DanJ

Actually, I think they do plan to get the ship back in service. Over on Cruise Critic, a poster is the brother-in-law of the senior salvage master with Titan Salvage, who was on site Saturday. He posted that his b-i-l says it's not as bad as it looks on TV, and that given a few months, and over a hundred million dollars, they should have the ship up and ready to be moved to wherever Carnival plans to refit it (likely the same Italian yard that built the ship a few years ago. Of course, that was after his first assessment, and since rescue efforts are still underway, things are quite subject to change on that.

They do have a $30 million insurance deductible on the ship, but who knows if the salvage is part of that, or just the refit. I think the $85-95 million they are talking about is just loss of use of the ship for the remainder of this fiscal year, ending Nov 30, but doesn't include the impact this will have on people deciding not to cruise, especially in Europe and especially on Costa.

The share price is down around it's 52 week low this morning, which makes a nice buying opportunity, especially for people who cruise the Carnival brands frequently and want to take advantage of the shareholder benefit.

cordelli

I am sure they will fix it up again.

I would also guess that it would be assigned to another line, I think Italians are way too superstitious to get back on it (after all when it was christened, the champagne bottle did not break, so the ship was doomed according to my in laws)

Then again, given that the entire crew pretty much was no where to be found according to many of the passenger reports I don't know why anybody would book Costa, but that's another issue

One would hope the cruise lines put in monitors to see where their ships are, and when they go off course. Supposedly there would have been alarms in the bridge when it went off course, those should be transmitted to operations so they can be involved earlier and not leave all the decision making to one person whose competence is most certainly questionable.

WHBM

You can't fix that up.

Look at the Herald of Free Enterprise, just capsized onto sand, didn't strike anything or do structural damage, yet that was scrapped, and when righted and being towed to the breakers yard the structure nearly broke up.

This one has a ripped hull down one side, goodness knows (yet) what damage on the other side, which is laying on rocks, and all the internals and fitout, propulsion machinery, etc ruined by saltwater. Plus nobody will want to buy it. I hear there's a more active sea moving in to the area which will roll it around over the rocks, the end for any ship's structure.

It was always standard procedure for the champagne bottle to be taken into the shipyard workshops, put in a vice, and have the bottom filed down to a tiny thickness to ensure it would break when it hit. Perhaps nowadays with all-automated shipyards nobody is left with the hand skills to do this any more !

Plato90s

The ship costs $600M and was in service for only 5 years, so of course it'll be repaired.

And likely renamed, because I doubt they'll want the name Costa Concordia repeated after recommissioning.

tsastor

Yes, and the accident happened on Friday, the 13th.
All cruise lines seem to nowadays have the same kind of international setup with their crew, only some of the officers and maybe machinists may have a kind of confidant status with the ship owners.
All cruise ships have this and you can see their positions also on the internet, even on Costa's ship home pages. E.g you can see Costa Atlantica's position, speed and heading here.

WHBM

Well the guy from Lloyds insurance (probably knows more than all of us here added together) says it's pretty certainly a total loss.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16584075

SRQ Guy

I'd say anybody who isn't actually on site is just making a WAG (wild-assed guess) as to whether Concordia will be repaired or scrapped.

chgoeditor

He's actually from Lloyd's List, a publication formerly--but not currently--owned by Lloyd's of London.

cordelli

It's too early to tell what they will do with it, nobody can say until they get a detailed look. The primary concern from that I've read over the next two weeks will be to get all the fluids off the ship before they ruin the ocean there.

One story said it's totally possible they can weld giant plates over the hole, pump out the water, and tow it away. In the same story it also said they may bring in a bunch of people with torches and cut it into little pieces and haul it off for salvage.

I'm betting they will repair it, but it's a total guess.

Bobster

Partial transcript of today's news conference with Pier Luigi Foschi, chairman and chief executive officer of Costa Crociere, parent company of Costa Cruises:

http://cruiseradio.net/costa-concord...ce-transcript/

Dieuwer

The Titanic was also "sophisticated" for its time. It still sank. And so will many more cruise ships as long as people have the final say.

Sprezzatura

A co-worker mentioned to me today that a friend of his had just recently started a new job as a crew member on the Concordia. They have been in touch since the accident so the friend did get off the boat safely.

Small world.....

DanJ

Providing there aren't a lot of breaches on the side resting on the seabed, then they at least have easy access to cover the holes. My biggest question is for them to pump the water out, how do they stop water from just flowing in from the top of the ship? The bottom and sides of the ship are watertight, but not from the top down. The water just runs down the elevator shafts and stairwells and into the bottom of the ship.

Thinking back to cheesy movies of my youth, like Airport 70-something and Raise The Titanic, I wonder if they can put big balloons under the starboard side of the ship, inflate those and tilt the ship back up on it's keel, allowing the water to settle into the lower levels of the ship, where it can then be pumped out. I'm positive there is going to be a documetary on this, and I can't wait to see it.

dodo

Looks like what they are looking at according to the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16573312

WHBM

This is how such salvage has been done for the last 100 years, with big air pumps on barges alongside. Developed to raise WW1 wrecks. But doesn't spring up to the surface like in Hollywood - takes months. Will need to cut off anything they can, like upper decks to minimise weight.