Off The Tuscan Coast, Raising The Ill-Fated Costa Concordia
Weather permitting, one of the largest maritime salvage operations ever attempted will get underway Monday in the waters off of an Italian island.
Twenty months ago, in January 2012, the Costa Concordia luxury liner smashed into a jagged reef, killing 32 people. Since then, the vessel has being lying on its side — an unsightly wreck visible for miles around.
The salvage operation aims to bring the ship back upright — all in one piece.
Waves lapping against the pier on the island of Giglio drown out the drone of the massive machines, cranes and barges surrounding the shipwreck.
The Costa Concordia is the length of three football fields and as high as an 11-story building.
Its carcass is like an alien from outer space that plopped down alongside the wooden dinghies moored in the small fishing port.
For 14 months, 500 workers of 26 different nationalities have been hard at work preparing for the operation to rotate the ship upright — or what's known in the salvage trade as parbuckling.
"It's an old nautical term ... from the days of sailing ships," says Nick Sloane, the South African salvage master in charge of the Costa Concordia removal operation. "In those days, they could use the leverage of the mast and the sail booms to assist" in raising a ship.
The cost of the operation, insurance companies warn, could exceed $1 billion.
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