Everyone is familiar with the Titanic. Hell, there was even a movie based upon that catastrophe. Almost everyone is familiar with the line, “I’ll never let go, Jack. I promise.” Now, I think that there will be a movie called Costa Concordia. Not necessarily showing a catastrophe on the same scale as the Titanic. Instead, it would be a tale showing the atrocities of the captain, who abandoned ship before many of his passengers seeing as he is also responsible for about thirty deaths.
Of all of the news stories to write about, I chose to write about one that involved a sense of stupidity. On January 13th, 2012, the Italian Cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, struck some rocks of the western coast of Italy. The ship took a five-mile detour to pass by the “picturesque Tuscan island of Giglio.” The ship came up to 300 meters away from the shore. Three hundred meters. That is a little bit more than the length of three football fields. After the collision, the ship lost power and began to take on water. The news started reporting on the initial catastrophe, then the bashing of the captain and his actions along with the hunt for survivors.
The first thing that the news stories covered was the initial story of the cruise ship and the search for survivors. When the cruise ship ran aground, it slid on the rock. This made the ship tilt and take on even more water. This caused the ship to tilt more and more until it rested completely on the rock. Now that the ship is so tilted, the lifeboats cannot come off of the other side of the boat. Causing passengers to become stranded on the boat. News stories reported how the rescue attempts were going. For example, BBC news reported different stories on how the cruise shop actually did collide with the rocks, and what happened after. There are stories that say that she came too close to shore initially, and then ended up on the rocks by the shore. Then there are stories that say she ran aground at the point where she turned over and laid by the shore.
Regardless of the stories reported on the initial impact, what followed were the stories on the Captain of the Costa Concordia. Francesco Schettino quite possibly is one of the most incompetent people on the world today. First, he traveled five miles off course, just so the passengers could see a “picturesque” island. Then, before all of his passengers were off of the Concordia, he abandoned ship. He even had the tenacity to say that, and I quote, "I didn't even have a life jacket because I had given it to one of the passengers. I was trying to get people to get into the boats in an orderly fashion. Suddenly, since the ship was at a 60-70° angle, I tripped and I ended up in one of the boats. That's how I found myself in the lifeboat.” There are a few things about this quote that you can tell that he is lying. One, the probability of him tripping and landing in a lifeboat is extremely slim. Second, if he were so committed to saving the passengers, he would have tried to get back on deck to save as many passengers as he could. Even when the Italian Coast Guard told Schettino to, “Get on board, dammit!” the Captain did not comply. By reporting this, the media got a heavy reaction from the public. There were t-shirts made, saying, “Vada a bordo, cazzo!” Which translates into the quote from the Coast Guard, “Get on board, dammit!”
While the Captain was gaining infamy, there were constant reports on how the search for survivors was going. The news even got a hold of a few rescue divers to solidify their profit from the story. The numbers of those found dead is around 20 and those still missing is around 15. An article from the Sun starts out with a sentimental story including a little boy and his teddy bear. The diver had been tasked with finding that teddy bear as the child had not been able to sleep for many days following the wreck.
The news industry is a highly successful industry. They keep in mid that they need people to read their stories in order to make money. This makes writers think not only about their audience, but also about their audience’s reaction from the story. They want a reaction that will bring a further interest in the news story. For example, reporting the initial story will bring a basic interest. Then showing the atrocities of the captain with the sentimental stories about the survivors, dead, and those missing would surely bring any of the readers back.
What has not been reported, however, was what the Captain did well. He led the already sinking ship into shallower water, so the evacuation and rescue mission could have time to carry out. If he had not done so, the ship would have sank into deep water, causing more death. This was not mentioned in the news because it would detract readers from their current topics, which was of the bad things that the Captain did. In turn, this would be a risky story to share, because it could cause the readers to not care as much in regard to all of the negative media the Captain was facing and will be facing in the future. In my own personal opinion, the Captain was incredibly stupid to go five miles off course. Instead of keeping with course, he had to do a ‘salute’ or a float by with the cruise ship to a friend. If he hadn’t of done this, the entire crisis would have been stopped. He did incredibly well to make the ship run aground and say on the rock. But, as for the actual rescue and staying on the ship until every last passenger was off, he is a coward.
Kington, Tom. "Costa Concordia Captain Claims He Tripped and Fell into a Lifeboat."The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/18/costa-concordia-captain-tripped-lifeboat>.
"Captain Coward: 'I Only Left Because I FELL into Lifeboat When Ship Listed Suddenly as I Was Trying to Help'" Mail Online. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087704/Costa-Concordia-Captain-Francesco-Schettino-I-left-I-FELL-lifeboat.html>.
"'Most Drowned Bodies Are in Swimsuits. This One Was in an Elegant Dress'" 301 Moved Permanently. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4124879/Brave-rescue-divers-of-Costa-Concordia.html>.
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