NavList:

Andrew, you wrote:
"This graphic shows it all"

Well, I don't know about that! That graphic doesn't appear to show anything new EXCEPT that it suggests that the ship threaded between two of the rocks close to shore which I think is quite impossible. This ship is huge. More likely, it hit the outer underwater end of the chain of rocks as it was making its turn towards the little harbor.

There is now a very nice Wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia_disaster,
devoted to the accident complete with a nice little chart. Here's a relevant section:
"On 15 January La Repubblica reported that the captain did not mention any mechanical problems but had stated that they were 300 meters (330 yd) from the rocks (i.e., about the length of the vessel) and that they hit a rock that was not marked on nautical charts. This reef was about 800 meters (870 yd) south of the entrance to the harbour of Giglio. The vessel continued for approximately another 1,000 meters (1,100 yd) until just north of the harbor entrance. The vessel then turned in an attempt to get close to the harbor. This turn shifted the centre of gravity to the starboard side of the ship and it listed over to that side initially by about 20�, finally coming to rest at an angle of heel of about 80�. According to the local coast guard, the ship has a 50-metre (160 ft) gash on her port side, with a large rock embedded in the ship's hull.

A local official said the ship deviated from her expected course, possibly to give passengers a view of Giglio Porto on the island's east coast. The La Stampa newspaper published a letter from August 2011 in which Porto Giglio's mayor Sergio Ortelli thanked the Concordia's captain for the "incredible spectacle" of a previous close pass. "It's a very nice show to see, the ship all lit up when you see it from the land. This time round it went wrong," Mayor Ortellei said."

They got themselves an "incredible spectacle", that's for sure.

-FER

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