Tuesday 26th of November 2024
Home » Blogs » John Richardson's blog

casting stones .....

casting stomes .....

Courage is a virtue and heroism is admirable, but do we have a right to demand them? Which of us cannot look back on his or her own life and remember decisions, or compromises made, or silences kept because of cowardice, even when the penalties for courage were negligible?

If we are cowardly in small things, shall we be brave in large? Have we the right to point the finger until we have been tested ourselves? When we read of the seemingly lamentable conduct of the captain of the Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, who left his passengers to their fate, do we say, ''There but for the grace of God go I''?

I have witnessed some very fine instances of bravery. Once, as a junior doctor, I was walking through the hospital grounds when I noticed a patient sitting on a bench slashing his wrists with a broken bottle of vodka whose contents he had just drunk. I asked him to come into the hospital where I could sew him up (sobering him up was beyond my powers). He climbed up the fire escape and clambered over the railings on to a narrow ledge, on which he was swaying drunkenly. A porter and I went up the fire escape: the man threatened to jump if we came nearer.

We decided we had to make a grab for him; as we did so, he jumped. We held him suspended by his arms three storeys up. First he shouted, ''Let me go, you bastards!'' and then, ''Help, I'm falling!'' - a metaphor for the whole of human life, when you come to think of it.

By the luckiest chance, two policemen arrived at the hospital and rushed up the fire escape to our assistance. Without a moment's hesitation, they climbed on to the ledge themselves and hauled the man to safety. They brushed away my commendation, and even my thanks; in their own opinion, they had only done their duty, what they were expected, and expected themselves, to do.

I witnessed another instance of great bravery many years later, when times were changed. It was in the prison in which I worked as a doctor. A prisoner set fire to his mattress in his cell, and years of research by the British Home Office seemed to have gone into disproving the old saying that there is no smoke without fire, for the mattress produced the thickest, most acrid, black smoke that I have ever encountered, without much in the way of flame.

With no thought for his own safety, a prison officer entered the cell and pulled the prisoner to safety. As I sent the officer to hospital to be treated for possible smoke inhalation, I praised him highly and said I expected he would receive an official commendation.

He smiled pityingly at my naivety and said: ''A reprimand more likely.'' And so it proved: he had not followed procedure, which was to leave it for the fire brigade.

A world in which a man can be reprimanded for bravely saving another's life is not propitious for the widespread practice of bravery. Virtues tend to disappear in the dissolving acid of rationality.

What might Captain Schettino say in his defence? Let us, for the sake of argument, leave aside the possibility that the whole disaster was an error of his seamanship, and suppose instead that it was what some people call ''one of those things''.

In a world used to the utilitarian Zeitgeist, he might say that if he had stayed on board and gone down with his ship, nobody who died would have been spared. We imagine a captain on his deck, as he slips under the waves, but this is quixotic romanticism if in fact no one is saved.

Can we be sure that if Captain Schettino had kept calm and carried on, fewer people would have died? Can it be wholly his fault if the crew were not properly trained and not even able to communicate with each other, let alone with all the passengers?

All this is special pleading, ex post facto rationalisation. Before the event, the captain accepted his own authority without difficulty or reservation. He was, however, tried and found wanting, perhaps for reasons partly cultural: not because he was Italian but because he was modern - that is to say, without an unthinking allegiance to a standard of conduct that in some circumstances might be, or might appear, ridiculous or counterproductive but in others is essential to the performance of difficult duty.

Hard cases make bad law and even worse sociology, though they are the stock in trade of philosophy, and there is no wickedness or weakness under the sun that is without precedent. Captain Schettino's story appears human, all too human: possibly a vainglorious man (but there are worse crimes than vainglory) who panicked at the one crucial moment of his career, and who will now spend the rest of his life in a state of bitter remorse and regret.

I hope it is not taken for lack of sympathy for the victims and their relations to say that, on the scale of human monstrosity, the captain does not climb very high. His place on the scale of human weakness is another matter.

As it happens, one of the great books of our literature, Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, deals with a similar case. The hero, if that is quite the word for him, is mate on an old rust-bucket that is taking 800 Muslim pilgrims to Arabia. The boat sinks and Jim saves his skin, an act of cowardice for which he pays for the rest of his life. Marlow, the narrator of the story, describes his fate in words that resonate today:

''Nothing more awful than to watch a man who has been found out, not in a crime but in a more than criminal weakness. ... from weakness that may lie hidden, watched or unwatched, prayed against or manfully scorned, repressed or maybe ignored more than half a lifetime, not one of us is safe.''

This is an edited version of an article first published in the London Telegraph .....

Courage Untested Until Ship Goes Down

 

not a skateboard...

Gus: not to forget that Captain Schettino followed an unauthorised route along the coast of the island, not to forget that the custom is well established around the world that the captain shall be the last person to leave a sinking ship, and that this responsibility comes part with the job — including penalty for failing to follow the rules in some juridictions... A 125,000 tonnes ship is not a bicycle nor a skateboard... The captain of a jumbo jet is not allowed to do a loop de loop though the plane could do it at a pinch. The reponsibility is part of the job. There are rules and regulations designed to help minimise errors of navigation. Courage does not have much to play in this environment, should the ship or the plane becomes disabled. The Captain has to do everything in his/her power — and they are trained to do so — to sort the situation out until nothing is possible... It is probable that the Captain staying on the ship might have helped save one life... It would have been his glory, not his shame. But he sailed too close to the rocks in the first place.

the bad joker...

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is under fire after joking about the cruise liner disaster in which at least 11 people died off the Italian coast.

