Friday night we were all taken by surprise by the Costa Concordia disaster. The Costa Concordia was steaming between Civitavecchia on her way to Savona when she reported hit an uncharted rock. At approximately 9:45 PM local time, passengers reported that the ship hit something and heard a loud noise. Almost immediately the ship began to list. The crew initially told passengers there were electrical issues and no reason for alarm. After the collision, the captain reportedly tried to beach the ship to prevent her from sinking further and allow for the evacuation of the ship closer to shore. Costa Concordia ran aground off Isola del Giglio, Italy. At approximately 10:30 PM, passengers started boarding lifeboats and the evacuation of over 4,000 people on board began.
The ship eventually took on more and more water until she eventually capsized, resting on her side. By morning a 160 foot gash was visible in the hull of the ship.
There are 3 people who perished and 41 still unaccounted for.
The Costa Concordia was delivered to Costa on June 30, 2006 by Fincantieri's Sestri Ponente yard in Genoa at a cost of $570 Million dollars.
Costa Concordia is 952 ft long, 116 ft 6 in wide and has a draught 26 ft 11 in. She is capable of a speed of 19.6 knots
The cruise started from Civitavecchia had scheduled calls at Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.
Onboard there were about 1.000 Italian passengers, 500 Germans, about 160 French and about 1.000 crew members.
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