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| Oh Captain, My Captain! |
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| Get the FUCK Back On Board, You Revolting............... |
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This is Dark Cloud on Wednesday, January 18, 2012. The Costa Concordia is the Italian cruise ship that hit a rock this week and started sinking. The incompetent captain gave false information to passengers and possibly to the crew, correctly tried to wedge it ashore to prevent it from sinking, but did so incompetently and managed to capsize it. This has provided the media with, besides dramatic visuals, several easy to write, not terribly enlightening stories, and allows them to miss the big ones that this unnecessary tragedy reveals. For example, the AP headline yesterday was "Coast Guard Orders Italian Captain" to get back aboard and orchestrate the rescue. The insertion of nationality for the Captain but not the Coast Guard intrigued and then infuriated me when I suddenly realized why. In the ignorant US, that headline resonates well. Latin nations like France and Italy are military jokes here and often appear as drunks in tales from the world wars. The headline looks like it was meant to imply that heroic Anglo Saxon men of the US Coast Guard, for some reason in the Mediterranean, told some Wop captain not to be a coward, to be a man. Of course, if the headline had read Italian Coast Guard Excoriates Ship Captain, it wouldn't do, even it that is the truth. Admittedly, that Captain should be shot, first for incompetence, second for cowardice of a world class level. And the world, starting with the US media, ought to admit that the Italian response outside the Captain and his crew has been excellent. This cruise ship, capsized like a sail board on the beach, is actually bigger than any ship in the world through World War 2. It is longer than the USS Missouri, wider than the IJN Yamato, and heavier than either. This is a 950 foot ship, more than three football fields, near new, that despite the incredible navigation tools available, the captain being impressive hit a known rock. Forgivably, those rescued found comparison to the Titanic disaster which, unforgivably, the media saddled and rode with for a while. The panic and incompetence of the crew are similar, and just like with the Costa Concordia, the captain was incompetent. In the case of Captain Smith on the Titanic, he willingly steamed fast at night into a known ice field, apparently thinking ice could be seen far enough ahead for the ship to avoid. The evacuation was badly done. All on Captain Smith.  In the hearings about the loss of 1500 people, questions arose as to whether Smith was competent. He'd already had a near collision in harbor when departing, which does not suggest he was completely at home at the helm. History suggests that technology had exploded so fast, and ships had become not only so big but so different in handling qualities that merchant sailors and various navies both were not familiar with the often unexpected problems of large ships. Among other things, the Royal Navy discovered that at high speed, the Dreadnought would not respond to the rudder. Issue. It was all hush hush, of course, but the many issues were not resolved till the age of the battleship was near over in my lifetime. In any case, Smith may have assumed an ability that smaller ships had applied to the leviathans of the new age. In April of this year, the century marker of the Titanic's demise, you can expect nothing bad to be said about Smith or the ignorances afoot in 1912. Bad form and all. But that brings us back to the Costa Concordia, a cruise ship. A cruise ship is different from an ocean liner, because it isn't designed for large ocean swells, much less storms, and has a low freeboard, meaning waves can knock out windows and flood the ship easier than a liner. Also, to my eye, these ships are remarkably top heavy with low draft, because in some ways they are littoral vessels designed for close to shore travel. But no 950 foot ship should be anywhere near a shore not a harbor, and there are few enough able to host this size of vessel, anyway. In the Titanic inquiry, it became apparent early on that the term 'Italian' was being used for 'coward' as crew members described heroic passengers - who were English, American or at least rich - and the others. You'd like to think we were past that. But as the Republicans in South Carolina race bait their base, and the world media castigates Italian manhood as Republicans denigrate the French, we are clearly not. Depressing. For the record, I've tried to use free internet services today that are down in symbolic opposition to two bills before Congress. Other people may not deserve free internet, but it's ME, guys. Gimme. |
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