight demoralizing years of the corrupt and despicable Berlusconi regime, there are clear signs for optimism in that the Italian Coast Guard acted professionally, and the general public has responded with outrage toward Schettino. For example, an Italian journalist reported that the new national pastime in Italy is inventing new ways for Schettino to die. This is healthy.
The Berlusconis and Schettinos of the world are capable of laughing off the deaths of possibly 32 passengers, along with the loss of a valuable ship in a suffering economy. It’s plain to see, though, that the vast majority of the Italian people are not anything like the Schettinos or Berlusconis of the world.
The behavior of the captain of the Costa Concordia brought unwelcome news to the demoralized Italian people, but I encourage them to recognize that their own nearly universal outrage is proof that Italians are taking back their country, and that they deserve and can have a better future. The Schettinos and Berlusconnis of Italy won’t likely win this one.
It’s amazing to think how many people died because of this one man’s selfishness and idiocy. The Italian people have every right to be infuriated. The world is infuriated. Thanks for explaining what happened.
He clearly lacked the required maturity for the lowest ranking sailor. He obviously had the intellect to reach the rank and position of Captain but his character had gone unnoticed. Some people hide their insanity well.
Such an avoidable catastrophe.
Great post Holmes.
Hi Susie, Glad you liked the article.
That is next-level lawyer-speak. Wow.
I enjoyed your family travel story Chase. A wiser lawyer would have taken a low key response but maybe the guy knows that Bozo is fried any way and he just wants to bask in the lime light a bit.
Wow. Those recordings really spell it out, don’t they? I’m glad DeFalco kept the heat on him. Schettino is quite the yellow-bellied @$$! How infuriating. I hope they hang him out to dry. Those poor passengers and their families deserved better than that. Whiny wuss.
Hi K.B. That’s the most outrageous conversation between two sailors at sea that I have ever heard. In a bar in Honolulu or Norfolk one might expect to hear drunken absurdity from sea-goers but not on duty at sea. The Coat Guard Officer did well in that he managed to not unleash his wrath on Bozo. He stayed on task with rescue matters as he should have.
Absolutely. Despicable. Behavior. Thanks for this detailed timeline of events, Holmes. Thanks to you, too, Piper, for the audio recordings of Bozo Schettino.
His next “fall” won’t be into a life boat.
My imagination does not picture the dynamics of his new Captain’s Table as either posh or friendly. Oh. Sorry. Bozo Schettino table.
His stupidity, coupled with cowardice and sundry other count-the-sins, cost horrific pain to many.
Hi Gloria. I think you are right. He will likely go to prison for long stay.
Since he probably can’t ever make a living again, I hope the Italian government will provide for his needs – in a very small cell. Or maybe terminate his misery. Thanks, Holmes.
Hi David. I am enjoying your series concerning education. I am sure that he will have his meals provided for many years to come.
After seeing the picture that Piper posted I realize that the ship listed to starboard rather than to port. I will ask Piper to correct my error in the article.
Let me get this straight, the bozo decided to jump ship before the passengers, then said “The rock should not have been there.” Last time I checked, they pretty much find all the maritime dangers and put them on charts so the captain can read them and set a safe course. The whole thing is an example of BS macho posturing. Course headings are meant to be followed. Too bad the bozo didn’t follow Capt. Smith and drowned. If the sea took him all the honorable men who went done with their ships would evacuate the water and move to land because the bozo pollutes the water with his cowardice.
Hi tomwisk. I think Bozo will be getting a free room for a while.
Fantastic post, Holmes. I was astonished when I heard the news about this a couple of Saturdays ago. It seemed immediately to be caused by pilot error, and I was dumbfounded to hear about Bozo’s behavior after the fact.
Good on the Italians for taking decisive action.
Hi Susan. I had the same reaction when I heard “rocks off the coast of Italy”
So sad! But now that I’ve read this, I feel like I will never have to watch The Titanic. Thanks for that!
Hi Emma. I haven’t seen the Titanic either.. I already knew the end and the romantic angle didn’t call to me.
Hi Holmes. A good post. I live in a cave, I hadn’t heard the telephone calls. Schettino deserves the very worst the Italian justice system can bury him in. His pathetic wriggling is disgusting. You’d have to question the judgement of the person that appointed him, too.
I believe the most popular t-shirt in Italy has the words “Get back on board damn it!” Some are, justifiably, not quite as diplomatic.
Cheers
Hi Nigel. You are again more right than you know. Some idiot from the company has now claimed that the thrilling high speed passes of the rocky coast improved the value of the cruise. This while the bodies have not all yet been recovered. These people are disgusting.
I have for sake of simplicity not previously mentioned the fact that the X O failed miserably in his duty. My guess is that the Italian Coast Guard and the prosecutors want to collect as much testimony as possible before arresting the X. O.
I’ve heard about this, but as someone who avoids the news- I work with kids in CPS care I see enough bad stuff during the day. I didn’t know the whole story. That’s for the update and I think a public stoning is in order.
Hi Alica. If Bozo were to escape custody he might not escape mob justice. He is safer in the hands of the Carabinieri.
Well deserved cyber smack.
Hi EllieAnn.
I did some research and discovered that his name has been improperly Anglicized. The original spelling in Scatalesi is properly rendered “Scheistino”. I’m glad I was able to bring this to your attention, since this is an otherwise superbly delivered Cybersmack.
Thank you for the correction Dave.
If this weren’t so tragic, it would be funny. Like those insurance forms that say, “I pulled into my driveway and ran into a tree I don’t have.” The rock shouldn’t have been there. The mind boggles. How do people like that even get licenses to drive boats?
Hi Jeff. Good question. Getting the necessary certifications and re certifications to Captain a cruise liner is no simple task in Italy.
Bozo is obviously brighter than the average person. His intellect resides somewhere to the right of the top of the bell curve but his emotions apparently were adrift on the left edge of the “stability” bell curve. He and his ship fell of the left edge of that stability bell curve.
Your cybersmack is great, but I think he really needs a good drop kick to the family jewels. If only I could get to Italy to deliver it. I heard on some show ~ Anderson Cooper, I think, one of the survivors telling what it was like for them and harrowing doesn’t do their ordeal justice. It was awful and they thought they were going to die four times before they finally made it out. Tragic. So very, very tragic.
Hi Tameri. His family jewels will probably be in storage for a long time.
I can’t imagine what it’s like for untrained passengers to be in that situation. Imagine the synergistic effects of their collective fears.
Bozo and his Executive Officer had no excuse for their conduct. Evidence is now surfacing that the cruise company knowingly encouraged these “exciting” diversions from the route to entertain the passengers.
We shall see.