Coraggio Fuggiamo

 

It’s been a hundred years since we’ve heard the words “women and children first”, but this week, thanks to the now infamous Captain Schettino, those very words hit the headlines once again.
As I watched the surreal footage and heard the dead toll climbing, I couldn’t harness an iota of sympathy for the Captain. I mean seriously, who crashes a ship and then abandons it before his 4,200 passengers have been evacuated?

In a recorded phone call between an Italian coast guard officer and Captain Francesco Schettino, we hear the Captain making weak excuses not to return to the ship and help evacuate the passengers. Shameful indeed; he deserves every bit of humiliation that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

We also hear the coast guard somewhat losing his wits and shouting down the line telling the Captain ‘You need to tell me if there are children, women or people in need of assistance. And tell me the exact number of each of these categories. Is that clear?”

According to a report written by A.N Wilson of the Daily Mail, when the ship started tilting, people panicked, and in the chaos, some men refused to put women first. According to various eye witnesses they pushed and shoved to save themselves, as did some of the crew members who blatantly ignored passengers and reportedly rammed their way past mothers and pregnant women to get into lifeboats.

Read on here