The Costa Concordia cruise ship was pulled completely upright early today after a complicated, 19-hour operation to lift it from the reef where it capsized last year off the Italian island of Giglio.
A complex system of cables, pulleys and counterweights was used to rotate the ship in a process known as parbuckling. The ship is now resting on an artificial platform. At 4am a foghorn sounded as the head of Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, Franco Gabrielli, announced that the ship was vertical.
“We completed the parbuckling operation a few minutes ago the way we thought it would happen and the way we hoped it would happen,” said Franco Porcellacchia, project manager for the Concordia’s owner, Costa Crociere SpA.
He said there was no environmental spill detected. Nick Sloane, the South African chief salvage master, received a hero’s welcome as he came ashore. “Brilliant! Perfetto,” he said. “It was a struggle, a bit of a roller coaster. But for the whole team it was fantastic.”
The Concordia capsized in January last year in a disaster that saw 32 people killed. Two bodies are missing but it is hoped they will now be recovered.
The submerged side of the ship suffered significant damage while it bore the total weight. That damage must be repaired to stabilize the ship so it can be towed and turned into scrap.
Francesco Schettino, the captain of the Concordia, is on trial for alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship during the chaotic evacuation. He claims the reef wasn’t on the nautical charts.
