AOS-USA Maritime E-News Sept 14, 2012

(Editor's note: We continue to pray for all those affected by this tragedy, including passengers, their families, the staff, crewmembers, and yes, even the company. We pray that true justice will take place, and most of all, that this tragedy will lead to greater safety at sea.)

ROME - Court-appointed experts have squarely blamed the captain of a cruise ship that ran aground off Italy for the wreckage and deaths of 32 people, but they also faulted the crew and ship owner for a series of blunders, delays and safety breaches that contributed to the disaster.

The Costa Concordia ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Jan. 13 after Capt. Francesco Schettino took it off course and brought it close to the island as part of a stunt. He is accused of manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all passengers were evacuated.

Eight other people, among them crew members and Costa's crisis coordinator, are also under investigation. The court in Grosseto ordered the expert investigation to help it determine who, if anyone, should be put on trial. A hearing is scheduled for next month.

In a 270-page analysis, the four experts described in second-by-second detail the unfolding disaster as Schettino slowly came to realize the gravity of the situation. Using data and voice recorders to reconstruct the drama on the bridge, the report showed how Schettino failed to grasp for a good 45 minutes repeated reports from his crew that his ship was flooding and its motors dead.

The analysis came out Wednesday and was placed online Thursday by the Rome daily La Repubblica.

The experts contrasted what went wrong on board with maritime rules and procedures and determined that Schettino should have given the "abandon ship" order at 10 p.m. that night, 15 minutes after the 9:45 p.m. grounding against the rocks off Giglio.

Instead, the evacuation order only went out at 10:43 p.m. - and Schettino himself didn't give it but another officer, in violation of maritime rules. By that time, passengers on their own had already reported to their muster stations with life jackets on, despite a decision from a crew member at one point that they should go back to the dining room.

"Madonna, what a mess I've made," Schettino muttered soon after the collision, according to the transcript.

Beyond Schettino's faults, the experts said a series of problems hobbled the execution of his initial maneuver and efforts to fix it, and contributed to the botched evacuation. Bridge crew members bungled directions and didn't his understand orders because of language barriers. Other crew members weren't trained or certified in security and emergency drills, the report found.

In all, the experts said, Schettino and his bridge crew showed "scarce professional seriousness" before and during the disaster, with Schettino joking just before the crash, after his helmsman again misunderstood an order, that he needed to do it right "otherwise we go on the rocks."

And the experts said ship owner Costa Crociere bore blame, too, by delaying alerting coastal authorities about the emergency - a charge Costa denied Thursday.

In a statement, Costa said by law it was Schettino who was supposed to have alerted authorities about the accident, and that the captain assured the Costa crew on land that he had done so. And regardless, Costa said, Schettino's reports to Costa's headquarters were so delayed, "partial and confused" that the company couldn't discern how serious the emergency was.

Yet the expert report said Schettino had "clearly explained the situation" to Costa's fleet crisis coordinator in his initial call. Schettino was far less forthcoming when the Livorno port authorities called him after hearing word the ship was in trouble: in that conversation, Schettino only told the port that there was a blackout on board.

And Costa firmly rejected the experts' claims that the crew was unprepared for emergencies, saying the "alleged defects in the certifications of some of the crew" didn't affect the evacuation.

From the start, passengers described a confused and delayed evacuation, with many of the lifeboats unable to be lowered because the boat was listing too far to one side. Some of the 4,200 people aboard jumped into the Mediterranean and swam to Giglio, while others had to be plucked from the vessel by rescue helicopters hours after the collision.

Some passengers said they were shocked to see Schettino already ashore when they were being evacuated. Schettino claims he helped direct the evacuation from the island after leaving the ship. The report demonstrates how he refused several demands by port authorities to return to the ship to oversee the evacuation.

Schettino has insisted that by guiding the stricken ship to shallower waters near Giglio's port instead of immediately ordering an evacuation he potentially saved lives. He has claimed that another official, and not he, was at the helm when the ship struck.

But the timeline in the expert report makes clear that he had assumed control with a verbal order at 9:39 p.m., after being called back up to the bridge to oversee the stunt, which he had planned as a favor to friends from Giglio.

Work has begun to remove the tons of rocky reef embedded into the Concordia's hull, a first step in plans to eventually tow the wreck away from the island.

