Reuters

Firefighters return from an operation on the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship off the west coast of Italy at Giglio island. The ship's captain remains under house arrest.

Naples - Francesco Schettino, the captain of the capsized cruise liner Costa Concordia, knew as soon as his ship struck a rock off the island of Giglio on January 13 that he had made a catastrophic error and a 30-year career at sea was ending in disgrace.

Bringing the 114 500-ton vessel to within a stone's throw of shore, he had intended to perform a “salute” to the island for the benefit of Antonello Tievoli, the ship's head waiter and a native of Giglio.

But as he came to within a quarter of a nautical mile of the coast, in water he believed to be deep enough to be safe, he saw foam breaking on what appeared to be a submerged outcrop and turned sharply, exposing the side of the hull to the sharp rock.

“I may have done something rash, I did do something rash, but God would have made it alright for me if I hadn't set the rudder to starboard,” he told magistrates investigating the accident, according to a transcript.

“That's what I remember from that moment and I tell it to you with the utmost sincerity, because as an intelligent man, as a commander, I can't hide, I have to take responsibility for the fact that I made a judgment error,” he said.

At least 17 people died and 15 are still missing after the accident in which the 290 metre-long Concordia, built for half a billion euros less than six years ago, capsized just metres from shore.

Schettino, 51, has been blamed for the accident by prosecutors, by the owners of the ship and, overwhelmingly, by Italian public opinion and media which represent him as having shamed the whole country.

Schettino has been under house arrest since the week after the catastrophe, accused of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the confused and haphazardly managed evacuation of more than 4 200 passengers and crew was complete.

He has been severely criticised not just for coming too close to shore at an unsafe speed, but for a long delay in informing authorities and evacuating after a rock tore a gash in the hull that flooded the engine rooms and disabled the giant ship.

His image has been further tarnished by a recording of a conversation in which a furious coast guard official is heard ordering him to return to the ship and take charge of the evacuation.

In a preliminary ruling, the judge in charge of the investigation said Schettino had shown “incredible carelessness” and a “total inability to manage the successive phases of the emergency”.

That view was backed up by several members of the crew.

“In my opinion, the captain is the only one responsible for this disaster,” said Carlos Garrone, an engineer who lives in Valencia, Spain. “The decision-making responsibility lies with the captain. It's all up to him.”

Schettino himself insisted that he had tried unsuccessfully to return to the ship after falling on to the roof of a lifeboat, but he admitted that he had been devastated by the disaster.

“Everyone had lifevests on, but for me... well my life at that moment had been destroyed, I wasn't interested in lifevests ... it was over for me,” he said.

Married with a daughter, Naples-born Schettino has been held up to condemnation and ridicule throughout the world, but the caricatured image of “Captain Cowardly” hides an experienced and respected ship's officer.

According to his own testimony and that of people who know him, his three decades at sea took him as far afield as Brazil, Tunisia and Tierra del Fuego, and included time on oil tankers as well as on ocean-going passenger ships.

Giuseppe Ruggiero, who first met him in 1987 when they were both preparing to gain their long distance captain's licences and who saw him just two days before the accident, said Schettino was an exceptionally thorough and capable officer.

“He has always been above the average. When you talk about work with him, you can see he's a notch or two above the others,” he told Reuters. “He was then when we were on the course, and he still is today.”

Schettino joined Costa Cruises in 2002 as safety officer and was made captain in 2006, but he has been at odds with the company over aspects of the accident, in particular over the practice of “salutes” which he has said were common and encouraged.

Costa, a unit of the world's largest cruise operator Carnival Corporation, has said ships do approach shore for display purposes, but says such passages are always performed safely and at a secure distance.

The company, which faces a series of individual and class action suits from lawyers representing the passengers and crew of the ship, has blamed Schettino for the disaster and suspended him from duty.

One place in Italy where Schettino can still count on some support is his home town.

Meta di Sorrento, south of Naples, is a picturesque town of about 8 000 inhabitants that clings to the steep coastal slope planted with lemon groves; Schettino's white apartment building lies in a narrow alleyway around 300 yards from the sea.

“Costa doesn't just take the first person that comes along and put them in command of a ship,” said Michele Miccio, a retired captain and president of the Casina dei Capitani, a mutual association for ships' captains based in the town.

“One thing is sure. Franco Schettino knows what he's talking about when he expresses an opinion and he hasn't lost that,” he told Reuters, adding that Schettino was known for having “charisma” and a strong personality.

“He was very hard on himself and the crew, and in my opinion that hasn't helped him,” he said.

Under the terms of his house arrest, Schettino is barred from talking to anyone apart from his lawyer and close family.

In an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper on January 20, the chief executive of Costa, Pier Luigi Foschi, said Schettino had “some little character problems”.

“He was considered a bit hard towards his colleagues. He liked to be noticed,” he told the paper. - Reuters