I’m still baffled at the sheer incompetence and negligence of this Italian shipwreck. Even under the best of circumstances, with all proper precautions, accidents can still happen. But there was no excuse for this debacle. Let me give you an idea of how this should have been handled…

The safest course for that ship would have been to transit the middle of the channel beween the island and mainland, as far from both and any other hazards as possible. There is a reason for this, even if you are right on top of things and conditions are ideal, you never know when an unexpected emergency might occur, a sudden maneuver to avoid a collision, a fire which might require steering relative to the wind to carry smoke away from the ship, a steering machinery failure, or something else.
You would want as much open water as possible to give yourself time to deal with the problem without having to worry about hitting something.

Suppose, for whatever valid reason (like a direct order from the owner), it became necessary to make a close approach to the island, lets say, to publicize the line or to generate good will among the islanders, or to give the passengers a thrill. The right way to go about this would be to plan ahead of time: decide exactly when and where you would deviate from your normal course. Pick a speed and course that would bring you within a safe distance of the island, and a precise spot where to turn again to proceed along the coast. This is not the type of maneuver to be carried out on a whim. You sit down with a cup of coffee and plan it carefully a day ahead of time. An alternative would have been to explain to a qualified junior officer the need for this deviation from normal routine, and ask him ahead of time to prepare a plan to carry it out and to present that plan for review and approval to the skipper. Skippers can delegate authority, and this maneuver was not highly dangerous or even unusual if properly planned and executed.

Plot that course on the chart, double checking that there would be no hidden reefs or other hazards on the chart, and the locations and characteristics of all nearby hazards and aids to navigation. Mark on the chart where and when the ship should be at any time after the maneuver, and familiarize yourself with the local landmarks etc, and plan a safe escape route in case something unexpected happens, like a fishing boat suddenly materializing in your path.

The next step would be to notify the bridge watch of your intentions, explain it in detail to your first officer, and log your intentions to have a change of plans. At the precise moment you had determined earlier, execute the turn and any speed changes, then carefully monitor the position to make sure the ship is on schedule and where expected.

With all these precautions, even if the ship ran into an “uncharted rock”, everyone would be on alert and the emergency could be dealt with properly.

It was my experience that the captain was always on the bridge when the ship was maneuvering, even if the maneuver was planned and routine. When the captain was below, it was presumed the ship was safe, and the bridge watch was under standing orders to maintain course and speed except for emergencies. It is impossible to exaggerate how paranoid the skipper was about all this. We had standing orders that, even in open ocean, if a surface contact was determined to pass with 5 nautical miles of the ship, the captain was to be called to the bridge, or even woken up and briefed if he was asleep in his sea cabin. The sea cabin was a tiny space behind the bridge, it was not unusual to see the captain come storming onto the bridge in pajamas and robe in the middle of the night.

Warships are very paranoid, for obvious reasons, but I would imagine that having thousands of untrained passengers on board would make ocean liners paranoid and super-cautious as well, especially in crowded waters.

I find it very difficult to believe the obstruction the ship hit was not marked on the chart, or at the very least, located in a place where a prudent mariner would suspect the possibility of it presence and give the spot a wide berth. And what happened after the collision is a whole other set of circumstances. As far as I can tell, the captain made only one good decision: he deliberately ran the ship aground, which no doubt saved countless lives. Running a ship aground on purpose is so counter to every instinct of a seaman, so much against all indoctrination and training, that doing it reveals the only flash of inspiration in what must have been a very bad night.