More than 20 people are still missing after the ship ran aground on rocks off the island of Giglio last Friday, and specialist divers are using explosives to blow holes in the hull in a desperate hunt for any survivors.

During an interview on Triple M radio in Adelaide yesterday morning, Mr Abbott made light of the situation.

"This is a bit from left field mate, the captain of the Costa Concordia wants to know if you need any help with your boat policy?" the Triple M announcer said.

"Well, that was one boat that did get stopped, wasn't it," Mr Abbot replied, to laughter.

Federal Labor MP Rob Mitchell pounced on the remarks on Twitter today.

"Can't believe Abbott made his childish boat jokes about the #CostaConcordia disaster when people died & are still missing," he tweeted.

"He must come out and apologise."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-20/abbott-in-stop-the-boats-gaffe/3784554?WT.svl=news1

sinking ship...

The Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster has served up the final ingredients needed for a true scandal; a pretty young woman allegedly seen with the ship's captain shortly before the crash.

Claims that a "mystery woman" – swiftly identified as Domnica Cemortan, a 25-year-old dancer from Moldova – was on the bridge of the ship with its disgraced captain, Francesco Schettino, have unleashed a torrent of questions and accusations. They also gave investigators a new lead amid suggestions the ship's commander had been drinking before the accident.

Reports said the presence of the young woman on the bridge may have provided another distraction for the show-boating skipper, who it appears was already intent on making a risky "sail-by", at the pretty Tuscan island of Giglio, that ended in tragedy.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-plot-thickens-was-woman-drinking-with-captain--or-an-innocent-aboard-6292246.html

I'd cry too...

Father Raffaele Malena said he was among the last to leave the ship at around 1.30am local time on Saturday and then stayed "close to the injured" in the tiny harbour of Giglio.

"I descended on the rope ladder. I was picked up by a little lifeboat," he said.

Around an hour later, the captain, Franceso Schettino, appeared.

"I spoke to the captain. He embraced me for about a quarter of an hour and cried like a baby," Father Malena told French magazine Famille Chrétienne.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9028612/Costa-Concordia-cruise-ship-captain-cried-like-a-baby.html

 

At least, Schinetto had the good sense of getting the ship around as soon as possible and stop it from sinking in deep water...

the rock was off course...

Costa Cruises said it was open to the concerns of all consumer associations and individual passengers.

"The company understands those concerns and will respond in due course, but for now, it wants to concentrate on dealing with the immediate tragedy," said a spokesman for the company.

"As an initial gesture, it has already sent letters to all those passengers on board asking them to detail their expenses and any costs they might have incurred so reimbursements can be made."

The firm has blamed Capt Francesco Schettino for committing "grave errors of judgement" by steering the ship too close to Giglio on an "unauthorised manoeuvre".

Capt Schettino is currently under house arrest suspected of manslaughter, which he denies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16659090

denying the damage...

The captain who ran his cruise ship aground and sank off the Italian coast, leading to the deaths of at least 11 passengers, told company officials only that he was having "problems" after hitting a reef, the company CEO has said.

CEO Pierluigi Foschi told Italian state television on Friday evening that the company spoke to the captain at 10:05pm, around 20 minutes after the Costa Concordia struck the reef on January 13, but could not offer proper assistance because the Captain Francesco Schettino's description "did not correspond to the truth".

Schettino did not say he had hit a reef and did not tell crew members "the gravity of the situation," Foschi said.

Video shot by passengers and shown on Italian television indicates crew members were telling passengers to go to their cabins as late as 10:25pm, and the abandon ship alarm sounded just before 11pm.

Company abandons captain

The $450 million ship was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-charted rocks off the island of Giglio. Eleven people have been confirmed dead and 21 are still missing.

Costa Crociere SpA, the company that owns the ship, offered support to the captain in the hours after the emergency but has now turned its back on the man who is under investigation for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.

Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship, is under house arrest near Naples.

Costa in recent days has suspended Schettino, announced it is no longer paying his legal fees and has signed on as a civil party in the prosecution, a move that positions it as an injured party and would allow it to seek damages in the case of a guilty verdict.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/01/201212103831436627.html

ah...love...

THE BLONDE Moldovan woman seen by passengers of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia drinking red wine with Captain Francesco Schettino shortly before the cruise liner ran aground on 13 January, has told Italian investigators she is in love with him. "Yes, it's true. I am in love with Captain Schettino," Domnica Cemortan, 25, has reportedly told prosecutors.

According to La Stampa, she has also admitted that she was on the bridge as a guest of Schettino when the boat hit the rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio. This conflicts with the captain's story. He has insisted that only authorised crew were on the bridge at the time.

Until now, Cemortan had maintained that her friendship with the captain was innocent and that he had been a “hero" on the night, doing his best to save lives.

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/europe/costa-concordia/44978/i-love-him-says-concordia-captains-blonde-dancer-friend#ixzz1lNppDAAy

ah... not love....

Miss Cemortan reportedly told investigators last week she was "in love" with Captain Schettino, as Italian newspapers said that divers had found her lingerie, clothing and make-up bag in his cabin.

She denied both claims in an interview with another magazine, Oggi.

"They are all lies. I wasn't born yesterday. The information was put out to put pressure on the captain. They want to isolate him, even from his family," she said.

"I never said to magistrates 'I love Schettino'. They say they've found my bikini in his cabin. What have they found on this bikini that connects it to me? Was my name written on it, was there my photograph, or my DNA?"

 


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/the-trials-of-domnica-and-the-captain-making-a-meal-of--in-love-claim-20120208-1rckr.html#ixzz1llaDu8Vg

Obviously, we can't trust the gutter rags anymore...