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VIEW FROM AFAR

The distance from Miami, FL to Civitaveechia the Port of Rome is 4718 nautical miles and the distance from Boston, MA to Civitaveechia is 3925 nautical miles.  A week ago the reef impact and later grounding of the MS Costa Concordia took place.  At that time NAUTICAL LOG wrote in our Post "Bang, Crunch, List and Panic" to guard against paying too much attention to Media reports.  From what we have read since with the Master's story changing at least three times and ridiculous statements from Costa Cruises Management it was good advice.


In the week since NAUTICAL LOG has declined to be interviewed by the Media - others have not.  This morning NAUTICAL LOG was contacted by the Media about an article in the maritime Blog "gCaptain" by a CAPT. William H. Doherty who instructs at MMA and was Safety Manager at NCL here in Miami, FL.  In spite of having served in several Miami based Cruise Lines NAUTICAL LOG has never met him so interested readers will have to read his article for themselves as NAUTICAL LOG will not comment on it. 


Suffice it to say he takes a different approach then NAUTICAL LOG does.  Being some 4718 nautical miles from the incident area we shall await the Investigation results of Prosecutor Francesco Verusio and the Italian Court of Inquiry.  CAPT. Doherty who of course is closer to things being only some 3925 nautical miles from the incident area perhaps sees things better.  His comparisons to the miners accident and rescue in Chile in relation to the Giglio Island accident escapes NAUTICAL LOG.  He also mentions some imaginary ship from a sea story, again NAUTICAL LOG is somewhat lost.  The greatest condemnation for Captain Schettino is the contempt in which he is held by the Italian Masters in his own company of Costa Cruises.


Alongside the CAPT. Doherty article is a video of a plot of the incident, there is of course a "disclaimer" with it.  This is rather puzzling, why create this "plot" with the full report of the Investigation not yet being released?  Besides the Maritime Insurance Department of Lloyds of London already produced one and one could perhaps surmise this was done with input from Lloyds Agents who having considerable contacts with the Italian Maritime Authorities got firsthand information.
and one from near - the MS Costa Serena sail-by last week

There were other events during the week which really appalled NAUTICAL LOG the principal of which was yet another "sail-by" on the part of Costa Line.  The MS Costa Serena once again repeated the passage of MS Costa Concordia, fortunately without joining her on the rocks, blowing whistles and ablaze in lights.  This with eleven (11) known dead and many missing in their company vessel some 300 metres away.  This grave discourtesy to the families of the lost and arrogant display of machismo should get every one of the Costa Management Staff fired immediately.  NAUTICAL LOG knew the founder of Carnival Cruises and has know his son, now in charge, since his Prep. School days.  His Father gave him an Apprenticeship on how ships are operated and he is one of the few in Cruise Line Management that was trained properly for the job.  NAUTICAL LOG cannot believe that he agrees with this Costa Line behaviour, besides this documented reckless behaviour has clearly negated any possibility of The Carnival Group and Costa Cruises claiming "Limitation of Liability" since "reckless behaviour" is the parameter required to so negate.

NAUTICAL LOG would recommend to our readers an excellent Editorial in the "gCaptain" Maritime Blog titled "Carnival to Conduct Safety Audit".  The Editorial all to clearly shows the attitude of Cruise Lines even when in the deep water that Costa Cruises, one of nine (9) cruise lines in the Carnival Group, is in.

Good Watch

There remain in captivity off the coast of Puntland, Somalia 300 of our fellow seafarers held now as hostages and subject to being murdered at any moment.  Nothing is being done to effect their rescue.

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