Costa Concordia – One Year After Disaster

The wreck of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia is still lying just off the island of Giglio, where it was grounded a year ago. On Sunday January 13th a year after the disaster, sirens rang out from the wreckage place in memory of the 32 people who died.

The families and friends of the victims attended the commemoration ceremony at 9:45 p.m.,the moment of impact, when a rock ripped the ship’s hull, and on this occasion 32 lanterns were lit.

In April 2012 a US based marine salvage and wreck removal specialist Titan Salvage and Italian firm Micoperi received Costa Concordia wreck removal contract. Together they presented a plan to refloat and tow away the cruise ship to one of the Italian ports, where she will likely be scrapped.

The operation to refloat the 114,500-ton wreck (twice the size of the Titanic) is in its full swing. Reportedly it will be the World’s Biggest Salvage Operation, which will cost at least 400 million euros ($525 million).

The salvage crew members are working in shifts around the clock to accomplish the task by this summer’s end. Plans to refloat the 950-foot long ship wreck in spring have been pushed back to September at the earliest.

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World Maritime News Staff, January 14, 2013