At more than twice the size of the Titanic, the Costa Concordia was the largest passenger vessel ever to sink when it capsized off Italy's northwest coast on January 13. So far, Italian authorities say of the more than 4,200 passengers and crew on board, at least 18 are confirmed dead and 14 unaccounted for, and the insurance costs may reach $1 billion, according to Moody's Investors Service. Now salvage companies around the world are gearing up for the mammoth task of recovering the ship, a challenge made all the more complicated by its precarious spot. "The wreck's on the edge of deep water, and can drop another 200 feet [60 meters] or more," says Mike Lacey, secretary general of the International Salvage Union.

The Costa Concordia was the flagship of Costa Cruises and was christened only in 2006. The luxury vessel cost roughly $600 million to build and had an internal volume of about 112,000 in gross tonnage—the Titanic, in comparison, only had a gross tonnage of about 46,000. It now lies on its starboard side partially submerged in shallow water after hitting a reef near the island of Giglio. ((Last week, more than 1,000 passengers and crew members on another Costa Cruises ship endured unpleasant conditions for three days after a fire broke out on board and knocked out the ship's power. The Costa Allegra was adrift for several hours on February 27 before receiving a tow that brought all on board to the Seychelles where they disembarked on March 1.)

Dutch salvage firm Smit began pumping fuel out of the wreck on February 12 to keep it from polluting the water. In all, the company will have to remove about 2,400 metric tons of bunker oil from 17 separate tanks. The viscous fuel can get thick, making it hard to pump, so Smit is piping in steam to warm and loosen it. It is also pumping in seawater to replace the extracted fuel and keep the wreck from shifting on the seabed.

After the tanks are emptied, salvagers can haul the wreck away. Ten companies are now in the bidding to do that and will present their proposals the beginning of March. The cleanest and most straightforward solution would be to set the ship upright and tow it to a scrapyard, Lacey says. "That way you can get rid of the ship all in one piece," he explains.

One idea for righting the wreck would involve giant inflatable bags placed under the ship to prop it up. Lacey is less than enthusiastic about the notion: "Everyone keeps talking about the damn inflatable bags, but there aren't any big enough to do the job. They might contribute, but they won't be enough to do the job on their own."

An exotic solution would involve pumping air-filled polystyrene balls into the Costa Concordia to make it float to the surface, an idea tried in the past in Iceland and Kuwait. (A similar concept, using ping-pong balls, was actually first mentioned in a 1949 Donald Duck comic, and science fiction legend Arthur C. Clarke invoked a similar idea in The Ghost from the Grand Banks, suggesting billions of glass bubbles could raise the Titanic.) Lacey doesn't think much of this idea, either. "I haven't heard of them being used in years and years—they make a hell of a mess, since you can't control them, and they get all over the sea and every damn place," he says. "They're a real problem to clean up, so I don't think the authorities would take too kindly to their use here."

14 Comments

1. 1. Fritz3 05:15 PM 3/6/12

   I'm pretty sure the Myth Busters tried to replicate the Donald Duck/ping pong balls method, and never got it to work. And that was using an old wooden 20-foot harbor boat.

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2. 2. Torchlake 05:48 PM 3/6/12

   High expansion foam.... close off bulkheads and pump them out.... The ripped in the hull....fill with foam! Displacement of water from those areas..... It is the rock that its hung up on is the problem.
   
   shaped charges could take care of it. There is enough positive flotation to keep it upright!

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3. 3. ErnestPayne 06:38 PM 3/6/12

   Why did the pumps fail. There should have been power sources higher in the ship to keep the pumps going.
   A marine engineer friend of mine thought the failure was "strange".

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4. 4. DaveAtFraud 11:29 PM 3/6/12

   I would be very surprised if it couldn't be done. Ships have been raised with far worse damage: http://www.amazon.com/Resurrection-Salvaging-Battle-Fleet-Harbor/dp/1557504881/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331094449&sr=1-1
   
   Also, this book is an excellent read.

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5. 5. mikecimerian 01:18 AM 3/7/12

   This ship had probably state of the art navigation. These are charted waters, why no computer warning? Even boats have radar, depth gouges,etc; even depth warning. The whole affair is irregular.

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6. 6. toohardforscience in reply to Fritz3 09:41 AM 3/7/12

   Actually, the Mythbusters episode found the ping pong ball strategy plausible:
   http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2004/11/mythbusters_ping_pong_balls_an.html

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7. 7. walas75 10:35 AM 3/7/12

   Definitely the best idea is towed to port and dismantle, sectioned in second place, the problem of the second option is in the on-site spills and pollution.

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8. 8. northernguy 07:59 PM 3/7/12

   The risk with cranes is the possibility of a seaward slide of the ship off the reef taking any cranes that are attached to it down with it. Even if they figure out some complex procedure for quick release or whatever, there is the real possibility that the suction caused by the ship going under would take anything in the area with it, attached or not.
   
   It's a big ship. Certainly, the suction produced by a quick slide would take anything that can be imagined capable of getting into place alongside.
   
   Thus one of the problems with various flotation schemes. Changing the weight distribution in any way could precipitate the very thing they are trying to avoid.
   
   I spent many years working on the water. I wouldn't go near any salvage project of any type on that ship.
   
   The safest and most predictable solution. Blow it up and let it go down into deep water. Anything else is really dangerous, really expensive and really, really unpredictable.
   
   I'm not saying other approaches can't be done. But there are some problems that it just isn't worth trying to fix.

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9. 9. Postman1 in reply to sauIt 09:48 PM 3/7/12

   sault- I think it is time for your meds, or maybe you need to double down. You are sounding a little bit rabid.
   
   

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10. 10. mikecimerian 10:47 PM 3/7/12

    @9 You are probably right. Yet the ship has to be cleaned up to a feasible and safe degree before turning it into an artificial reef.

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11. 11. jorat13461 12:58 AM 3/10/12

    Use a three air balloon with few cable as show on the image. Simple stuff. Next challenge?
    http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/544/saveboat.png

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12. 12. Jonnoxx 04:22 AM 3/11/12

    This site has the most well-reasoned implementation of the use of lifting balloons:
    
    http://everyday-cynic.blogspot.com/2012/02/concordia-dont-waste-time-taking-oil.html
    

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13. 13. DocF1 12:58 PM 4/13/12

    I know a salvage expert who works for one of the bidders. He is firmly convinced that the ship is both salvageable and can be returned to service.
    
    Both Smit and Titan have the expertise to do this. Salvage and scrapping in place are both very difficult enterprises. The Italian authorities want the hulk removed intact as the possibility of serious environmental damage is much greater with the scrap in place option.
    
    The salvage will be done using ground tackle and shore based anchors and something that can be called cranes, I suppose. Ground tackle (anchors) will be placed to both stabilize and provide leverage to right the ship. Water will be pumped out and then winches working through leverage will be used to right the ship. This is the usual way of righting large capsized ships in shallow waters.
    
    I do know a little bit about marine salvage as the late Great Lakes salvor, Captain John Roen was a close friend and mentor.

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14. 14. mastertater 01:15 AM 6/9/12

    As I recall the damage to the hull is on the port side and before the ship sank it spun around 180 deg. and was blown on shore and is now resting on its starboard side. The damaged hull is now clearly exposed to the air and accessible.
    
    Why not just fix the hull with expanding foam or weld metal sheets over it, pump the water out, and presto: righted ship.
    
    

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