Recently, the Captain Francesco Schettino said that he has no regrets at all, a year after the Costa Concordia sank with the loss of 32 lives on Jan.13th.
The cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground at Isola del Giglio, of the coast of Italy. This story was all over the news last spring.
In an NBC article by Michelle Kosinski, “Francesco Schettino did not attend the unveiling of memorials in Giglio, Italy, over the weekend as survivors and victims’ families marked the one-year anniversary of the accident.”
Now it’s understandable from his point of view that he may not want to actually be present at the anniversary of the sinking of the Costa Concordia and the unveiling of the memorial, but to say that he has no regret about the accident is simply disrespectful to the lives that were lost and their surviving families. It also illustrates two other things about the man: his nonexistent sense of responsibility and his dispossession of any idea of what it means to be a captain of a ship.
It is the captain’s responsibility to make sure that he looks after not only the ship and cargo, but most importantly the crew and any passengers who may be on board the ship. This is especially important in the case of a cruise ship; to quote brighthubengineering.com “A Captain is, simply, overall incharge of the entire vessel and the highest authority at sea. More specifically, he is in charge of safety of the crew, vessel and cargo. He is charged with ensuring that all international and local laws are followed properly, and that all management policies are fully complied with.”
To make a comment like that only days after the anniversary of the sinking last year illustrates that Schettino doesn’t know anything about the word “responsibility.” Schettino clearly doesn’t understand the meaning of the word nor does he show any conscious awareness of caring about the lives that were lost in the accident.
Being a captain of a ship does come with power, pressure, and responsibility which require them to look after the crew, cargo, and any passengers who may be on board depending on the type of ship that they command, but it doesn’t change the fact that Captain Francesco Schettino failed in his responsibility as a captain.
And this only illustrates further that his clear lack of any regret or remorse at the 32 lives lost in the accident demonstrate that he should never have been in command of the ship at the time because he seem to not comprehend that the passengers like the crew, which enable him to run the ship, are also his responsibility to look after and ensure their safety too.