Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Is The Worst Disaster In Cruise Ship History - The Costa Concordia Story

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

The Costa Concordia disaster occurred on January 13, 2012, when the Italian cruise ship struck a rock off the coast of Isola del Giglio and partially capsized, resulting in the deaths of 32 people. The ship, carrying over 4,200 passengers and crew, deviated from its planned course in a maneuver known as a “salute,” allegedly to impress people onshore. Captain Francesco Schettino was heavily criticized for abandoning ship during the evacuation and was later convicted of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and abandoning his post, receiving a 16-year prison sentence.

So this cruise ship wrecks and the captain abandons it and he leaves about 4,000 people there to die. Now the captain's name is Francesco and Francesco is 51 years old, living in Italy, and dude is the captain of this big-ass cruise ship that operates off the coast of Italy called the Costa Concordia. And one night in 2012, Francesco is piloting this boat with over 4,000 passengers and crew on board. And that is when he gets this idea that's going to change his life forever. He decides he's going to perform a sail by salute. And that is when ships will sail really close to land, and sometimes they'll blow the horn.

It's called a sail by salute. And this will give everyone on the boat a cool view of the island they're passing. And I guess he's just trying to show off. And since he thinks this is going to be impressive, he invites a woman up to the bridge of the ship to watch the whole thing. But not just any woman, it's this woman who will call mistress, because she just happens to be Francesco's mistress who is half his age. And this is an actual picture of her, just straight up looking like a mistress.

And Francesco's married, by the way. Of course he's smashing with this much younger woman on the side. And because they're smashing, she's on this cruise for free. She's humping the captain, so there is no charge for the buffet or whatever. Anyway, so Francesco wants to get the ship close to this island so that he can show off, and he decides he wants to do this sail-by salute manually. Which he doesn't have to do it manually. Cruise ships are very technologically advanced,

but I guess using that technology doesn't make him look very badass in front of his mistress. So he turns off the alarm for the computer navigation system. And under normal circumstances, this alarm would warn him if he were to get too close to shore or whatever. But I guess Francesco doesn't really care. So there he is, on the bridge of the ship, chatting up his mistress, trying to flex, and explain to her how incredible it is that he's steering the boat manually instead of using the navigation system. And he's the only one who's a good enough captain to be able to do such a thing because he knows the area super well and everything's definitely going to be okay and the boat is totally not going to crash.

Until... Until Francesco really screws up. He forgot his reading glasses, so I guess he can't really see what any of his instruments are saying. And I don't know if it's like too late to run and get them or he just doesn't want to be seen in them, but he doesn't go and get them. And I guess he's also distracted by looking at his mistress, who is looking all fine, I guess. So he just keeps asking the first officer to check the radar to make sure the ship is good. So pretty quickly, they're in the middle of this sail by salute and they're moving close to the island

and suddenly, boom, he sees waves breaking on the rocks, and he's like, mamma mea, because he realizes that he has misjudged the distance. He's not supposed to be this close to the rocks. So he tries to steer and swing the ship to the side to avoid it. But unfortunately, it's too late. And kapow, he scrapes the hull of the ship across the rocks, and this rips a massive 164-foot hole in it.

And down below, the head of the engine room calls up, and he's like, yeah, we got a problem. down here, there's a big ass gash in the side of the ship, and water is just pouring in, and it has submerged the generators and the engines, and now there's no propulsion and no backup electric power, and some of the instruments are failing, and so then, boom, the power goes out. So now all the passengers are suddenly sitting in darkness, and to make it worse, all this water coming in shifts the weight of the ship and makes the whole thing start tilting to one side. And of course the passengers are panicking at this point, because most of the power is out and the boat is leaning and they're like, what the hell is happening here?

And so the ship is slowly sinking to its side and it eventually comes to rest in more shallow waters as it runs up on the ground. But water is still rushing in. So Francesco immediately starts freaking out because he knows he really screwed up. He tells one of the crew just to let the Coast Guard know that they only experienced a little blackout and that they don't really need assistance. this is no big deal. And they also make an announcement to the passengers telling them not to panic and that everything is fine.

However, obviously, everything is not fine. And about an hour goes by. And some of the passengers finally report the wreck to Port Authority. And a little bit after that, Francesco gives the passengers and crew the order to evacuate. So basically, the passengers are ordered

to put on their life vests and head toward the lifeboats, but to be calm about it. it. However, as time goes on, the ship keeps tilting more and more. And that makes it hard to launch the lifeboats. And you can actually see the ship tilting here. And now eventually, the whole boat tilts over on its side. Now this is an actual photo of it taken the next day at daylight. And here's another picture and here's another one. I mean, look at that. That looks insane. Now at this point in the story, people are still evacuating and it's all chaos. I mean, there are over 4,000 passengers and crew on this thing.

So this is not a fast process. And a good ship captain would be leading this effort to get his passengers to safety, and he would be on the ship until everything was handled. Because, you know, like a good captain goes down with his ship. I believe that's the saying. Here's the thing, though. Francesco is just not that guy. And he takes a very different approach.

He's like, fuck all this. And he gets in a lifeboat, and he is sailing away to, safety toward the harbor. Now somehow the Coast Guard gets in touch with him, I guess by radio. And the Coast Guard is pissed. They're like, where the hell are you? And Francesco tells them that he had accidentally left his ship because he, and I'm not making this up, fell into a lifeboat. And that that lifeboat made its way to the harbor where he is now safe. And the Coast Guard is like, you're the fucking captain. Get the hell back on your ship. Help people evacuate. because like this is a serious matter.

The ship is on its side. They need to know how many people are still on board. If those people need help, what kind of help do they need? Are people dead? Like these are things a captain is supposed to know. And so Francesco tells them that he's trying to get back on the ship, but in fact, he is not. Not only did he make it to land at this point, but he was actually one of the first people to make it to land, beating all the other passengers.

He's like, oh, fuck all this, I'm getting out of here. And he beat everyone there. And so anyway, a police officer sees Francesco, and he runs up to him, and he offers to get him a small boat to return to the ship to help the passengers evacuate. And Francesco is like, no, I'm good. Meanwhile, there are people from the island, like actual pedestrians sailing out there in whatever vessels they own

to try and help the passengers off this boat. And between that and the coast, sending ships and helicopters, they are ultimately able to help most of the people evacuate safely. But unfortunately, some people do drown, some people get injured from the ship tilting, and some people get trapped. And in total, 32 people don't make it. And so, the next day, bam, Captain Francesco is arrested, and I don't have a mugshot, but here's a real-life picture of him. And And he eventually goes to trial and he's found guilty of manslaughter causing a shipwreck and abandoning a vessel. I didn't even know that was illegal.

But he gets sentenced to 16 years in prison.