[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by deky

Hitanshu, waiters and cabin stewards/ess is the best paid job on a cruise liner. Its in no way cheap labour. Though these guys work very hard but they are more than suitably compensated with the kind of money they earn at the end of the month.

Most of the waiters earn more than any officer in the hotel side would earn. In some cases, in super luxury cruises a waiter also may end up earning more than the Captain.

There are European waiters in a restaurant as well, but Asians are preferred because they do a much better job than their European counterparts, hence you will find more of us and Filipinos in the restaurant

oh okay. I didn't insinuate it in that sense - and yes, indians know far more about service than most other cultures.

Thanks - My thought which you have corrected, is that people like say, chefs, engineering staff, other officers would earn more. Very interesting.

Just goes to prove that you learn something new everyday - TFS

[suzuki san]

Kippu / GTO,

Thanks for the links.
Damning evidence indeed.

The captain should never have left the ship before every single passenger and crew member had done so. He should be ashamed of himself.

I read in one of the articles on the net that the captain has been arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter.

Below is a feed of the AIS prior to the grounding which some of you may find interesting.

Costa Concordia accident - AIS replay - YouTube

As far as the actual grounding goes, I cannot for the life of me understand why the ship altered course to port (to the left) directly toward the island. Maybe it was to "show off" as has been mentioned before.
As you can see, at the last minute they tried to turn away but it was too late.

If this was a stunt as claimed it was, IMHO, highly irresponsible and unforgiveable.

Also to be noted here is that these days we have what is called the "Bridge Team" in place on the bridge of every ship. Nearly all deck officers now do a week long Bridge Team Management course. If a junior officer sees or even thinks that the Captain or another senior officer is making an error of judgement, it is his duty to call attention to the fact. Obviously that theory did not work in this case.

It's the old story - accidents are not normally caused by a single incident but usually caused by a chain of incidents/events leading up to the final disaster.

However, I say again, let's wait for the experts to decide. The Voyage Data Recorder will reveal all as it records everything that happens on the bridge including radar pictures, echo sounder readings (depths), wheel orders, people's voices etc. etc..

What has been confirmed however is the fact that six or more people have lost their lives and that is a tragedy and irreplaceable loss. May their souls RIP.

Regards,

SS

[deetjohn]

Now the captain says he slipped and tripped into a lifeboat while helping passengers leave the stricken vessel.

Francesco Schettino did however admit responsibility for crashing the ship into rocks which tore a hole in the Costa Concordia.

Costa Concordia captain claims he tripped and fell into a lifeboat | World news | The Guardian

[vivekiny2k]

It suddenly reminded me of the scene in kala paththar