JCC Costa Concordia - the Salvage

So barring weather problems, tomorrow is Salvage Day for the Costa Concordia. They get one day and probably one shot at this due to the structural weakening of the ship. BBC News has some information on the efforts and there are live webcam links here. Barring weather or other problems the effort is due to start at 0400 GMT. Should be interesting..

(Note for the forum mods - I did search for an existing thread on the ship here but nothing came up. If there is one feel free to merge..)

 

I saw a report that this will cost $300 million dollars.

 

Just a note that BBC News has a live feed here.
I'm also having hit-and-miss success with the site I linked to in the first post for webcams. I imagine it's pretty busy.

 

The news here this morning was that the operation was late getting started. Are they kidding? It's Italy, getting started this week is almost early.

 

Apparently they had a bad thunderstorm in the area overnight which led to the delay. That's what I heard on Sky News anyway.

 

Watching the stream is about as entertaining as watching paint dry at this point. Supposedly there has been significant progress amde, but hard to see it on the video feed. they need to add a graphic overlay showing the initial position.

A series of photos from an Italian paper (La Stampa) show the actual progress

 

Seems like a better idea than the non-stop stream would be taking pictures from the same position evry 15-30 minutes so that you can really see the progress. It has been quite significant if you focus on the "dirty" facade on the front view.

 

Yeah, that's what I've been watching. I found the Concordia camera feed Sky News is using on my 'free to air' satellite box so I have that on one TV channel and I'm using the Sky box to watch normal stuff. Now and then I switch over to check the progress. There's a news conference going on now - at one point they said the current phase might go 4-6 hours longer. They've also said they can work in darkness but there's a concern about choppier water later this evening and that would cause a delay.

 

BBC News update - COSTA CONCORDIA - Lifting of wrecked cruise ship will not be completed until at earliest dawn on Tuesday. I don't have a story link as it is breaking news. I lost my live feed around 6pm - I guess that's all the satellite time they had booked. Sky is into recaps on the feed channel. I'll check in the morning to see what's happening. Note - that's dawn Italian time which is 6 hours ahead of East Coast time.

 

Hope it's not haunted.

 

The news did mention earlier that they haven't found any sign of the bodies supposedly still on board yet.

 

I assume the bodies were crushed in the wreckage and the remains became fish food. I really doubt they'll find anything.

 

Updated BBC story, with video that includes a pretty good time-lapse (from 0:40). Amazing how slow it goes even in the time lapse.

Regardless, the ship has been righted.

 

Yeah, I saw the time-lapse earlier on BBC News. They said it was righted around 4am Italy time. News reports were saying that once the go-ahead is given the first thing will be to reunite people with possessions left aboard the ship, with priority given to items in the ships' safe. (I think if I had possessions on the side that was under water I really wouldn't want them back..)
One of the news reports showed some of the work crew celebrating in a local bar after they were finished. I think that area will miss the money generated by having the ship/work crews there. Supposedly the ship will stay there til spring and at that time they will try to tow it off for breakup.

 

I don't know if you noticed, but it's an absurdly large ship.

 

Yup. That shot does a great job showing how much was submerged.

 

Don't worry, she'll hold together!

 

Costa Concordia looks just fine. It's only a flesh wound.

 

Pretty amazing.

 

The ship's dead sir! She's gone!

 

Slap a new coat of paint on her and she'll be ready for Carnival's western Caribbean run.

 

Costa Concordia left on her final voyage this morning.. BBC News. She's off to Genoa for scrapping. BBC News has a time-lapse of the departure.