Salvage company plans to have capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia raised from Italian sea bed.
Published Saturday, May 19th 2012 - Updated Saturday, May 19th 2012
The head of a U.S.-owned marine salvage company chosen to remove the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship from the waters off Tuscany is predicting the vessel will be ready for towing by early next year.
Capt. Richard Habib is the managing director of Titan Salvage. He says the ship now lying on its side on rocky seabed near the port of Giglio island, will be back upright by the start of winter.
He said in Rome on Friday that once afloat, the wreckage will be towed to an Italian port for demolition.
The Costa Concordia, which was carrying some 4,200 people, struck a jagged reef the night of Jan. 13 when it veered too close to the coast of tiny Giglio island. Gashed on one side, the ship began listing badly and eventually came to rest on its side on the rocky seabed just off the Tuscan shore. Thirty-two people perished when the Concordia slammed into the reef. The ship's captain is under house arrest while being investigated for alleged manslaughter and abandoning ship during evacuation.
Titan Salvage, a company based in Pompano Beach, Florida, won the bid to remove the Concordia’s wreckage, which now lies in pristine waters.
Capt. Richard Habib, Titan Salvage’s managing director, said the goal is to “use brains, (and) not as much brawn” to remove the Concordia without having it slip into much deeper water. He said the biggest challenge in the operation is to “roll the vessel upright on a platform and to safely float” it away to a port.
The plan involves constructing an underwater platform and attaching empty tanks to the above-water side of the ship. Then the cisterns will be filled with water, and two cranes attached to the platform will be used to pull the ship upright. Once upright, the ship will have tanks attached to the other side. Then all the tanks will be emptied of water before being filled with air to help the ship rise higher in the water and free itself of the seabed. Once it’s properly afloat, it can then be towed to a yet to be designated seaport for demolition.
The goal is to have the ship upright by the start of winter and to start towing in early 2013.
Some holes in the ship will have to be repaired before towing to make sure the vessel can float. The gash caused by the collision with the reef is dozens of yards long, but there also are several holes that were blasted into the wreckage so that divers could swim into submerged parts to search for bodies.
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