This past week on the Yahoo! news channel I viewed a clip, which originated from a February 27th, 2012 article in the Los Angeles Times, concerning an incident where the Costa Cruise liner COSTA ALLEGRA experienced engine room mechanical difficulties which made her powerless and had to be towed through an area of alleged pirate-filled activity in the Indian Ocean. Like everyone else who saw that clip I can only imagine the nervous anxiety that musta caused the 1,000+ passengers and crew of the cruise ship but last I heard, the ship was successfully delivered to a nearby port where both passengers and crew were safely attended to. I'm extrremely thankful for that and that there were no injuires and/or deaths regarding the incident; however, what I wasnt too thrilled with was that the LA Times article indicated the COSTA ALLEGRA is a sister-ship to the ill-fated COSTA CONCORDIA, something which simply is not true.
What should've been stated was that the ALLEGRA and the CONCORDIA were "fleetmates" NOT sister-ships. In order for any set of ships to be "sisters" they have to built almost identically to each other, which the ALLEGRA and CONCORDIA most certainly were not. Personally, I think the reporter(s) behind that LA Times article were using a bit of journalistic sensationalism to further schmeer the name of Costa Cruise lines and as we all know, after what happened to the COSTA CONCORDIA, no further schmeering is required.
The following Costa Cruise liners are virtually identical sister-ships of the COSTA CONCORDIA and are as follows: COSTA SERENA, COSTA PACIFICA, COSTA FAVALOSA and COSTA FASCINOSA, whereas the only ship statistics that set COSTA ALLEGRA apart from the aforementioned liners is that the ALLEGRA is one of the oldest fleetmates in the Costa fleet, beginning service for them in 1992 to be exact and she also happens to be one of the more unique cruise ships afloat because she originally started out life as a container ship back in the late 1960's. Actually, there were other cruise lines who attempted the concept of converting cargo/container ships into cruise-ships, such as California's Matson Line and Carnival Cruise Lines(in its early days of operation), but none were as successful as has been the COSTA ALLEGRA, hence another explanation for her longevity in the Costa Cruises fleet.
Aside from simply looking at photos of the COSTA ALLEGRA and the COSTA CONCORDIA side-by-side, two other facets of the COSTA ALLEGRA that shoulda tipped off readers of the LA Times article that she is indeed not a "sister-ship" to the COSTA CONCORDIA are her passenger capacity and her tonnage. The ALLEGRA weighs in at 28, 430 tons and has a passenger capacity of 1,072, whereas the COSTA CONCORIDA weighed in at 114,000 tons and had a passenger capacity of 3,780. In other words, not only are these two cruise-ships not sister-ships but hell, they're not even kissing-cousins for that matter.
Whenever there's any type of an incident involving ships-at-sea, every newspaper reporter out there is expected to regale readers with this-n-that fame-invoking characteristic to pull them into reading further; but, what alotta these newspaper reporters dont realize is that whether it's about a noteworthy ship, a famous person or an exotic place, the average reader deserves to be served the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thank you for
reading.
Posted via email from Luctor Et Emergo
No comments:
Post a Comment