Captain made scapegoat (From Oxford Mail)

Captain made scapegoat

10:00am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Letters

John MacAllister (Oxford Mai ViewPoints, January 19) seems to speak with some authority when he likens the cruise liner Costa Concordia to a biscuit tin and I, for one, should be genuinely interested to know in precisely what that expertise resides.

There is also little doubt that Captain Schettino is to some extent being scapegoated, no matter how stupidly and cravenly he is currently widely perceived to have conducted himself.

Nonetheless, an inanimate object can self-evidently not be considered a ‘culprit’, though the authorities who declared the ship seaworthy presumably can be blamed – and the designers?

Few people, however, seem to be criticising his employers for engaging such a character in such a responsible capacity in the first place.

Maybe effecting such detours to greet friends is common practice, though both the diversion itself and Mr Schettino’s reported failure to avail himself of all the state-of-the-art equipment on board are downright irresponsible.

Nor can I agree that it was his ‘misfortune’ to find himself in charge of a vulnerable biscuit tin, as one might expect the ship’s master to be aware of all necessary information concerning his vessel, let alone something as basic as the fact it was rubbish.

If Mr MacAllister is aware of its gross shortcomings, why was the captain not?

This ignorance being assumed for the sake of argument, though, your correspondent enquires: “who would not be alarmed on a ship which started to capsize after hitting a rock?”

Well, if anyone, an intelligent, experienced, reliable, level-headed, altruistic, valiant person, I suppose, fit to be entrusted with the command of a liner, and, besides, there is a distinction between alarm and panic.

DAVID DIMENT Riverside Court Oxford