The whole removal process is expected to take as long as a year.

Costa Concordia crew 'were not drilled in evacuation procedures'

Courtesy: The Telegraph

By Nick Squires, Rome

2:33PM BST 13 Sep 2012

Crew members aboard the Costa Concordia cruise ship were not properly drilled in evacuation procedures and could not even understand basic Italian, leaked evidence showed on Thursday.

Staff of many different nationalities struggled to communicate with each other before and after the giant cruise liner slammed into a rocky shoal off the island of Giglio, according to an exhaustive report compiled by a panel of maritime experts.

Although the common language on the ship was meant to be Italian, a radio officer who was trying to organise the lowering of life boats had to resort to English to communicate with a group of crewmen from South America, the report found.

"Not all the crew were able to understand the emergency instructions, which were in Italian," the experts said.

In what one Italian newspaper called "a Babel at sea", a Bulgarian first officer struggled to understand Italian, while an Indonesian helmsman twice failed to understand orders given by Capt Francesco Schettino as the Concordia approached Giglio to perform a "sail-past" that ultimately proved disastrous.

The captain, who faces charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship, allegedly told him to pay closer attention and cracked a joke in English: "Otherwise we go on the rocks."

Price war among armed guards prompts call to ban cheaper security firms

Courtesy: Schednet

13 September 2012

CHEAP, but improperly trained armed guards have shot at, killed and wounded fishermen who were only suspected pirates, according to Switzerland's Marine Risk Management Ltd, whose CEO issued a demand that "disputable" security contractors be shut down by authorities.

There are 207 firms providing shipboard armed guards, of which fewer than 20 can be called "reputable", said Marine Risk CEO John Dalby, who is also a spokesman for the International Association of Maritime Security Professionals (IAMSP), a would-be licensing or classification body "offering" accreditation to "professionals able to demonstrate a high degree of professionalism, experience and able to abide by the IAMSP Code of Conduct".

Said Capt Dalby: "We now find ourselves in a situation where many are offering discounted rates - often 50 per cent of the scale being charged. Standards - never very high - are declining.

"Because of their illegal status there is little or no communication with the naval authorities, including coastguard, airborne and medical resources. They are also lacking the necessary logistical support and financial resources," he said of the competition.

"Unfortunately, this situation is exacerbated by shipowners whose only consideration is price, thus encouraging this damaging cost-cutting," he said.

But Captain Dalby said naval forces have "too few floating assets with too great an ocean to cover" while costing billions even at this inadequate level.

In terms of what can be done to remedy this situation is already in place, he said. "Regrettably, it is being largely ignored by governments, industry bodies, insurers and shipowners. "

Nautical Institute Launches New Magazine

PRESS RELEASE from The Nautical Institute

Please find attached a press release (and supporting information) announcing the launch of The Navigator - a brand new magazine from The Nautical Institute published in association with the Royal Institute of Navigation.

You can view a copy of the first edition of The Navigator at: www.nautinst.org/thenavigator

Kind regards,

Martin Fothergill

Assistant Manager, Marketing and Communications

The Nautical Institute

202 Lambeth Road

London

SE1 7LQ

K-Line Shipping Vacancies

We have Open Vacancy for Tankers, dry cargo, Bulk Carrier vessels and tugs at the Masters, Chief Mate, 2nd Mate, 3rd Mate and Chief Engineer, 2nd Eng, 3rd Eng, 4th Eng. Electrician, cooks, Motorman, Captain, oiler, welder, sailors e.t.c.

If you have experience with any of the above positions do Contact and send your CV and documents to Mr. Johan Taylor via mail jtaylor@globomail.com for immediate response and recruit.

Prayer for Hurricane Season

O God, Master of this passing world, hear the humble voices of your children. The Sea of Galilee obeyed your order and returned to its former quietude; you are still the Master of land and sea. We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control. The Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant, can awake from its seeming lethargy, overstep its conventional boundaries, and invade our land and spread chaos and disaster. During this hurricane season, we turn to You, O loving Father. Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with the passing of time. O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our Beloved Mother, we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf, so that spared from the calamities common to this area and animated with a true spirit of gratitude, we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son to reach the heavenly Jerusalem where a storm-less eternity awaits us.

Amen.

Originally dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Audrey in 1957. - Fr. Al Volpe, Cameron Parish, LA

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