A Titanic of the 21st century?

摘要

As this issue of Ships Monthly was being prepared, and articles about the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic were being edited, news of Costa Concordia's tragic accident hit the national news headlines. The modern media was able to use dramatic footage to cover the event, although it was not pointed out that Costa Concordia is the largest passenger ship with passengers aboard to be lost in peacetime since Titanic. It was inevitable that comparisons would be made by the media with the sinking of Titanic, and of the similarities the most notable was that, in both sinkings, human error seems to have been the cause. Both ships were among the most modem of their day, yet even though the Costa ship had the most sophisticated navigation systems on board, these count for nothing when errors are made by those in command.