The US owner of the passenger liner wrecked off the Italian coast 12 days ago with the loss of up to 32 lives was accused last night of failing to take responsibility for the tragedy, as prosecutors shone a light on failed safety procedures.

The chief prosecutor overseeing the inquiry into the Costa Concordia shipwreck has urged investigators to look beyond the behaviour of the captain to the role played by the liner’s owners, Costa Cruises.

His remarks were published as salvage experts began the delicate task of pumping out around 2,400 tonnes of fuel to prevent an environmental disaster in the area where the vessel ran aground on 13 January.

Beniamino Deidda, the chief prosecutor of Tuscany, said in an interview carried by several Italian newspapers on Tuesday: “For the moment, attention is generally concentrated on the responsibility of the captain, who showed himself to be tragically inadequate. But who chooses the captain?”

He said investigators needed to lift their gaze to the decisions taken by “the employer; that is to say, the ship’s owner”.

Costa Cruises has from the outset put the blame for the accident squarely on the allegedly reckless behaviour of the captain, Francesco Schettino. He lost control of the 114,500-tonne Costa Concordia after hitting a rock as he skirted the shoreline of the island of Giglio in a ‘salute’ to a retired cruise line commodore.

But Deidda, who has spent a large part of his career dealing with health and safety cases, said numerous other issues needed to be addressed.

He specifically mentioned “lifeboats that did not come down, crew who did not know what to do [and] scant preparation in crisis management”.

He added it was “absurd” that in at least one instance, recorded on video after the Costa Concordia was holed, a member of the crew should have told passengers to return to their cabins.

Schettino has also maintained his employers have a shared responsibility for what happened. Among questions the inquiry is seeking to answer is why more than an hour elapsed between impact and the order to abandon ship.

Questioned by prosecutors last week, the captain said he was in frequent contact with a representative of the company during that period.

Schettino and his first officer are the sole formal suspects in the inquiry, which is considering whether to bring charges of manslaughter and the illegal abandoning of a ship. [...]

The voice of reason, at last!

ROME — Nudged gently by the tides off Tuscany, the capsized Costa Concordia has been deemed stable enough on its rocky perch for salvagers to begin pumping fuel oil from its giant tanks as early as Tuesday.

The cruise liner, its hull gashed by a reef and pocked by holes blasted by divers searching for the missing, yielded two more bodies Monday, 10 days after the accident. The corpses of two women were found in the luxury liner’s Internet cafe, now 55 feet (17 meters) underwater.

Tables, desks, elegant upholstered armchairs and cabinets bobbed in the sea as divers guided the furniture out of the holes to clear space for their exploration inside.

So far, the bodies of 15 people have been found, most of them in the submerged portion of the vessel, while 17 others remain unaccounted for. Authorities said earlier reports that an unregistered Hungarian woman had called friends from the ship before it flipped over turned out to be groundless.

The Concordia rammed a reef and capsized Jan. 13 off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio as it was carrying 4,200 passengers and crew on a Mediterranean cruise.

Salvage experts received the green light Monday to start pumping fuel soon from the double-lined tanks of the Concordia. The weekslong fuel-removal operation aims to avert a possible environmental catastrophe in the waters off Giglio, part of a protected seven-island marine park.

Officials said the pumping would be carried out as divers continue the search for the missing since instrument readings have determined the Concordia was not at risk of sliding into deeper waters and being swallowed by the sea.

“The ship is stable,” said Franco Gabrielli, head of the national civil protection agency. “There is no problem or danger that it is about to drop onto much lower seabed.”

Meanwhile, an oily film was spotted about 300 yards (meters) from the capsized vessel by officials flying in a helicopter and by residents of Giglio, Gabrielli’s office said. Samples were being analyzed, but preliminary observations indicated the slick is a light oil and not from heavy fuel inside the Concordia’s tanks.

Absorbent panels put around the area seem to have at least partially absorbed the oil, authorities said.

The ship’s Italian captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest near Naples, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his vessel while some people were still aboard. He has insisted that he was coordinating rescue operations from a lifeboat and then from shore.

The ship’s operator, Costa Crociere SpA, has distanced itself from the captain, contending he made an unauthorized detour from the ship’s authorized route. Schettino, however, has reportedly told investigators that Costa officials requested that he sail close to Giglio in a publicity move.

In a statement issued late Monday, Costa said it would refund passengers the full cost of the cruise and reimburse all travel and any medical expenses incurred as a result of the accident.

Schettino’s lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told reporters Monday that tests on urine and hair samples showed his client was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs before the crash. Prosecutors are not allowed to discuss the investigation while it is under way and it was impossible to confirm the report.

Despite earlier fears, officials said the crippled cruise ship, with a 230-foot (70-meter) gash in its hull, is not expected to roll off its rocky seabed perch and be swallowed by the sea.

