The remarkable event of ocean recovery was an international effort. The chief salvage master was from South Africa and his 500-men crew hailed from 26 different nations. They used a process called parbuckling (and almost $800 million) to raise the vessel. According to Florida-based Titan Salvage, the 952 foot ship will be removed and scrapped.
In January 2012, the Italian captain in charge of the cruise ship, took it off course, crashed it and abandoned ship before everyone was evacuated. Of the 4,000 passengers on board, 32 died and two are still missing. Italy suffered a certain amount of embarrassment and shame. Search teams vow to locate the two missing bodies. Every effort is being made to return recovered belongings to their owners.
This unprecedented feat of engineering has given Italy a much needed boost of pride. After two years of recession and extreme political instability, Italians cheered the rising of the beautiful ship as the world watched on live television.
How sad that the knowledge and equipment required to right a sunken vessel was not available when the Titanic went down.
Mike and I were equally impressed w the slo-mo camera reproduction of the entire project......one had to hold one's breath that at any moment one of the cables would collapse....amazing feat.....
ReplyDeleteHere's a time lapse: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/17/223365143/watch-time-lapse-video-of-the-costa-concordia-being-righted
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