Former QE2 captain ‘felt shiver down spine’ after liner disaster

Former QE2 captain ‘felt shiver down spine’ after liner disaster

25 January 2012 - by EMER O'TOOLE

AN Ardglass man who is a former captain of the famous QE2 liner has spoken about the Italian cruise ship disaster.

Mr. Nick Bates said no competent captain would sail within two miles of a coastline.

Sixteen people died and a further 16 are still missing after the Costa Concordia struck a rock off the Italian island of Giglio.

Mr. Bates said he felt a “shiver down his spine” whilst listening to the audio recording of a conversation between the Concordia’s captain and the Italian Coastguard.

In the recording, Captain Francesco Schettino was ordered to reboard the ship and co-ordinate rescue efforts. After resisting, Captain Schettino can eventually be heard agreeing to reboard.

In a radio interview, Mr. Bates who now lives in Edinburgh, said it was not unusual for cruise ships to receive requests to sail close to land as a salute.

And he admitted that during his time sailing around Alaska, he would occasionally have taken his ship closer to land to give passengers a better view of glaciers.

But the Ardglass-born skipper emphasised that at such times, “meticulous planning” would be carried out and “every safety precaution” put in place. Mr. Bates also added that “no competent captain would sail that close to shore.”

Mr. Bates said many unanswered questions remained. He stated that the area in which the disaster occurred was a “well-charted area where the dangers would have been known” and that state-of-the-art computer systems, as well as human look-outs, were watching for danger.

The former skipper said he “can only think that there might have been some sort of catastrophic power failure” in both the main power and emergency generators.

Mr. Bates commented that it would have been an “extraordinary set of circumstances to make this cruise ship sink in the way it did.”