A fascinating talk on the sinking of the Costa Concordia will feature at the next monthly meeting of the Central Coast Family History Society in August.
The talk will be presented by Noel Phelan, who has been a volunteer guide at the Maritime Museum in Sydney for 15 years.
He is also a volunteer at the Naval Historical Society, where he has developed three naval harbour cruises.
The Costa Concordia, built at a cost of $900,000, sank on January 13, 2012 off the Italian coast, 100 years after the Titanic sank, and in similar circumstances.
The ship had 3,229 passengers and 1,023 crew and 32 people lost their lives in the disaster.
The captain, Francesco Schettino, was found guilty on multiple counts of manslaughter, causing a maritime accident and abandoning his ship and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Operated by Costa Crociere, the ship was the first of her class, and one of the largest ships built in Italy until that time.
On January 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia struck a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea just off the eastern shore of Isola del Giglio.
This tore open a 50m gash on the port side of her hull, which soon flooded parts of the engine room, cutting power from the engines and ship services.
As water flooded in and the ship listed, she drifted back towards the island and grounded near shore, then rolled onto her starboard side, lying in an unsteady position on a rocky underwater ledge.
The evacuation of Costa Concordia took more than six hours.
Phelan will outline what really happened, the chain of events that led to the disaster and the brilliant engineering effort to salvage the ship which took two years and cost $2B.
The ship was eventually towed to the port of Genoa, where she was scrapped.
The Central Coast Family History Society meeting will be held from 1pm-3.30pm on August 5 at East Gosford.
For details email admin@centralcoastfhs.org.au
Source:
Central Coast Family History Society