Sinking of the Costa Concordia

Thread Starter

DarthVolta

Joined Jan 27, 2015
521
Remember that's the cruise ship that bottomed out just offshore, because the captain wanted to basically saulute at people on-shore with the ship. Later they rolled it back over and salvaged it.

But never mind that, I want to know if these ships use sonar or other sensors, to spot rocks/etc. If I owned or built any big or small ship/vessal/boat, I'd want sensors to spot this stuff. I would not just rely on maps and where I thought I was.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,086
Yes, they use sonar.
In this picture you see two major navigation instrument transducers.
PEYFTT.jpg

The jacking screw controls the pit-sword for speed calculations, the big round thing bolted to the floor is the sonar transducer for depth finding. The room is in the forward bottom of the ship hull and as you can see
some water does leak through.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitometer_log
 

AlbertHall

Joined Jun 4, 2014
12,345
Persumably if the bottom shelves steeply and it is a big ship even a depth sounder won't stop you running aground as you will be on it before you can turn/stop the ship.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,086
Persumably if the bottom shelves steeply and it is a big ship even a depth sounder won't stop you running aground as you will be on it before you can turn/stop the ship.
His actions were beyond just reckless, he was a fool.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/12/costa-concordia-captain-hands-himself-into-prison
Prosecutors argued that Schettino’s recklessness was to blame for the fate of the ship, which struck rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio on the night of 13 January 2012 and capsized.

Schettino was widely ridiculed during the trial for insisting he had not abandoned ship but had slipped off the Costa Concordia as it rolled over, falling on to a lifeboat which carried him ashore against his wishes.
...
During the first 19-month trial, Schettino was accused of showing off when he steered the ship too close to the island while entertaining a female friend.
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
Also, it takes awhile to stop a ship. By the time sonar detects clearance is getting small, it may be too late to stop.

Same goes for radar altimeters in small civilian aircraft. They help a little in avoiding ground, but they don't help avoiding stuff on the ground, like approach lights. Your main sources of information are altimeter, charts, and glideslope or other navaids. Not sure about military and larger civilian aircraft.

Of course, nothing is "fool proof."
 

Thread Starter

DarthVolta

Joined Jan 27, 2015
521
So it's still a cost thing tho, if they can't put more near surface looking sensors. In my book it would be worth the money. Yeah and the capt'n, was lousy

If i was on board, I'd get a life-jacket or 2, then go raid the kitchen, until the life boats were ready, and if there was none, I'd hope there's still time to make a raft from furniture
 
Last edited:

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,086
So it's still a cost thing tho, if they can't put more near surface looking sensors. In my book it would be worth the money. Yeah and the capt'n, was lousy

If i was on board, I'd get a life-jacket or 2, then go raid the kitchen, until the life boats were ready, and if there was none, I'd hope there's still time to make a raft from furniture
It's still up to the crew to get the job done. I was in the Amphib Navy (communications) for years. We navigated flat-bottom boats filled with grunts up rivers, rocky shoals, over coral reefs using charts with a single echo pinger, weighted ropes, depth sticks and calibrated eye-balls.

We sailed the length of the Great Barrier Reef between the coast once during a exercise at Shoalwater Bay.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure...Great-Barrier-Reef-Marine-Park_fig1_228383852


Getting there is only half the fun, sometimes you have to leave in a hurry.
 
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