Schettino’s excuses
This made me laugh as it reminded me of the infamous captain Schettino of the Costa Concordia cruise ship. At at the time I read Gilmour’s book this ship had just gone down. A very sad affair where many lives were lost. Still, I could not help laughing about the war anecdote. It reminded me of the excuses captain Schettino presented for him leaving the sinking ship as one of the first, in a lifeboat. „I was walking on deck when I tripped and fell off board, to land very fortunately precisely in a life boat.” Yeah, sure, the communications officer in the Genova harbour thought, who believes such nonsense? „Vai a bordo, cazzo!” he responded, shouting. His words went viral and captain Schettino became the shame of the nation. Who could believe such cowardice? Well, apparently he was not unique in Italian naval history.
In the meantime Schettino has been sentenced to jail for sixteen long years- And the wreck of the Costa Concordia has been lifted and dismantled at an enormous cost.