Pictures of capsized Costa Concordia show severe damage to the hull on the port side, from midshipss towards the stern, but they do not cast light to the question has the vessel sustained damage to its bottom as well, notes Henrik Segercranz, technical editor of Cruise Business Online's sister publication Cruise Business Review. If salvage of the vessel will be attempted, it will be necessary to find out if the hull has suffered damage elsewhere too in addition to its port side.
It is also not yet known at this point if the watertight doors on board the ship had been closed in the course of the events on Friday night, he added.
A report in the Lloyds List shipping daily says that the ship is likely to be scrapped rather than salvaged and that the insurance industry expects a loss in the range of $600 million to $800 million from the accident.
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Having compared the photos of the hull damage of Costa Concordia to archieve material on the ship, our own technical editor Henrik Segercrantz comes to the conclusion that the more than 50m long puncture in the port side of the hull struck the worst possible area, involving three to four watertight compartments and damaging both the aft and forward engine rooms.
On a passenger ship two watertight areas punctured should still keep the vessel afloat, but Segercrantz stresses his analysis is very preliminary. "Area 3 in front of the machinery compartments, or area 1 behind, could have been damaged too, or there could have been problems with the watertight doors," he said.
It seems like the master made a manoeuver towards starboard when the ship hit rock, as the damage hole starts lower and ends higher nearer the waterline, indicating the ship was listing towards port while in contact with the rock. Then, as also reported, he turned the ship towards land, resulting the ship to tilt in the other direction.
As far as salvaging and repairing the vessel is concerned, this would be a big operation, if not impossible.
Segercrantz is a qualified naval architect with several years of experience in the shipbuilding industry.
