As mentioned above and in the reports the captain had navigated this route in the same ship many times before. This time he obviously came too close to the shore. The captain claims he was 300 meters out, not 100 meters from shore as some allege, but we'll see what the recovered black boxes have to say about that.

"I was under the impression that the vessel was not under control, since all control systems were down, because the electrical power was down." Marine experts claim that major cruise liners have redundant back-up systems in case of the lose of power; loss of power should not be a major factor in explaining how this accident happened.

I also agree that most of the posters on this tread have been fairly restrained, unlike Megan, Silas and Bozo. What witch hunt? This is a major marine catastrophe and merits discussion. References to on-line reports would be appreciated.

But look at the side of the rock lodged in the port side of the Concordia. That was not a random encounter nor an aggressive move on the part of the rock. Someone blundered.

There are more reports this morning, one from an Italian Coast Guard official who met him on shore and one from a military officer who was a passenger, reinforcing the case against the captain's early departure from the mortally stricken ship.

It is a miracle that no more than a dozen or so lives were lost in this accident.

Charley Noble