Shinod, a crew member of the ill-fated Italian vessel Costa Concordia which sank off the Tuscan coast in Italy on January 14, shares his harrowing experience with DC.
“Please give me your boot because I’m not able to run fast with this high-heeled stuff,” a 30-year-old woman begged. The request was made to none other than Shinod Vijayan, a crew member of the ill-fated Italian vessel Costa Concordia.
Twenty-six-year-old Mr Shinod, a graduate in Nautical Science, is now back home at Krishnapuram near Kayamkulam after the ill-fated ship partially capsized in the Mediterranean sea killing seven passengers including an Indian. The death toll has become twelve now.
Twenty nine passengers who were aboard the cruise line ship when the mishap occurred on January 13 had gone missing.
“It’s very disturbing to recall the episode. It makes a painful narration. It was quite a messy scene when the captain warned that we were about to face a Titanic tragedy. The cruise ship was then sailing from Givitawitch to Savona,” Shinod recalled.
He remembers the jolt after the ship hit some unusual object but none thought a fatal accident was in store.
It’s been alleged that the Concordia skipper Mr Francesco Schettino – a self-confessed playboy – had rescued himself first. Mr Shinod, however, does not agree. “He did an excellent job by leading the ship towards the shore. Finally, we were only one nautical mile away from the shore when the ship started sinking,” he revealed.
Mr Shinod added that what the captain did inside the ship shouldn’t be debated since he immediately became vigilant when the ship hit the rock.
Mr Schettino allegedly was dancing with a beautiful woman in an inebriated condition when the accident happened. However, Mr Shinod said that the captain, instead of giving an alert signal to the crew, tried hard to lead the vessel to the shore by himself.
“Maybe he didn’t want to create panic. For, by the time we were alerted, we could see the coast,” Mr Shinod confirmed.
Mr Shinod, who joined Costa Concordia some two months back as helmsman along with 1,000 crew including eight Indians didn’t hesitate to join the rescue operations immediately after the red alert.
The ship had 26 life boats and one rescue boat but two life boats developed glitches during the evacuation. The rescue operations were completed with the help of 24 life boats each of which could’ve accommodated 150 passengers.
However, in the melee, the life boats were overloaded. “There were over 200 people in each. No one was ready to listen to our instructions. I was even punched as I tried to calm down the violent passengers,” he noted.
Mr Shinod said that during the first four trips, the crew saved over 1,000 people. However, it was not an easy task since on one occasion a life boat tilted to a nasty 90 degrees. “For a moment I thought we’re all finished. But, we were lucky as the boat regained balance,” he said.
Mr Shinod and his colleagues couldn’t breathe easy till the Italian Navy, Italian Coast Guards and International Red Cross Society officials took over the rescue operations. “It’s not yet over and 29 people are still missing,” he said.
The ship, according to Mr Shinod, had 3,200 passengers of whom 202, including the crew, were Indians when it struck the under-water rock.
When the red alert was issued, Mr Shinod said that it was his family that came to his mind first.
However, it all ended well for him and others who escaped the tragedy and they were soon accommodated at Marriott Hotel upon reaching the Isola del Giglio Island after a hectic, yet, heroic deed. They were later joined by India’s ambassador to Italy Mr Debabrata Saha.
Mr Shinod said that Costa Concordia had been an unlucky ship for the Costa Crongia Company which owned over 17 ships as it was involved in several accidents earlier. The company had spent over US$ 450 million in constructing Concordia.
No doubt, it was a lucky escape from an unlucky ship and Mr Shinod’s wife Ms S. Darshana, an MSc nursing student, can’t just hide her joy. “I’ve no words to express my joy. All thanks to God almighty,” she said.
