Il Tirreno

There was Williams and Dayana, a father and daughter that had boarded for a journey they had awaited for a long time and been able to make due to much sacrifice.  There was Thomas, who after finishing his degree in anthropology had decided to board in order to earn some money, but also had sworn that this would be his last trip working on a cruise ship.  There were two brothers, Pierre e Jeanne who had received the trip as a gift from family to distract them from a grave loss.  Then there was also Elisabeth and Giovanni, Inge and Maria Grazia and another 23 names to add to the rosary of pain of  theCosta Concordia .  32 people   died on the night of the 13th to 14th of January in the water in front of the Island of Giglio which became the stage of a story that resonated throughout the world.

The shipwreck and the salvage operation. The 32 victims of the Costa Concordia boarded along   with the other 4,397 passengers on one of the biggest and most luxurious cruise ships.  At the moment of impact with the rock of Scole, a rock formation very close to the port  of Giglio, the majority of the passengers were in the restaurants located on the 17th floor of the floating giant.  Its now 9.42pm but more than half an hour will pass before the first alarm reaches land thanks to the phonecall of a passenger to her mother, even more than an hour will pass before the captain, Francesco Schettino gives order at 10.58pm to abandon the ship.  In the meantime on board Williams and Dayana, Thomas and the others were trying to reach the evacuation points and the rescue boats: the managing of the emergency and the evacuation by the crew is one of the points on which the inquiry of the Public Prosecuter of Grosseto will   bring to light.  What is certain is that 32 didn’t make it, 32 were unable to descend into the sea, 32 didn’t take part in what seemed in the night filming by the Guardia di Finanza as an army of ants abandoning the floating giant at that point already a beached relic.  But the night of the shipwreck of the Concordia was also a night of solidarity, generosity and sacrifice: the quality of the rescuers, those “professionals” (vigili del fuoco, protezione civile, capitaneria di porto) and those “spontaneous helpers”, like the inhabitants of Giglio that opened the doors of their homes and their shops to the victims.  Or, like the case of the priest that opened the Church as a recovery place for those who had the need.

The cause and the inquiry.  Its not an easy job that awaits the Pulic Prosecuter   Francesco Verusio and the pool of collaborators that have been working on the case.  Not because the material is missing: between documents, videos and sound bites collected in these months, there is   much to choose from.  But from this to find a logical way that can hold up an accusation in front of a tribunal, its a long road ahead.  What is certain is that for now there are 9 people under investigation: the Captain Francesco Schettino and the vice captain Ciro Ambrosio, also four officials and three managers of Costa.  Certain also is the reconstruction that the prosecuter has developed: the Captain Francesco Schettino would have been too close to the coast of Giglio, in the intent of effecting the maneuver known as “make a bow” .  The hit against the rock of the Scole would have caused a gash of many metres on the left side of the Concordia: for the prosecuter the impact would have caused the ship to rotate 180 degrees, to lean against the point of Gabbianara.  A reconstruction that is exactly the opposite of that is of the defence of Schettino, for them the maneouver of getting close to the coast would have been an attempt by the captain to save the passengers .  Under the spot light of the prosecuter there is also the behavior of Schettino and of Costa during the moments right after the impact:  for the prosecuter there was an attempt to hide or at least downsize what happened, even in the conversations with the Capitaneria di porto of Livorno.  For this accusation to become a sentence will still have a long way to go since the preliminary enquiries are not closed yet.

The protagonists.  The story of the Concordia is also (if not above all) a story of people.  And the people are not just the victims, or the terrified passengers that told of the hours of the night when they were left suspended between life and death .  There are also the protagonists, the ones with different roles in the story that have become known all over the world.  The first, of course, is the captain Francesco Schettino, the principle accused of the event and the main target of the media of all the world (even David Letterman has talked about him in his show).  Right now Schettino is under house arrest in his home in Meta di Sorrento, where he has received the support of the majority of his fellow citizens but has also been dumped by his own shipping company.  If its true that a protagonist is   unable to be without an antagonist,   the tragedy of the Concordia is not missing the personification of those values that were missing in the captain from Campania.  The first name is that of the captain Gregorio De Falco, that on the night of the shipwreck, from the operations room of the Capitaneria di porto of Livorno, ordered Schettino to reboard:   audio heard all over the world, that brought into common vocabulary sailor’s slang terms such as “biscaglina”.  Another positive character of the story is the paymaster Manrico Giampedroni, who during the chaos of the evacuation was able to save many people, while himself remaining severely injured.  In the declaration released to the press after being extracted from the wreck he wanted to underline the fact that he didn’t want to be considered as a hero.

The rescue and the environmental alert.  Instead, we do not know   if the workers and employees of the Smit Neri consider themselves as heros.  The certain thing is that they are heros for the inhabitants of Giglio because when they left the Island they saluted them with a loud siren, applause from the wharf and white sheets hanging from the windows.  Because the employees of the Livornese Dutch cooperative accomplished a forlorn hope that seemed almost impossibile: to empty the fuel tank of the Concordia of the more than 2,000 tonnes of fuel, avoiding an environmental disaster that could have compromised the eco system of the entire Tyrrhenian Sea.  An indispensible work, requied before starting with the real recovery of the ship.  This is a game that has never been played in the history of the marine world, because of the magnitude of the work that awaits the American Titan and Romagnola Micoperi, who have been chosen by Costa (that will pay for the operation).  The project of the two companies  involves, firstly making safe the hull (that many sources of information have said is slowly sinking downward into a 70 metre deep abyss), then levelling the ship with iron guidropes and the positioning of large boxes that helps the ship to float and be towed.  The port of destination is yet to be decided   for the ship (which will not be cut into slices, as was initially feared): the region of Tuscany supported also by the chief of  the Protezione Civile Franco Gabrielli, insists that the work has to  be done in the closet port to Giglio, without risking (as was initially thought) to transfer the ship to Palermo.  It is a battle that involves big numbers since we are talking about a job valued at 300 million and providing around 1000 jobs.

Victims and the missing.  We must not forget, however, that in the hull of the ship there is not just furniture objects and fittings to recover and  dispose of.  Still missing from the role call are, in fact, two people that embarked on board the Concordia: the Sicilian Mario Grazia Trecarichi and the Indian Russel Rebello.  Their bodies have not been found by the many divers that in these months have been searching the wreck and have been able to return the bodies of 30 other people to their beloved.  Bodies that now can rest in peace in different countries and that have become symbols of the global tragedy that, exactly 100 years after the sinking of  the Titanic, has reminded of the truth already written by Jorge Luis Borges: “The sea is an   idiom   I can not decipher”.