"I was navigating by sight because I knew the depths well and I have done this manoeuvre three or four times . . . but this time I ordered the turn to late and I ended up in water that was too shallow. It don't know why it happened. . . I was a victim of my instincts."
Approaching Le Scole rocks on a heading of 351°, speed 15.5 knots (18 mph)
21:44 - Fast translation from his testimony - " . . . foam astearn . . . while the ship is sailing at 15, 16 knots...radar was not pinging..... the order of the captain to avoid the obstacle came 40 seconds too late..."
I looked to the bow and saw waves breaking," he said in testimony leaked yesterday. "I saw the foam on the water. I realised the bow was heading for the rock and at that point I turned the helm completely to the right, stopping the engines and then I ordered full steam backwards."
This assement was posted an another site by Bob Theriault on January 22, 2012 " . . . seems possible that the 300 meter long ship pivoted on its center of lateral plane as a result of a hard turn to starboard. This will result in the ship continuing along the original path for some time while the bow moves to the right, and the stern moves to the left (skids). At some point the skid turns into the desired path, but for a while the ship will see the stern moving to the left where it can then hit the rock at an angle. The stabilizer is shown deployed and not damaged. That would indicate an angular contact with the rock aft of the stabilizer, as would occur in a skid. The stabilizer may have also been deployed after the collision. Windage may have also caused the stern to fall off to port in the attempted turn. He just cut it too close for a boat that big and with that silly amount of windage."
- Ship impacts rock. Once he understood that he had grazed an outcropping to port, his immediate response was to turn hard to port to swing his stern away from the rock. Point of impact, speed had been reduced to about 13.3 kts.
Starboard rudder applied too late Stern pivoting into rocks Hard left rudder applied
Within five minutes, lighting is lost throughout the ship. This would indicate that the engineering plant had been flooded resulting in loss of propulsion power. Many passengers begin to panic. Crew reassure passengers that nothing is wrong.
21:48 - Once he had cleared that area he reversed his rudder to starboard to head away from the shore, back out toward open water in order to slow it down, normally the ship would reverse engines, but with no power at this point, the captain applied hard right rudder. Speed had been reduced to 5 kts. by this time.
With loss of the main ship's generators, emergency power sources kicked in providing limited emergency lightening throughout the ship, and power to critical navigational equipment, which we believe included the ship's rudder and bow thrusters.
A first alarm is sounded: two long whistles and one short, informing the crew of a problem. Reports indicate that there was not a sense of urgency among much of the crew.
I could assume that the Engineering Main Control room was also lost to flooding and the Captain unaware of the cause of his losing communication with the Engineering Watch.
Schettino ordered his first navigation officer, Giovanni Iaccarino, to go below and inspect the engine room. "What I saw was terrifying," Iaccarino testified to Italian officials. "Everything was flooded and I literally had water up to my throat ... The engine section, the generators and the electricity transmission were all flooded." He alerted the bridge by shouting down an internal telephone.
21:55 - Speed over the ground has slowed to 2 kts when off Gabbianara Point. As the ship slowed down it became harder to steer, so although the turn had prevented it from crasing into Isola de Giglio, it was heading out to sea.
"Whenever you turn a ship hard over it's moving sideways, and when you're moving a large ship like that sideways through the water its going to slow down considerably."
22:05 - Forward speed 1.0 kts., broadside to track. Ship's head begins a slow swing to starboard, perhaps assisted by the bow thrusters.
"The ship fired its port-docking thrusters - usually used for manoeuvring sideways while docking - but the hard right rudder had caused the Concordia to list to one side.
"By turning the ship across the direction of movement, the Captain used the ship as a brake to slow momentum."
"The Captain then used the bow thrusters to keep the bow of the ship pointing towards Giglio Porto."
22:06 - Ashore authorities received first alarm of problems through a passenger calling relatives
???? - Ship reached furthest point North and commences moving to the South, having traveled at most, a little over a mile from point of initial impact. It is unknown how long ship's backing power had been lost, however, it would seem a rather short distance for a ship of that size coming to a stop. There is a report that he dropped the anchor and it's dragging may have contributed to reducing forward momentum. I have seen one underwater photograph showing an anchor chain.
The captain insisted that his priority had been to manoeuvre the ship into shallow waters where an evacuation could be carried out more safely.
"I wanted the grecale [a northeast wind] to carry the ship towards the island," he said. "I ordered the anchors dropped because that would help me carry out the manoeuvre."
22:25 - Heading downstream at a speed of 0.7 kts. moving almost sideways
Northward Movement Reversed Crabbing Southward by Current Grounded
The Concordia, probably pushed by the current and the docking thrusters, moved toward land. The ship was moving almost sideways at this point.
22:26 - Communicating with the Coast Guard, Capt. Shettino admits to damage requesting but tugboat assistance only
22:26 aAt this time the Captin requested tug boats from the Italina Coast Guard.
22:50 - At 0.5 kts., ship grounds at Gabbianara Point - 66 minutes having elapsed from initial impact
The stern of the Concordia finally struck the reef at Gabbianara point, swinging the bow to the right and pinning it against the rocks.
22:58 - Capt. Shettino orders Abandon Ship. The “abandon ship” signal is given: seven short whistles and one long. Lifeboats begin their deployment.
Tract pictorials thanks to Captain’s John Konrad who "Narrates the Final Maneuvers of the Costa Concordia [VIDEO]"
http://gcaptain.com/gcaptains-john-konrad-narrates-the-final-maneuvers-of-the-costa-concordia-video/?37941
Is the bow and stern thrusters argument still open, or is the verdict in?
ReplyDeleteIt seems ridiculous to me that wind and current alone could have sent Concordia to shore and press her against the rocks.
Isn't there black-box evidence or oral testimony by now that clarifies whether the ship's lateral thrusters were used or not?