Captain Francesco Schettino - I think we need a leadership award named after him. Via CBS;The newspaper Corriere della Sera has posted online what it states is an audio recording and transcript of phone communications early Saturday morning between Schettino and the Coast Guard commander at the port of Livorno, who is heard pleading with the captain to return to his ship until all aboard had been safely evacuated.You can hear the audio here. If memory serves me right, a Captain who abandons a shipwreck in this manner in Italy can be sentenced to 12 years or more in jail; as it should be.
...Coast Guard: "Listen Schettino, there are people trapped on board. Now you need to go on your life boat, under the bow of the ship on the side. There is a ladder. You need to climb up the ladder and board the ship. Get on board and report to me how many people there are. Is that clear?. . . . "The Coast Guard said Schettino defied their entreaties to return to his ship as the chaotic evacuation of some 4,200 people was in progress.
Schettino: "At this moment the ship is tilted."
Coast Guard: "I understand. Listen, there are people who are coming down the ladder on the bow. Go back in the opposite direction, get back on the ship, and tell me how many people there are and what they have on board. . . . Tell me if there are children, women and what type of help they need. And you tell me the number of each of these categories. Is that clear? . . . Listen Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Dammit, go back on board!"
Schettino: "Please . . . "
Coast Guard: "There is no please about it. Go back on board. Assure me you are going back on board!"
Schettino: "I am in the life boat, under the ship, I haven't gone anywhere, I'm here."
Coast Guard: "What are you doing?"
Schettino: "I am coordinating . . . "
Coast Guard: "What are you coordinating there? Go on board! Coordinate the rescue from on board! Are you refusing?"
Schettino: "No, I am not refusing."
Coast Guard: "Tell me the reason why you are not going back on board."
Schettino: "There is another life boat ... "
Coast Guard: "You go back on board! That is an order! There is nothing else for you to consider. You have sounded the 'abandon ship.' Now I am giving the orders. Go back on board. Is that clear? Don't you hear me?"
Schettino: "I am going on board."
Coast Guard: "Go! Call me immediately when you are on board. My rescue people are in front of the bow."
Corriere della Sera also reports that the crew mutinied, ordering passengers into lifeboats before the captain issued an abandon ship order.
UPDATE: Via SJS on FB;
Additionally, there should be a manslaughter charge for every death associated with this fiasco.
ReplyDeleteEven the original "old yellow stain" didn't leave his ship.
Was that picture taken when he was in command of the Love Boat?
ReplyDeleteThe Sirens got another one...
ReplyDeleteYes, 12 years for abandoning his ship while in duress and not making sure every passenger is off before he leaves and manslaughter charges. Hope to hell he gets to meet Guido in the joint who makes him his bitch...repeatedly...and then shares.
ReplyDeleteOf course, they look like this these days.
ReplyDeleteI suspect he'll wind up with a bottle of vino...and a Beretta with one round.
ReplyDeleteKind of looks like a young David Hasselhoff.
ReplyDeleteBeyond disgusting level of cowardice. With some jobs your compensation is not just for what you do on regular good days, but are for what you will be expected to do when the crap hits the fan. He was paid with the expectation that he'd go down with the ship unless every passenger was off first.
ReplyDelete"Lord Jim" should be required lecture for all aspiring officers, both in merchant marine and navy... at the very least.
ReplyDeleteI read today that he took the ship close to shore to show off for the Chief Cook. One hell of a joy ride fly by I guess.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking keel haul should not be ruled out in this case. Drag him over the bottom of his own ship... once it is free of the rocks of course.
I've been wondering if the navigation system didnt fuck them up. Will be intersting to see in the coming days.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Conrad is smiling down at you
ReplyDeleteHe may be in bigger trouble than he knows. What if one of the passengers was connected?
ReplyDeleteHe better pray not. It'd take him a LONG time to die if they were...
ReplyDeleteClearly this captain is not related to Fabrizio Quattrocchi.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't hold my breath waiting for him to receive the full 12 years. Italian law is full of offenses and draconian punishments which are seldom enforced or applied.
ReplyDeleteGeez, have the members of the Front Porch not learned anything from Thursdays? Clearly this accident was the result of not enough Diversity within the ship's crew!
ReplyDeleteExact opposites, indeed.
ReplyDeleteUh... macchia giallo?
ReplyDeleteAllow me to translate:
ReplyDelete"Hey! Wassamotta! How come-a U not onna da ship?"