An Italian geologist on Giglio monitoring the ship’s movements said the Concordia was not so much moving as “responding to the tides.”

“It is moving at the rate of about one or two millimeters an hour,” Nicola Casagli told Sky TV TG24.

The sea has been calm for several days but was expected to become choppy in the next few days.

Islanders have been pressing for removal of the heavy, tar-like fuel from the ship’s 17 tanks to avert a possible catastrophic leak.

“They should start the oil drainage operations on the ship. At this point those who died will not come back to life. Even if they pull them out later, unfortunately it won’t make a difference,” Giglio resident Andrea Ginanneschi told The Associated Press.

Five miles (eight kilometers) of oil barriers have been laid to protect marine life and the pristine waters, which are prime fishing grounds and a protected area for dolphins and whales.

Recovery experts from the Dutch salvage company Smit have said they will create holes in the top and the bottom of each tank, heating the fuel so it flows more easily and pumping from the top while forcing air in from the bottom. For the underwater tanks, sea water will be used to displace the fuel, which becomes thick and gooey when cooled.

Besides some 2,200 metric tons of heavy fuel oil, there are 185 metric tons of diesel and lubricants on board, as well as chemicals including cleaning products and chlorine. Some diesel and lubricants have leaked into the water near the ship, probably from machinery on board, officials have said.

“Smit has been ready for a week to begin pumping fuel from the tanks, awaiting only the go-ahead,” said a company statement. “For this purpose, Smit has mobilized an oil tanker with emergency response equipment, including sweeping arms, booms and a skimmer.”

Seven bodies still await identification. Gabrielli said officials have DNA from the relatives of all of the missing passengers and are working to confirm their names.

On Monday, the body of a woman found in the ship a few days earlier was identified as that of a 30-year-old Italian woman, a new bride who was on the Mediterranean cruise with several family members.

Barry reported from Milan. Andrea Foa reported from Giglio.

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The Chinese owned and built backactor dredger JIN HANG BO 53 (named by SAMSA as the JIN TAI) sank in the Port of Ngqura during dredging operations in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2012. There were no lives lost nor any injuries.

The dredger sank in shallow waters next to the extensions to the container terminal, and was left with part of the vessel showing above water. After protracted preparations the salvage of the sunken dredger met with success this past weekend when on Sunday, 22 January at 16h00 the dredger was refloated to the surface. SAMSA (South African Maritime Safety Authority) said in a statement yesterday that the salvage team from Smit Amandla Marine consisting of marine master mariners, marine engineers, naval architects, salvage divers and maritime surveyors all contributed to the sequence of plugging openings, sealing compartments, calculating the different stability criteria and making the vessel watertight for a safe salvage.

“The first priority was for the fuel and hydraulic oil tanks to be discharged ashore thereby minimising any threat of oil pollution. Engine room, workshop, other tanks and void spaces had to be pumped out, providing buoyant lift to the dredger’s hull for floating.”

One of the three uprights (dredging support spuds) remains stuck in the seabed as the support cable is broken. Suitable repairs are being carried out in order to raise the spuds for stowing.

The red & white backactor arm and digging bucket, weighing approximately 250 tons, is being supported in the spoil barge’s hopper. This extended arm & bucket has a huge destabillising force if not supported at full extension.

The next job calls for specialised cleaning and maintenance teams to commence cleaning the interior and flushing the machinery and engines to preserve them. Some machinery is being made functional in order to correctly stow the backactor into the transportation position, aft to forward along the centreline, said Captain Nigel Campbell, executive manager, SAMSA Southern Region.

“SAMSA’s involvement in the mitigation of pollution and of wreck removal is now completed.”

Source: http://ports.co.za/news/news_2012_01_24_01.php

The ship carrying iron ore, the Panamanian-registered M/V Sun Spirit, began to list Saturday off Catanduanes province and sent a distress signal.

Though coast guard officials immediately deployed three ships and a helicopter for a search and rescue, it was a Philippine cargo ship and a fishing boat that saved the crew of 12 Indonesians and two Koreans, who had abandoned the ship, coast guard Adm. Ramon Liwag said.

It was not immediately clear why the ship sank. It was bound for China after leaving the central Philippine province of Leyte, officials said.

Separately, a Philippine cargo ship with 18 Filipino crewmen sank early Sunday off central Antique province when its hull hit a hard object and took in water. The crewmen were rescued by fishing boats, coast guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Algier Ricafrente said.

The M/V Seaford 2 was destined for Antique with about 35,000 sacks of cement. Coast guard and Antique officials were monitoring any possible oil spill from the sunken vessel, which left southern Iligan city with 9,000 litres of oil for fuel, Lt. Cmdr. Ricafrente said..