Bitterness, Tears, and Scars on the Island of Giglio

I am back on the tiny island of Giglio for the second anniversary of the Costa Concordia shipwreck.

The gigantic rusting carcass still sits near the entrance to the port, but now it has been straightened up in a dramatic 19 hour operation last September called parbuckling.

For those who have not yet heard about this shipwreck, here’s a quick summary:

On the night of January 13, 2012, Captain Francesco Schettino of the Costa Concordia cruise liner decided to bring his ship dangerously close to the island of Giglio in a stunt known as an “inchino” – a “bow” or a “salute” to the island.  The ship, a 112,000 ton ocean liner with 4200 people on board should have stayed 2 nautical miles out, instead it gashed its hull on a small group of rocks known by everyone on the island as “Le Scole” less than 100 meters from shore.

The rocks smashed a 70-meter (230 foot) hole in the hull of the ship.  The ship moved forward towards the port with water entering below deck, eventually the electricity went off and the ship began to tilt over onto its side.  Captain Schettino did not immediately sound the alarm and it took a while before the first lifeboats were put in the water.  When the ship began to incline, passengers started to panic, jumping in the chilly water and swimming to shore.  The Captain hopped onto a lifeboat and retreated to some rocks on shore leaving hundreds of people on board. It was a dramatic night of rescue that has left a mark on all the people of the island of Giglio.

A total of thirty-two people died that night.

Today, to mark the anniversary, journalists were taken out on boats together with relatives of the victims, a bishop, Coast Guard officers and government officials.  A relative of one of the victims threw a bouquet of yellow and white flowers on the water while the authorities lowered a wreath.

Madeliene Soria Molina, the sister of Erika Fani Soria Molina, a Peruvian crew member who died in the shipwreck told reporters in the port why she wanted to come back, “I am here for my sister, it is a way to be with her again, because the death of a member of your family, of a brother or sister, is hard to get over.”

This year I missed seeing Kevin Rebello, the brother of Russel Terence Rebello, an Indian waiter on the Costa Concordia whose body was never recovered.  Kevin spent so much time on the island of Giglio,that the people here consider him one of them. Kevin has been an articulate spokesman for the relatives of the victims.

Today I had a chance to speak to one of the survivors, Peter Honuehlmann, from Germany. He told me he hoped somehow that his return to Giglio island would be helpful for his wife, Tieksma Miehling. Ever since their harrowing escape from the listing Concordia she has been afraid of crowds, he recounted. When she arrived on Monday for the ceremonies and saw the wreck, tears streamed down her face and her hands shook, he said.  Honuehlmann said when they got off the ferry a group of photographers, journalists and camera operators rushed at them.  I was relieved that i was not one of them.

`’I want my wife back” as she was before the shipwreck, Honuehlmann told me.

It has also been hard for the people of Giglio to get over it.  For starters they have a rusting wreck dominating the view from their port, a constant reminder of that fatal night.

Mauro Pretti, who works for Italy’s Civil Protection on the island of Giglio spent that night helping get thousands of passengers off the ship and to safety.  He told me, “I remember the face of a gentleman who kept continuously asking me, and showing me the photo of his wife, saying they had thrown themselves off the ship together.  And he told me ‘if you see her pass please let me know because we jumped in the water together, but I can’t find her anymore.’  Unfortunately, that woman I never did see for the whole night and later we realized that she was one of the dead.”

Marina Aldi is the official guide to the National park on Giglio.  She knows every path, plant and animal from the rosemary bushes to the few wild sheep known as mouflon. Tears come to her eyes as she recounts the human tragedy of the shipwreck and the resulting impact on the island.

She walks the mostly deserted paths on the island hoping that someday people will come back to do more than just look at the ugly wreck in the port.   According to Aldi, “The dead you can’t cancel, they are dead and together with them 32 families destroyed.  But also we have been destroyed because….for the rest of our lives we will be nailed to the Costa Concordia, and that hurts.”

She explained that tourists come to Giglio now, get off the ferry and have their companions take their picture with the shipwreck in the background.  For the past two years tourists have lost interest in the hiking trails with spectacular views and the pristine coves with crystalline water.

The Costa company hired an American salvage company called Titan to conduct what is the biggest salvage operation in maritime history.  Last September they straightened the wreck using jacks, cables and pontoons.

Once it was straightened Costa and Coast Guard officials were able to go on board and take out safes in the 700 cabins that are now above the waterline.  The safes are being held in a depository on the mainland and Costa officials say the contents will eventually be returned to the owners.  The safes in the cabins below deck will be removed later.  There are apparently also safes in the two casinos and a jewellery store that are still underwater.

Yesterday I interviewed the Costa Engineer Franco Porcellacchia who is coordinating the ship owner’s technical team for the removal.  He explained that they are hoping  by April they will be able to attach what he calls sponsons — giant air chambers– to the side of the wreck to float it.  Then in June they hope to tow it away.  Porcellacchia is guessing it will take 6 tugboats.

Where the re-floated wreck will go from here is still to be decided.  A total of 12 different bids have been made for the demolition, five coming from ports in Italy and others from Turkey, France, the UK, Norway and even one from China.

The whole salvage operation is costing about 600 million euros ($817 million) and Costa officials say 540 million of that has gone into the Italian economy but  Sergio Ortelli, the Mayor of Giglio told me yesterday that money has not come to Giglio. “The investments have been to the advantage of some Italian companies,” Ortelli said, “but not to the island of Giglio that has for the last two years suffered and endured an economic recession that is not only linked to the international economic crisis, but linked to the presence of this wreck.”

Captain Schettino is currently on trial for manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning his ship before the evacuation was completed.  He faces 20 years if convicted.

 

If you are interested in reading my other posts on Giglio and the Costa Concordia shipwreck, here are the links:

A Chilling Conversation

Kevin’s Puzzle

Return to Giglio