"But da ship, she's-a sinkin!"
"U getta you ass onna da ship, ya chooch, ya!"
"I no wanna getta back onna da ship!"
"Datsa tough toenails! U-a da Captain for cryin' out loud!"
"Butta da passengers, summa dem pretty upset! Day find out Imma da Captain? Whoo-boy!"
"Looka here, mister! You a gonna go to jail! Iffa U lucky! Me, I am pissed enough to calla my brudda Frankie frumma Palermo!"
"Whadda U brudda Frankie do?"
"He putta two inna U hat, smart-ass!"
"Yellow stain" made me lol.
ReplyDeleteAlmost, Mike. Macchia gialla... feminine noun takes feminine adjectival ending.
ReplyDeleteOpined in other venues.
ReplyDeleteWhen in danger, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Caine_Mutiny
quoted from old by Herman Wouk in 1951.
Oh here we go with the bad Italian jokes.
ReplyDeleteSigh...I always laugh when Irish men make fun of anyone's ethnicity......
That's not Italian, that's Jersey.
ReplyDeleteNot good. Very not good. The book should be interesting.
ReplyDeleteNo, no, that is actual Italian. I saw it in a movie.
ReplyDeleteNot Irish. German and Polish. Nobody ever tells Polish jokes... 8-)
<span>DB, or pisciare macchia judging from the trouble he is in and is going to be in in the near future. That was a prepositional nightmare!
ReplyDelete</span>
Be interesting when we find out who was on on the bridge with him. Here in Washington State the ferry Elwa (385 feet, 2800 gross tons) went on the rocks in Grindstone harbor (great name for a place to ground) on 10/2/83. Turned out the skipper was showing a (female) passenger how her house looked from the water. Nobody hurt, the Elwa was repaired, but it sold a lot of "Elwa on the rocks" drinks in the local bars. A little north the BC ferry Queen of the North (409 feet, 8,889 gross tons) sank on 03/22/06 after the forth officer and quartermaster put it on Gil Island a little after midnight. Turned out the forth officer and quartermaster had just ended a "romantic relationship" and were engaged in a personal conversation for the 14 minutes before the Queen of the North struck. Sadly, two passengers died. I wonder who was on the bridge of the Costa Concordia.
ReplyDeletereportedly cpatain was showing off a local island to a friends amongst passengers...
ReplyDeleteHe is a required lecture in all our highschools, anyway... In my case it was "Typhoon", but most schools take "Lord Jim". Not that it stopped me from devouring both, and "Heart of darkness" the same year... was a book geek before the computers came.
ReplyDeleteSad, but probably true, Commodore. Which brings me to a question of sorts:
ReplyDeleteAs the Admiralty Courts have the bottom line in determining fault, it's my understanding that, before any CIVIL prosecution can move forward, an Admiralty judge must first make a determination of "Probable Cause" (though not necessarily a final determination), correct?
yeah, sorry...not funny.
ReplyDeleteDoctor, quick!
ReplyDeleteAR has had a failure of her sense of humor gland!
As a licensed US Merchant Marine Officer, I find the skipper's actions indefensable. Granted that my service is not on those big floating hotels, but rather ships serving the Gulf oil patch ... but even in life boat and abandon ship drills, the skipper was the last to leave.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes matters worse is old Macchia Gialla hailed a taxi to get farther away from the incident. They even found that he had changed out of his uniform and into civilian clothes.
Rumor has it that he raided the ships' safe on the way out.
From what I gather, the bridge crew is nothing but a bunch of look-outs. The ship follows a pre-programmed course every time so they always arrive at the same way point, same time, same spot in the ocean every week .... well except when the captain orders a deviation.
ReplyDeleteWhat a boring watch ... OTTO-PILOT has the helm, add to that AIS and collision avoidance software feeding orders to OTTO .... what is a deck officer to do other than give tours of the bridge?
Vava a bordo, Cazzo!!
ReplyDeletebut seriously, WTF is that a joke pic? He looks like a porn pardoy of The Loveboat. Open shirt, chest hair? Really?
Pardon me if I don't find the humor in someone mocking the culture of my grandparents.
ReplyDeleteSubmission for the award: The Miles Davis Memorial Trophy. Adam Sandler fans will get it.
ReplyDeleteAR,
ReplyDeleteVada a bordo, cazzo!
http://www.youtube.com/v/jIakAawr1mA&feature" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
ReplyDelete@URR, no need to. Plenty of history books out there.
