Costa tragedy fears grow

Initial hopes that loss of life from the capsize of the cruiseship Costa Concordia would be small are fading as an underwater search for more than 70 people still unaccounted for continues.

It is possible that the missing may have swam ashore but nearly 24 hours after the capsize it seems unlikely there would be no word of them.

The capsized Costa Concordia

The cruiseship initially developed a 20 degree list but then capsized. Passengers reported panic on the vessel but fortunately the ship was in shallow water and many were able to swim the short distance to the island of Giglio.

The Fincantieri built, Rina classed Costa Concordia sustained bow damage after hitting a berth at Palermo in 2008 but otherwise has a good record passing numerous port state control inspections with no deficiencies reported.

The vessel which was on a Mediterranean cruise is reported to have 4,234 people aboard, about 1,000 of whom were crew, at the time of the grounding.

Three are confirmed dead and more than 70 missing.

Costa Cruises is one of the brands of Micky Arison led Carnival Corp, the biggest of the cruise operators with a fleet of over 100 ships.

The protection and indemnity cover on the Carnival Corp fleet is provided by Steamship Mutual and the Standard clubs although there is a unique $10m deductible which means the company is effectively buying only catastrophe cover. The P&I cover on the Costa Concordia is believed to be split on a quota share basis between the two clubs.

Carnival’s hull cover is led by the London based RSA group – formerly Royal & SunAlliance – with the insured value of the Costa Concordia likely to be over $600m.

Given this huge value the vessel is unlikely to be a total loss even if repairs prove very expensive.

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