By now, just about everyone with Internet access has heard of the Costa Concordia, the Italian cruise ship that wrecked, claiming the lives of at least 30 people, back in 2012. Right now, efforts are underway off the coast of Giglio, Italy to raise the Concordia, which is quite a job, as the vessel weighs more than 100,000 tons.
A group of engineers worked for months to devise a plan to roll the cruise ship upright so it can be moved onto platforms for removal. Crews began working on rolling the Concordia on Monday. After being set back briefly because of thunderstorms early on Monday, the operation resumed and is expected to finished sometime Tuesday. Rescuers hoped to find the bodies of two people who were unaccounted for after the shipwreck, but haven’t had any luck so far.
The salvage master in charge of the raising the shipwrecked Concordia, Nick Sloane, says that raising the ship upright is called “parbuckling.” Sloane says the word is “an old nautical term…in those days, they could use the leverage of the mast and the sail booms to assist” in raising a ship. It’s difficult to comprehend how it’s possible to raise such a massive vessel, especially after it has been sitting on its side in water for the past 20 months. See a video of the game plan for raising the shipwrecked Concordia below.
If you’re interested in watching the operation, The Guardian has a live video stream of the event—UPDATE: the shipwreck Concordia has been raised, see a time-lapse of the raising of the ship here. For folks unable to watch video, a timeline of raising Concordia is also available, which is updated regularly.
While many Italians are happy that the unsightly ship will be removed from their coast, some people are raising their eyebrows at the cost of the operation, which could exceed $1 billion. That hefty price tag is reportedly more than what it cost to build the ship.
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