Costa Concordia

The Costa Concordia Ship

Photo credit: Reuters

This post is not about New York, but it delves more in to my background and the stories I grow up with - my early memories. You see, I was born and raised in London and both my parent were from Jarrow northeast of England over 300 miles from London. Jarrow remained a small town until the introduction of heavy industries, like coal mining and ship building.

 

 Women in the shipyards

 HMS Queen Mary 1912 Jarrow Dockyards

 Shipbuilding on-the-Tyne

Jarrow Shipyard

In 1852, Jarrow became the first armor-plate manufacturer in the world. The town was also the first to built the modern cargo ship, as well as a number of notable warships. Around 1,000 ships were built at the yard it closed down in the 1930’s. Both of my grandfathers and some of my uncles worked in the shipyards of Jarrow and I had an uncle, a chief engineer, in the merchant navy and cousins who were deep sea fisherman.

Jan 4, 2013 The last survivor of the historic Jarrow March in 1936 has died at the age of 96.

Con Shiels was 20 and on a work scheme in London when he joined his father, Con senior, and 200 others for the final stretch of the 300-mile protest walk.

The crusade saw unemployed men march from Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, to London in protest at the town’s unemployment and extreme poverty following the closure of its shipyard. Con’s father, a jobless riveter (both my grandfathers were riveters), acted as the cook during the walk.

Jarrow hunger marchers

1st November 1936, MP Ellen Wilkinson addresses a crowd of Jarrow Marchers holding a banner in Hyde Park after they had marched from Jarrow near Newcastle to protest against the high rates of unemployment in the North of England during the depression.

My family were part of the Jarrow marchers. The march was to find jobs to support Jarrow men and their families. It was also a bid for respect and recognition, not only for the people of Jarrow, but for others in a similar situation all over the country. The marchers had no resources other than their own determination, and some good boots supplied by the public. During the march, wherever the marchers stopped for the night, the local people gave them shelter and food.

Even though I lived in a city, my home was a few streets away from the river Thames in Putney. As  a young boy, I joined the sea cubs and sea scouts. I just loved learning about boatcraft and tying knots, playing by the river was my passion and joy. Maybe that is why I am drawn towards the Hudson River.  

Where is all this leading? This goes back to last month, when we woke up to the awful news of the Costa Concordia ship which sailed into the rocks off the Italian coast and capsized. Seeing a ship on its side is one of the saddest things in life.

But to hear that the captain left the Costa Concordia before evacuation was completed, and insisting that he and his crew were the last to leave the ship, I was hoping he was right and the news was wrong. We grew up believing that the captain is to be the last one to stay on the ship, if there is a collision or if the ship is sinking. Don’t think I’m condemning Capt. Schettino, the court will ultimately decide whether or not he broke the law by leaving the ship when he did. But from the looks of things, he certainly appeared to have acted contrary to many people's ideas of how a captain should behave. In the popular tradition of the sea, a ship's captain is expected to stay until all the passengers have been safely evacuated. Fixed in my mind and the public is Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic, who was last seen on or near the bridge of the ship as it went down.

Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic

R.M.S. Titanic

Which raised some questions: Must a captain be the last one off a sinking ship? Or is a ship's captain legally required to be the last one to leave if an accident occurs? 

After a bit of research I found the following information. 

1. A captain may be charged with a breach of duty of care, depending on the law in the country where the accident happened 
2. An international convention of which Italy is a signatory says captains bear responsibility for the vessel's safety 
3. In international customary law, captains must follow principles of prudent seamanship - which means taking responsibility for the safety of crew and passengers 
4. There is a strong expectation among seamen that the captain will not leave until passengers have been safely evacuated 

Customary international law requires captains to operate under the principles of prudent seamanship, which means caring for the safety of crew and passengers. A captain's legal responsibilities are also set out in the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention, which has been adopted by 161 of 170 member states of the International Maritime Organization. Italy is a member. The first version of the treaty was passed in 1914, directly as a result of the sinking of the Titanic. The current version, passed in 1974, does not specify that the captain should stay with his ship but states that the captain, or master, has the ultimate authority aboard his ship. In addition, it says all passenger ships must have a system for emergency management, which would set out who is responsible for what during an emergency situation. This may or may not stipulate that the captain has to be the last to leave. 

Yes to see a ship on its side or sinking is extraordinarily sad, but to witness a Captain abandoning his ship before his passengers can be considered by some as grievous.

March 2015
The captain of the Costa Concordia ship that shipwrecked off the coast of Italy in January 2012, Francesco Schettino, was found guilty of manslaughter of 32 passengers and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Schettino allegedly left the ship prematurely, before all the passengers were evacuated. “International maritime law requires all passengers to be evacuated within 30 minutes of an order to abandon ship” but it took more than 6 hours and not all passengers were evacuated. 32 people died.