Costa Concordia
Photograph from Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
The cruise ship Costa Concordia lies partially sunk just a few hundred yards from the rocky coast of the Italian island of Giglio on Monday. Though the fallout from the disaster remains unclear, past luxury liner accidents—theTitanic shipwreck being the most infamous—have sparked new measures for keeping passengers safe and dry.
The Costa Cruises-run ship's hull was ripped after the liner ran aground Friday.Capt. Francesco Schettino had steered the 126,000-ton vessel dangerously close to shore, purportedly to salute people on the island.
Eleven people are confirmed dead from the accident, and 23 people are still missing. Accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and abandoning ship, Schettino is now under house arrest.
Cruise historian John Maxtone-Graham said the decision by the Costa Concordia's captain to leave the sinking ship early was shameful.
"He wasn't the last man off," he said. "That is horrendous behavior. He's obviously a man of very lax principles and he'll never be on the bridge again."
—Ker Than
Published January 18, 2012
R.M.S. Titanic
Photograph by Emory Kristof, National Geographic
"Rusticles" coat the railing of the sunken R.M.S. Titanic (file picture), which sank in the North Atlantic during the ship's maiden voyage from Southampton, U.K., to New York City on April 15, 1912.
More than 1,500 people died in the disaster, largely because the White Star cruise line outfitted the ship with only enough lifeboats for about half the people aboard.
"That was extremely ill advisable," said Maxtone-Graham, author of the new book Titanic Tragedy: A New Look at the Lost Liner, due in March.
To make matters worse, no lifeboat drill involving passengers was performed before the Titanic set out, and many of the oars in the available lifeboats were so new that they were still tied with twine.
"When people got in the boat that night, some of them had a hard time getting the oars rigged," said Maxtone-Graham.
As a result of the Titanic disaster, modern cruise liners now must carry enough lifeboats for all of the passengers on board.
Many observers and survivors of the Costa Concordia have compared that accident to that of the Titanic. Some of those comparisons are justified, saidNational Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985.
"Both of their captains showed poor judgment," Ballard said.
Published January 18, 2012
Star Princess
Photograph from Reuters TV
Charred, the cruise ship Star Princess heads into port in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in March 2006.
The Star Princess fire, begun on a private balcony, was likely the victim of a cigarette burn gone very wrong. "The rubber matting that covered the balconies was fabricated from crude oil, and it was flammable," Maxtone-Graham said.
"What was amazing was that the fire spread the length of the deck, jumped from balcony to balcony, and then up two more decks."
The fire was eventually put out, and the Star Princess was repaired. The ship now has sprinklers on all of its balconies—and the UN's International Maritime Organization has since adopted a new code requiring more fire-resistant cabin balconies.
Published January 18, 2012
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