Free Republic

Huge icebergs could be towed from Antarctica to Cape Town in a bid to solve South Africa's worst drought in a century. Marine salvage experts are floating the plan to tug the icebergs to the region after its seen the worst water shortage in decades. Salvage master Nick Sloane told Reuters news agency he was looking for government and private investors for a scheme to guide huge chunks of ice across the ocean, chop them into a slurry and melt them down into millions of litres of drinking water. "We want to show that if there is no other source...

FILE PHOTO: Captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner Francesco Schettino looks on during a break of his trial in Grosseto February 9, 2015. REUTERS/Max Rossi/File Picture Reuters By Crispian Balmer ROME, May 12 (Reuters) – The former captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Friday by Italy’s highest court for his role in the 2012 shipwreck, which killed 32 people off the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio. Francesco Schettino was originally found guilty in 2015 of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his passengers. Friday’s ruling marked the end of the...

The remains of one of the most prestigious maritime villas from Roman times are set to reopen July 2 in a small, almost uninhabited island off the Tuscan coast after been locked for 15 years. Commonly known as "Villa Domitia," the imperial complex stood magnificently 2,000 years ago on the island of Giannutri, a rocky crescent about 3 miles long with thick areas of Mediterranean vegetation... The majestic complex marks Giannutri's most glorious time. Today the southernmost island of the Tuscan archipelago is almost empty -- populated by a huge colony of seagulls and, in summer, by a group of...

'The captain of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia has been found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Captain Francesco Schettino was at the helm when the ship hit rocks and sank in 2012, killing 32 people. He was accused of taking the liner too close to the shore and then abandoning ship with passengers and crew still on board. Schettino denied the charges and said he was being made a scapegoat.'

as massive operation to lift stricken cruise liner beginsRefloating the Concordia will be the next phase in the largest maritime salvage in history. Rusting away in the Mediterranean Sea, this is what remains of stricken cruise liner the Costa Concordia. Two years on from the tragedy that claimed the lives of 32 people, the creaking hulk is still stranded off the island of Giglio where it struck rocks and sank. Mattresses can still be seen inside the liner and the ship's furniture is visible through shattered windows still in place. Today, officials confirmed the massive 'parbuckling' operation to try and...

Costa Concordia salvage operation Time lapse footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_91A9FzxQ78

The Costa Concordia will finally be righted next week in the largest and most expensive maritime salvage operation in history. The cost of lifting the giant cruise liner, which sank off the coast of Tuscany in January 2012, off the sea bed, has ballooned to £500million - a figure that could rise if there are problems, organisers admitted. Thirty-two people died when the ship, with 4,200 passengers onboard, hit rocks and ran aground off the island of Giglio after an ill-judged 'salute' to inhabitants by the ship’s captain. The enormous operation, to pull the ship off the reef where it...

The disgraced captain of the Costa Concordia which ran into a rock and capsized off the Italian coast in January, killing up to 32 people, has sued for wrongful dismissal. Italian Francesco Schettino was not only fired by Costa Cruises but is accused by prosecutors of causing the accident by sailing the luxury cruiser liner too close to shore. He faces charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship and preliminary hearings will begin on Monday. ................. The Naples-born captain has always acknowledged making mistakes once it became clear that the 144,400-tonne Costa Concordia was in trouble. But he has said...

Representatives from Costa Crociere and the Italo-American consortium Titan-Micoperi today presented the details of their much anticipated plan to remove the wreck of Costa Concordia from the Island of Giglio using cranes and caissons to float the vessel.As we learned weeks ago, Titan Salvage and Micoperi were selected to remove the stricken Costa Concordia from Giglio Island after beating out several leading salvage companies vying for the historic contract.  Titan Salvage, part of the Crowley Group, is an American-owned specialist marine salvage and wreck removal company and is a world leader in its field. Micoperi is a wellknown Italian marine...

This video was taken from the bridge the Costa Concordia in the moments after hitting rocks on the Island of Giglio. The video offers the first glimpse of the officers, Captain and other crew members from the bridge following the initial grounding. We’ve been seeing snippets of this video over this past week but this seems to be full version (and with English subtitles). Analysis to follow…

[ . . . ] This change in the behavior of ordinary people in the face of crisis reveals something about who we have become in the century since the Titanic's demise. For several generations now, we've disparaged the view of life that produced the men who, in 1912, willingly sacrificed their lives in service to others. "Women and children first" sounds patronizing and downright sexist to the modern, enlightened sensibility. At the same time, words like "duty" and "honor" sound antiquated and empty of meaning -- and may even bring a cynical smile to the lips of our modern...

John Konrad narrates this video of the navigation plotting of the Costa Concordia based on the AIS data via QPS Maritime Software.

SANTA MARINELLA, Italy, January 23, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – What kind of man sneaks away under cover of darkness from his own sinking ship, leaving nearly 4200 passengers and crew to fend for themselves? What kind of men knock aside old ladies, little girls and young mothers to get to lifeboats first? Why, modern men, sexually emancipated men who have been raised on the tenets of feminism and our “contemporary” mores. What can an expression like “women and children first” mean to modern men who have been taught all their lives that women are nothing more precious than sexual playthings, and...

Cruise and Liner History: The offer of a 30 percent discount on future cruises, made by the owners (Micky Arison’s Carnival Corp) of the recently shipwrecked Costa Concordia (Costa Cruises), has been faced with a number of angry responses from passengers of the ill-fated luxury liner.

Abe Greenwald of Commentary magazine tweets: Is there any chance that Mark Steyn won’t use the Italian captain fleeing the sinking ship as the lead metaphor in a column on EU collapse? Oh, dear. You’ve got to get up early in the morning to beat me to civilizational-collapse metaphors. Been there, done that. See page 185 of my most recent book, where I contrast the orderly, dignified, and moving behavior of those on the Titanic (the ship, not the mendacious Hollywood blockbuster) with that manifested in more recent disasters. There was no orderly evacuation from the Costa Concordia, just chaos...

She was found inside the ship's chapel, submerged up to her shoulders, but in one piece. Fire department divers wrapped her in a white towel, and used a nylon belt to hold it in place so she would not be damaged as they pulled her out. On Saturday, the plaster statue of the Madonna from the doomed Costa Concordia cruise liner stood in a white tent on the port of Giglio, still wrapped in the same towel.

Abe Greenwald of Commentary magazine tweets: "Is there any chance that Mark Steyn won't use the Italian captain fleeing the sinking ship as the lead metaphor in a column on EU collapse?" Oh, dear. You've got to get up early in the morning to beat me to civilizational-collapse metaphors. Been there, done that. See page 185 of my most recent book, where I contrast the orderly, dignified and moving behavior of those on the Titanic (the ship, not the mendacious Hollywood blockbuster) with that manifested in more recent disasters. There was no orderly evacuation from the Costa Concordia, just chaos...

This locally acquired information playback shows the course and actions of the Concordia based on locally broadcast ship information prior to --and after-- the rock collision and subsequent grounding. Well worth watching. Clearly looks like captain error if he was at the helm. Incidentally this is an excellent site if you have an interest in maritime matters.

The culture of the passengers? Don’t want to generalize; just quoting. The food is horrible. Expect Europeans blowing smoke everywhere. My entire suitcase and clothing at the end of the trip reeked of smoke. They rarely cleaned the deck so I personally slipped 4 times and saw 20 people slip. There are inadequate warnings in place by the pool to indicate that the floor is slippery. If you are elderly, this is a walking death trap. Nobody ever lines up and expect people to push you out of the way or bite your hand off while trying to get food...

Meteorologist Alexandra Steele maps out the route of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia. [Video]