Brilliant time-lapse video shows raising of Costa Concordia
The crippled Costa Concordia cruise ship was pulled completely upright in the early hours of this morning after a complicated, 19-hour operation to wrench it from its side where it capsized last year off Tuscany.
The Concordia rammed into a reef of Giglio Island on January 13, 2012, after the captain brought it too close to shore.
The operation to right it had been expected to take no more than 12 hours, but dragged on after some initial delays with the vast system of steel cables, pulleys and counterweights.
Shortly after 4am local time, a foghorn wailed on Giglio Island and it was announced that the ship had reached vertical and the operation to rotate it – known in nautical terms as parbuckling – was complete.
Parbuckling the "Costa Concordia" is a very unique engineering feat because it is the largest capsized passenger ship in history (approximately 300 metres in length and 114,000 gross tonnage) and because of its position.
The final phase of the rotation went remarkably fast as gravity began to kick in and pull the ship toward its normal position.
Parbuckling is a standard operation to right capsized ships. But never before had it been used on such a huge cruise liner.
Incredible time-lapse footage of the entire operation:
Crippled Concordia declared upright