ReplyDelete@ewok, <span>Lord Jim</span> was required reading at my high school during senior year as well. The "Honors English" class also had to read his novella, "The Secret Sharer".
ReplyDelete@QMC, Not sure. You'd probably need an opinion by one of the lawyers who post here. Suspect the fact that all of this took place within Italian territorial waters may complicate matters.
ReplyDelete@Old Nuke, A "bunch of lookouts" who command a rather substantial salary. Although nothing compared to the ferry engineers who worked out a tremendous per diem scam until one of the Seattle TV news reporters started looking into it.
ReplyDeleteHang on, let me build up some self-righteous indignation about you mocking my great-grandparents' heritage....
ReplyDeleteI'm Irish.
ReplyDeleteQuick, what's your ethnicity, I may know some good jokes!
(I know a bunch of Paddy jokes too, but I'm always on the lookout for more ... got some good ones?)
URR - the humor gland is removed in law school. Otherwise, attorneys would never be able to keep a straight face while presenting some of the prosecutions / defenses you hear about in the news.
ReplyDeleteI KNEW it! Okay, you're smarter than me!
ReplyDeleteLOL. Naw, Just a grammar nazi. For the entire world.
ReplyDeleteCommodore: You are probably right about the substantial salary, but one wonders what it compare to the day rates paid onboard US-flag ships? Might be an interesting comparison.
ReplyDeleteI was just wondering and maybe I shouldn't be for my own sanity. On our new "diverse" Navy vessels, when abandon ship is sounded and it is women and children first do the male sailors have to wait for the female sailors? How do you count gays? What about transvestites? What does the Female Captain do, is she supposed to go with the women and children ordown with the ship? Do the males have to wait for her to leave first?
ReplyDeleteMy head hurts............ :( ............... ;) .
Why wait???
ReplyDeleteno, I do have a sense of humor...I just require jokes to be...you know...funny and not some tired old trope based on stereotypes and accent mockery.
ReplyDeleteNope. The captain manually altered course to do a very close sail-by.
ReplyDeleteI guess you don't like Rocky, Bullwinkle, and Whassmatta U? ;)
ReplyDeleteI do believe the new standard is: everybody all at once, except the white boys. They have to go down with the ship, because of racism 'n' stuff.
ReplyDeleteYou can mock the Italian Navy all you want, but when you start talking about Italians and Americans of Italian descent being uneducated rubes, you and I will part company. I'm a big fan of yours, URR, but fan or not, I will knock out anyone who insults my family. I know you'd do the same.
ReplyDeleteNo, but I am a huge fan of western civilization, culture, technology and Christ's Catholic Church. Things that, while not started in Italy, were made great by Romans, and made even better in America.
ReplyDeleteLighten Up Francis's.....
ReplyDeleteAnd he said the rocks "weren't charted"
ReplyDeletepaycheck bet says that he succumbed to a tacit belief int he infallibility of his electronic navigation system.
Just as happend on the San Francisco Port Royal, and whichever DDG that was standing into Hampton Roads (Mitscher?)
tell me AR, if you held your grandmothers hands still could she carry on a conversation???
ReplyDeletejus wonderin.
C
Read Secret Sharer in 9th grade; Lord Jim in 10th. Our Honors English professors were ambitious: we paid the price.
ReplyDeleteHere comes the Front Porch A Team, riding to the rescue....
ReplyDeleteT, I'm sure that Murdoch here can argue for himself 8-)
I'm pretty sure a "sorry, no offense intended" would have ended this long ago.
Murphy approached Mulligan's bar. On the step outside he was accosted by a nun, Sister Marie, who said:
ReplyDelete'Surely a fine man like yourself is not goin' into this den of iniquity? Surely you're not goin' to waste your hard-earned cash on the devil's brew. Why don't you go home and feed and clothe your wife and children?'
'Hang on, Sister,' spluttered Murphy. 'How can you condemn alcohol out of hand? Surely 'tis wrong to form such a rash judgement when you've never even tasted the stuff?'
'Very well,' said Sister Marie. "I'll taste it just to prove my point. Obviously I can't go into the pub, so why don't you bring me some gin. Oh, and just to camouflage my intent, maybe you should be bring'in it in a cup and not a glass!'
'OK,' said Murphy and into the bar he breezed. nd
'I'll have a large gin,' he said to the barman. 'And can you put it in a cup?'
