Concordia Captain States "Hand of God" on Him Prevented greater Tragedy

Concordia Aground Off Giglio

CONCORDIA DISASTER - An Observation

 The ill-fated Concordia’ s Captain Schettino claimed yesterday in the Italian media that the “Hand of God” rested on his head and prevented a greater tragedy .  He says that the reef that tore out a large section of the ship’s hull was not on his charts and that only a last second course alteration prevented a much more “serious” head on collision with the submerged rocks.

It is interesting that he used the phrase “hand of God”.  As an ex-Naval officer and (eventually) captain of my own vessel,  I can recall situations, where for no discernible reason, a captain ordered a change of course or action that turned out to have prevented what might have had serious consequences. 

As a young RN Lieutenant I was rightly awed when, as our Frigate slowly left La Spezia harbour, our captain for no apparent reason suddenly stopped both engines, went astern, then brought the ship onto a course about 30 yards to left of our original one.   As we looked to starboard a huge pale underwater block of concrete slipped by just under the surface!  Out Italian hosts had forgotten to mention that there was a WWII jetty that had toppled over into the sea on our route out.  Like the Concordia rocks,  that WWII relic was not on the chart either….

Over the years I was at sea there were many lesser instances of some sort of second sight on the part of  officers of the watch seemingly to be able to predict things - Maybe these were not Schettino's 'Hand of God'  but certainly involved their having exstensive seagoing experience and being able to read situations before they developed into a risk to the ship.

In my own case, I was on an unaccompanied passage from the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean up to Mombasa.   Our route North passed well off Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam to make landfall at Pemba Island before steaming on to Mombasa further up the East African coast.   The weather though calm, was totally overcast for the whole four day voyage.  We had no satnav in those days and all we could do was to work on “dead reckoning” (i.e. estimated position from course and speed).  We were unable to take any sun or star sights for the whole voyage and were too far off Africa to get a radar fix.  That was worrying enough for me as the Captain but I comforted myself that Pemba had a large Lighthouse which I should have been able to see at the estimated time of landfall.  This should have been in early morning light.    Even so I could not sleep and got up and went to the bridge.  Something told me all was not right – maybe as Schettino  claimed happened to him,  there was some divine help on hand for me that night.  As I peered over my bows into the dark I was convinced that land was not far ahead.  And so it turned out to be.  The notorious currents off the African coast had brought us almost 6 hours ahead of our dead reckoning position!   Since as we approached land, even the lighthouse was obscured by heavy rain showers , I was glad that sleep had escaped me and that I was on my bridge to support my young and inexperienced  officer of the watch.  Had I stayed in my bunk, my naval career could well have been terminated sooner than I would have wished!  I did offer a short prayer of thanks I recall…  A Greek Skipper of an old tramp ship (SS Paraportiani and now a popular dive site) on a similar route to mine clearly had no such intervention from above.   In October 1967 he put his ship firmly aground well up on the reef which we had sucessfully avoided.  Ironically I was one of two ships sent down from Mombasa to rescue the crew.   On google Earth, you could actually make out the remains of the submerged wreck when I last checked.

The fact is that, even with all the technical advances in navigation and radar systems available today,  ultimately your own eyesight and traditional seamanship skills are the things that should help ensure that groundings like that of the Concordia are avoided.   Before sailing, the ship apparently had electrical problems which have been cited as contributing to the sinking – given that situation, old fashioned seamanship skills would have been even more important.   Despite Concordia's technical problems now being reported, the ship was actually diverted from its normal path to do a close pass to Giglio island.  Looking at the pictures of the stricken vessel, it seems to me that Corcordia was sailing dangerously close to the Island. And apparently at night too.      

However, sadly even the most experienced skipper or sailor can be distracted and the outcome can then end in the loss of a ship, and even worse, lives.  It’s called “Human Error”.   I have my own ‘professional’  opinion on who is to blame for the Concordia disaster but to express it here before the outcome of the Italian investigations and potential trial would not be appropriate.