This work, in a journalistic style, takes into account the political, economical and technical side of the cruise industry and almost the entire business. It contains an analysis of the inherent dangers carried by the business driven choices that affect the design of the new ships and a critical view of the image that a subservient media provides of that world.
By reviewing the way the event of the past were reported and how the stories are still told today this work underscores the weaknesses and the faults that were not meant to be seen by the public. How artfully generated confusion and misleading reports managed to hide all those flaws and weaknesses in plain sight.
Beyond the deception, this work underscores the lessons that have never been learnt because the business cannot afford to learn while they chase the myth of eternal growth. A policy that pushed all the major cruise lines to accumulate huge debts that weigh heavily on the accounting, notwithstanding the big sums they can earn during the good years. Those debts now dictate the frantic pace of their operations that leaves little time for maintenance and they also determine the technical choices behind the design of the new ships, thus leaving many open questions about the impact they have on the safety of the passengers.
Excerpt:
When the Costa Concordia entered service in 2006 she was among the largest cruise ships in the world, a magnificent example of a joyous and carefree world. The passengers were not supposed to do anything else, but enjoy their time on board. They did not enjoy their last night though, packed on the bridge of a sinking ship, waiting to board a lifeboat for the unexpected journey towards safety. The following day the reporting was sensationalistic, full of surprise and confusing. So much confusing that what really happened was never properly told. All we know is that the ship deviated from the planned route, something went wrong and the ship struck rocks with such a force that not only it tore open the hull, it also broke off and lodged in the hull a massive granite block. The breach was so long that it spanned multiple watertight compartments, it flooded both generator rooms and the sea water quickly knocked off all the main generators. In a short time the ship was left powerless, drifting away, still pushed by that inertia that the hard rocks could not dissipate.
After a while a small emergency generator restored some power, just enough to power the emergency lights, the speakers, some instruments and the rudder. After drifting for about 2 kilometres finally the inertia was dissipated and the crew exploiting the wind and the little help that the rudder could provide directed the ship towards the coast, where she partially sank in shallow water and went to rest on the sea bed. The evacuation began when the ship stopped drifting and it took about six hours to complete.
32 People died, few drowned after jumping overboard, some fell or were sucked under water when the ship capsized, for others the circumstances are not clear. The remains of many of the victims were recovered days later, some were recovered months later. In all the cases the news did not disclose any detail that could shed a light on the circumstances of their death. Even the trial of the captain, the only trial that was held after the sinking, failed to clarify this point. The judges treated almost all of the cases as if they were the same.
All the news about the accident contained in one way or the other always the same message. How is it possible for a modern ship equipped with the most advanced technology to sink in this way in calm waters and fair weather? After few days everybody was sure that the only possible explanation was that everything was the fault of an incompetent captain, Francesco Schettino, who made several mistakes guiding his ship into a disaster. But then all the journalists stopped before asking the obvious follow up question. How come the lives of thousands of people and a ship worth more than 400 million Euros were put into the hands of such incompetent? The answer to the follow up question is that nobody put the lives of thousands of people into the hands of such incompetent. Nobody asked the follow up question because the explanation for the first question was just an excuse. Any journalist asking few questions to anybody with a little knowledge of the field could understand how difficult it is to steer ships as long and as massive as the Costa Concordia, how unforgiving they are, often they give no room to recover eventual mistakes, mistakes are not allowed.
It is clear that many journalist feigned their surprise and it is not difficult to understand why. The carefree world must remain carefree, the public must not understand the dangers involved. How misleading was the reporting, was evident in the following days, when among the public many people were asking the same question. How come the crew did not notice the rocks? There had to be a sonar on board, was anybody looking at it? They were all asking this question because nobody explained that a ship is not a car. A car has the steering wheels on the front and it touches the ground only on four points. When the driver turns the wheel the front of the cars turns and the entire car follows the trajectory. A ship has the rudder on the back, or better say at the aft, it works in a different way. When the rudder moves, it forces the ship to rotate, the pivot of this rotation changes with the speed of the ship, but in any case it is closer to the bow than the aft. It means that, when the ship turns, the aft shifts sideways and the amplitude of the movement is bigger that the one of the bow. When a ship like the Costa Concordia that is almost 300 metres long turns, the aft could slide sideways by 100 metres. Considering also the the massive inertia, the result is that every correction to the route needs a lot of space to be executed. These giant ships are so difficult to steer that every single manoeuvre must be carefully planned in advance in all the details. When the sonar starts sounding the alarm it is already too late, or at least this was the case in this accident because the speed of 15 knots made things more difficult by adding a huge inertia, there was not enough space to correct the mistake.
The reporting actually stated that the alarms were turned off, but this is not credible, anyway the story was so thoroughly confused that few people understood that there was no need for a long series of mistakes to doom the ship, one small mistake was enough.
