I thought Clouseau was French, not Italian Capt. Schettino

If it wasn’t such a disaster with loss of lives, it would have qualified as an authentic Blake Edwards/Peter Sellers ‘Pink Panther’ movie.  The disaster I refer to is the sinking of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, a week back, which concerns almost all the peoples of the World - from Peru to India; Korea to Britain.

Personally, I -

• am very selective in watching movies and seldom watch Indian movies - Hindi, Malayalam or Tamil - unless they are highly recommended.  The reason is they are almost frame by frame rehash of a foreign language (mostly English movies) though there are exceptions like the 3-Idiots, Singam, A Wednesday (in Hindi) and Sivaji (in Tamil)
• avoid movies which are sob-stories, even of Romeo and Juliet variety - Life has its own share of misery and unpleasantness, no need for them in entertainment too.  Though The Green Mile and Philadelphia are great to watch.
• have an absolute horror for horror movies - watching Freddie Kruger or Jason X, believe me, keeps me awake at night with nightmares.
• like movies of every other genre from Elizabeth to Ice Age and Mauritius; from to 2012 and I am Legend. 
• never watch a maritime disaster movie - (after becoming a sailor) - the exception was Castaway (partial to Tom Hanks ?!?)
• have never watched Titanic, The Perfect Storm or the new Poseidon (though as a youngster, before venturing out to sea, had seen the old Poseidon Adventure on video).

Thus throughout the tragedy of Costa Concordia, I was struck with how the actions of the damned captain Francesco Schettino, (some of) his officers and his shipping company Costa Cruise and its parent company Carnival are bizarre, clumsy, idiotic and supremely egoistical - in short Clouseau like.

• First was the Captain Schettino’s habit of doing an ‘unofficial’ an dangerous sail-by of Giglio island - not the first time by him.
• Second was the delay in informing the maritime authorities about the breach, not informing the passengers of possible danger and further delay in ordering the evacuation of the passengers.
• Third was ordering Dinner and enjoying the company of a woman ‘friend’, while the Costa Concordia was damaged and taking water.
• Fourth was the fortuitous Captain Schettino’s ‘trip-and-fall’ into a lifeboat and his extraordinary courage in supervising the evacuation from that life boat.
• Fifth was Captain Schettino’s fear of darkness - almost like my nightmares of Freddie and Jason-X; almost makes me pity the man.
• Sixth was the quick, almost instant apportioning of the blame by the ship owner Costa Cruise on Captain Schettino’s head.
• Seventh the fact that the company must have been aware of such  risky sailing and did not take suitable action - like replacing Captain Schettino.
• Eighth the crass advice to the survivors by Costa Cruise to sue the company if they want any compensation.
• Ninth, the even more crass admission by Carnival Cruise, the parent company of Costa Cruise that this accident  will wipe upto £62m from its profits this year.
• Tenth was the action by an Hungarian entertainer who cherished his violin more than his life - and paid for it; with his life.

In all the only sensible action by Captain Schettino seems to have been his decision to try and run to the port and shallow waters, instead of venturing out to sea.

There were heroes too -

• Captain Roberto Bosio, who was taking passage and took command of the situation after Schettiono’s trip-and-fall,
• the Coast Guard Captain ‘Get back on board, for f***k’s sake’, Gregorio de Falco,
• the British guy who acted as a human ladder for other passengers to climb over him, and
• the rescue workers, to name a few.

Here is a screen grab - of how the ship manoeuvred after the breach -



and the diversion from the original route, which caused it-




Related read:  ‘Captain Failed in everyway’ by Admiral James Loy (retd.), former US Coast Guard Chief, where he raises questions the promotion policies of the company. [http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/18/opinion/loy-costa-captain/index.html?]

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