Funny, In A Very Strange, Very Sad, Very Tragic Way...

Can something be funny in a tragic way?  Doesn't that seem impossible?  Could you laugh at something where life has been taken, where poor decisions killed or injured an unknown number of travelers?  Sadly, I say yes, because while what happened to the Costa Concordia is truly tragic, what has been developing since the accident (on Friday the 13th, mind you) has been, well funny.  (In a strange way.)  The loss of life is not funny, not by a long shot.  It is the so called Captain's reactions that are strange, as he allegedly took refuge on a lifeboat, as thousands of his passengers remained on board the stricken vessel.  Take a moment to listen to audio reportedly between Captain Francesco Schettino and the Italian Coast Guard, who assumes control after the Captain calls for help...

The strange, funny thing to me is what I thought about when I heard of this awful disaster.  Could it be true?  The Captain not going down with his ship, or at least being one of the last ones off?  I find myself feeling angry at this Captain, because who knows if lives would have been spared had he stayed on board.  I then read an article from National Public Radio, which says, in part:

NPR's Talk of the Nation explored the role of civilian ship captains Tuesday with maritime lawyer Bob Jarvis. And while Schettino has been excoriated in the media for leaving the Costa before the evacuation was complete, Bob Jarvis says it's a common misconception that captains are expected to "go down with the ship."

"The captain has never been expected to be the last to leave. That's a romantic notion," says Jarvis, professor of maritime law at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "It is true that many captains won't leave their ship until all hope is lost, but we certainly don't expect captains to commit suicide."

In some cases, Jarvis says the most appropriate place for a captain is, in fact, off the vessel.

"You want the captain where he's in the best position to supervise, to organize [and] to direct." But once local authorities have taken control — as the Italian Coast Guard did in the Costa's case — the captain is required to respond to their orders.

  Jarvis says Schettino also shouldn't be blamed for the crew's poor training, if that emerges to be a factor in the disaster. That responsibility, he says, lies with the cruise line, Costa Crociere, in conjunction with the Italian Coast Guard and Costa Crociere's insurers. "But if the captain either knew or should have known that his crew was not up to snuff — that's something certainly the captain would be expected to relay back to his superiors."

Many are likening the Costa incident to the Titanic disaster in 1912, but Jarvis says the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident is a more apt analogy. The Valdez captain, Capt. Joseph Hazelwood, was accused of drunkenness while on duty.

"Captain Hazelwood was very quickly set adrift by his employers, who tried to put the blame on him," Jarvis says. "[But] who hired him? Who trained him? Who oversaw him, kept putting him back in charge of a huge supertanker?"

That's not to say that Schettino is blameless, Jarvis stresses. Civilian ship captains are ultimately responsible for their vessels, and Schettino took his ship off course, allegedly failed to sound the alarm and the distress signal, and may have failed to follow orders after ceding control of the rescue operation.

"The one thing that is already very clear from this disaster is there is lots and lots of blame," says Jarvis. "A lot of people did a lot of things wrong."

I know nothing of sailing.  I know nothing of maritime laws.  I do know a bit (a small bit) about cruising, having been on one for my honeymoon.  I remember distinctly holding a "muster" or safety drill not long after we got on board.  I never, for one minute felt concern for what might happen, because I felt that I was in good hands.  It is sad that the passengers on the Costa Concordia probably felt the same way.  That was, as I have read, until the Captain was using this huge boat, to well, showboat.  Reports say the Captain may have been sailing close to the shore of a small island to impress an Admiral.  The Captain also says there were no rocks or reefs on his charts.  (Oddly, fishermen and other sea-going folks familiar with the area say they are well marked.)  Only time and investigations will tell on that one. 

I am very sad that as of this writing, six people have lost their lives, seemingly needlessly.  In the end, I think we will find the Captain in deep water (pardon the pun) and the cruise line going broke.  I also think that the when the full story comes out, we will learn of many crew members who did work to save lives, and did their jobs with honor, courage and bravery, something they likely did not learn from their Captain.