'My God,' said the barman, 'that nun's not outside again is she?'
~~~~~~~~~~~
I think I got it all... stereotypes and accent mockery. :)
Good one, DB!
ReplyDeleteQ: What do you call a 6-pack and a potato?
A: An authentic 7-course Irish meal.
Q: What do you call an Irishman with a switchblade and a .38?
A: A pacifist!
Q: What's 3 miles long, has 22,000 legs, and smells like vomit, stale urine and alcohol?
A: The St. Patrick's Day Parade.
I love Irish jokes, and so do my ancestors at least as far back as the boat that carried them from Derry & Belfast.
AOD,
ReplyDeleteYou gotta be kidding. If I were offended by every Polish joke and Marine joke I get here and elsewhere, I would be in a permanent state of outrage.
MTH is correct. Lighten up, will ya?
Sigh, I guess I better start sending cocoa and hot apple pies up on the food/drink elevator, until you all sink into starch induced torpor.
ReplyDeleteOr the MISSOURI at Hampton Roads.
ReplyDeleteYou aren't biased, there, are you, Ewok?
ReplyDeleteThe best Polish jokes I hear are from Polocks, the best Jewish jokes from Jewish people, the best Irish jokes from Micks, and the best Italian jokes from Italians.
ReplyDeleteI can only hope nowadays literature professors are as ambitious...
ReplyDeleteQuite so Scott...
ReplyDeleteBut look those others. In each case they let the box navigate.
Its mighty easy to allow those pretty pictures make you believe.
Its not just nav. I first started pondering this when the Vincennes shot down the airliner, but the Sides correctly id'd the aircraft as comair.
How could that happen?
Its a huma factors problem that if you make it very concise and very pretty, its way too easy to bite into whats presented hook line and sinker regardless of how valid the data presented actually is.
"The Vincennes Effect"
I love old time radio, and on Fibber McGee and Molly, they were always making fun and telling polish jokes about the sponsor, Johnson Wax.
ReplyDeleteHuge fan of those too.
ReplyDeletehey i got that one from a third generation italian.
ReplyDeleteC
Actually I can tell one semi-related... After a sinking of a transoceanic liner , 2 sharks meet. First is all contorting in pain "I have devoured a Russian general, all the decorations make my stomach churn". Second is barely better "I have eaten American businessmen, my gut is completely clogged with the greenbacks from his wallet". Suddenly third shark appears, in suspiciuously good spirits. "Why are you so happy?" ask the 2 sharks - "I've eaten a Pole!" explains the newcomer. "Impossible! Let me smell your breath!" (for vodka...)
ReplyDeletealright, I'm done. I said my piece, but I'm not willing to start a war on the porch with people I respect. Moving on :)
ReplyDeleteunfortunately, they are not. Parents demand "AP" courses to defray the costs of college and hope that their children will graduate in 3 years instead of four. What they fail to realize is that time in the university system and exposure to quality academic rigor (if that still exists) is just as important as the information that you learn and the degree you walk away from. It's the experience, Stupid. So, instead of focusing on classical English literature, measures of meaning, literary interpretation and analysis, logical case development and writing style, professors spend their days teaching the AP exam. What a tragedy.
ReplyDelete<span>unfortunately, they are not. Parents demand "AP" courses to defray the costs of college and hope that their children will graduate in 3 years instead of four. What they fail to realize is that time in the university system and exposure to quality academic rigor (if that still exists) is just as important as the information that you learn and the degree you walk away with. It's the experience, Stupid. So, instead of focusing on classical English literature, measures of meaning, literary interpretation and analysis, logical case development and writing style, professors spend their days teaching the AP exam. What a tragedy.</span>
ReplyDelete@AOD, 10th grade (aka "The 4th Form" where I went to school) was devoted to American Lit (<span>Walden</span>, <span>Life on the Mississippi</span>, <span>Moby Dick</span>, etc.) ;)
ReplyDeleteAOD, your premise would be entirely valid if:
ReplyDelete1. That extra year didn't set parents or students back between $10,000 and $45,000 depending on tuition, room, board and books.
2. The professors actually knew how to teach and were not fready leftovers and leftist rejects from the 1960s.
3. That extra year among drug-addled and alcohol-soaked peers couldn't have been better spent in an internship working with adults in an office.
Until academia lowers its prices and raises its own standards, 3 years is better than 4.
*freaky leftovers
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