Touristic Navigation: Italian Cruise Ship Runs Aground

Okay. An Italian cruise ship has run aground near a well-known reef equipped with electronic and visual aids to navigation to mark its position.

WHY is my first thought: what sporting events, particularly soccer matches, were playing on TV at the time of the collision?

It appears there was no counter-flooding to correct the very prompt list to starboard, but there are reports the vessel did attempt to steer for shallower water.

Weather was fine, seas were calm, all ship-board navigation systems working fine including separate GPS receivers.

Anyone know what teams were playing?

A fifty meter gash is going to admit a good deal of water and without separate compartments the sloshing is similar to the effect on Ro-Ro's where it takes very little water to affect lateral stability. Its better to be lower in the water but not list than it is to ship water and have it slosh about enough to make the listing fatal. A cruise ship that close to shore should never have been at risk of turning turtle.

The arrest of the Captain is in keeping with Italian law and does not imply that there has been any acts which under USA law would be considered Probable Cause. There was a statement made that the Captain had sailed close to the island to honor a retired Costa captain who lived there and was on board at the time but this statement contained no supporting evidence or statement indicating the source of the information. It does seem that other sources are accepting the validity of the claim that there was an intentional course alteration that resulted in the ship sailing fifteen miles closer to the island that it otherwise would have. The captain maintains that the chart he used showed no rocks being present at the location in question.

Reporting of the events has been almost as chaotic as the event. The Captain is reported to have been dining with passengers and to have been on the bridge. Much has been made of a premature departure but there is absolutely nothing in International Laws of the Sea that requires the Captain to remain aboard until all others are off the vessel. Nor incidentally is there any law about Women and Children first nor even about passengers first. Yep! That is correct. It seems the second and third officer were with him in the same lifeboat, though only the captain claims that he fell into the boat.

Much has been said about so many languages making announcements difficult but Italian and English would have taken care of very many of those aboard. Virtually all announcements could have been done in five languages to satisfy the vast majority of passengers on board. Don't tell me that they can't have a prior dictionary of safety messages with the words: Right, Left, Lifeboat, Walk, Cabin, Life vest in all languages.

A large ship so close to shallow water seems strange, a 160 foot gash is strangely large indicating speed was other than Dead Slow Ahead.

The question remains that irrespective of the reasons the vessel was off course, once the bottom was ripped out, why was there a failure of other systems, notably propulsion and power generation? Why were interior and exterior lights, particularly search lights not activated. Separate generators and battery power should have been available.

On-Edit: It appears that the captain has claimed he was engaged in "touristic navigation" which appears to be a phrase he has selected to avoid having to state that he was hazarding his vessel by intentionally standing into danger so as to delight a few friends of his on the ship and on the island.

On-Edit: Since Italian law and not International Maritime Law applies, it appears that his premature departure from the vessel can subject him to prison time. He had steamed approximate 25 miles on a "touristic" course that placed his vessel 15 miles closer to the rocks that his ship would have normally been.

Timeline:
9:30pm Impact with rocks. Crew comments to passengers were un-informative.
10:10pm Abandon Ship ordered.
10:12pm Police telephone ship in response to flurry of calls from passengers but are told only of an electrical blackout problem, not of collision, leak, list or abandon ship alarm.