Review: Wrecking of the Costa Concordia by John Hooper
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 6, 2012
The account of the wreck of the cruise ship, Costa Concordia, on January 13, 2012 is given in this Kindle Single, "Fatal Voyage: The Wrecking of the Costa Concordia" by John Hooper.  The cruise ship left the port of Civitavecchia, which is north of Rome with a passenger list of more than 4000 aboard.The details given are much akin to what has been in the newspapers and news magazines, but with several accounts by passengers who tell of their escapes from the ship. There are other details that I haven't read anywhere else.  Hooper tells of a Korean couple who were honeymooning on this cruise who nearly didn't make it off the ship alive, since they were trapped in their cabin with cold water and one life vest.  Another man fell and broke his leg in two places and managed to get to a tabletop to avoid the cold water.The same question is asked in this Single as has been asked everywhere else, and that is why the captain decided to showboat when it was cold, and with other crew members on the bridge who had nothing to do with the sailing of the ship.  These people were hotel staff, and apparently the captain had them there to show them what an expert he was by sailing through an opening that was only a few hundred yards from the Giglio island's shore.  How this information got out is very interesting.Hooper does a good job with the timeline of events and with the outcomes of the people mentioned who were passengers.  The short biographical information on Captain Schettino and his family shows a family who had been around the sea, if not on it, for a couple of generations.  The author also follows one family's experience throughout and what happened to them.Overall, this is an interesting and well-written account of this tragic wreck. It is more personal when one family is the focus of what happens when there is an accident like this with over 4000 passengers on board and everyone thinks they are going to have a peaceful, relaxing time until the ship starts to shake and the lights go out.This was worth reading, at least for me and I give it four stars.