When the Titanic sunk in 1912, it had the most catastrophic civilian death toll in the history of luxury cruises at the time. Exactly a century later, the Costa Concordia ran aground just off the coast of Italy near Isola del Giglio. Though the number of civilian deaths has now risen to eleven, it is still nowhere near the 1,500+ deaths involved in the sinking of the Titanic that fateful night a century ago. The Costa Concordia holed and capsized Jan. 13 in the Tyrrhenian Sea after the Captain sailed the ship off its scheduled track into waters noticeably too shallow. Francesco Schettino, the captain of the vessel, has been under a tremendous amount of scrutiny for this, which took the lives of numerous passengers and left over 20 missing.
Schettino has a possible manslaughter charge hanging over his head as he remains at his house under house arrest, a charge that lingers with the knowledge that he knowingly took the ship off course and too close to the island, putting the lives of his passengers in jeopardy. Another accusation is he left his ship before all passengers had gotten off, which is against maritime code. This accusation is less open to opinion than the manslaughter charge, because it’s straightforward and factual that he did, in fact, leave the ship before all the 4,200 passengers were off. This doesn’t necessarily mean he should get charged for manslaughter. Sure, he portrayed his utter lack of intelligence by running the ship into shallow waters, but stupidity is a far cry from murderous, something that Schettino doesn’t appear to be. Had he known the outcome of his little side trip, there is little doubt that he would’ve made a much wiser decision.
According to his prosecutors, Schettino steered the vessel within 150 meters of Giglio island to perform a “salute” (a greeting to the islanders). Though he admits that the boat came too close to the shore, as though the 11 deaths and sunken ship hadn’t told us already, he denies bearing sole responsibility, claiming that other factors may have been involved. May have, eh Schettino? That’s quite an unsure statement from a man who has edged his way into quite a pickle through sheer, unrelenting stupidity. As the captain of a vessel that had civilians on board, it was his job to insure the safety of those that were at his mercy.
Schettino should be punished. There’s no doubt about that. However, manslaughter is a little too extreme for a clear accident, regardless of the thoughtless risk he took. He was foolish and people lost their lives partly because of him, but manslaughter charges would be too harsh a punishment for the accidental crime. However accidental the impact was, it is still very clear that he handled the evacuation process horribly, and had too difficult a time admitting to his passengers that he had, indeed, made a very big blunder.
There was a 45 minute wait between the accident, when passengers were told it was an electrical problem, and the order to abandon ship was given: 45 lost minutes that could have been utilized to save lives. The captain knew what the situation was, and he didn’t order an immediate evacuation. That right there is the biggest crime he committed, wasting time in hopes of finding a possibility to save his honor. The ship hitting ground was an accident, but that Schettino waited forty five minutes to give the signal was intentional and fatal. The events surrounding the evacuation should be looked at more closely, instead of digging deeper into the collision itself.
The crime Schettino deserves to be punished for isn’t manslaughter, as stated before, but stupidity. It’s all well and dandy if he didn’t know how to initially react. It would take some time for most people top accept such a massive blunder like this one. But when people’s lives are at stake, and they’re looking to you for direction, then it’s obvious that when the ship hits the fan, there’s no time to worry about honor and self-worth. In those dark moments, the captain of a sinking ship is expected to be the most selfless person on the boat. Schettino, however, abandoned ship before some passengers, leaving them to their own fate in the wintery Italian waters where 11 people ended their journey through our world.
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