I have been following with interest the saga of the Costa Concordia which went aground in Giglio, partly due to my interest in salvage matters as I have been associated with the Dutch salvors Smit International for over 30 years in my shipping career.

The grounding of the cruise liner is a real tragedy and my sympathy goes to the families who lost their beloved ones.

It has been stated in the media that Smit have been entrusted by the owners of the vessel with the salvage of some 2,000 tons of fuel to avoid the risk of pollution. Smit are one of the best, if not the only professional salvors, in the world and I am certain they can retrieve the fuel. They are also able to refloat the vessel in her present state as they have done with similar operations around the world.

It was also stated that the reason for delaying salvage operations is because the authorities want to rescue the remaining people on board whether dead or alive, although I very much doubt whether there are still people alive.

Nothing so far has been said about refloating the vessel and the risk is that the vessel can slide down and sink. To start with, the salvors would ensure that the vessel will not move by securing her, possibly with lines, to the shore.

At this stage the vessel is what in marine terms is called a Constructive Total Loss (CTL) which means that the cost of refloating her could be less than the value of the vessel. If the ship sinks she will be a Total Loss (TL) which means that the cost to raise her from the bottom of the sea might be more than the value of the ship, although she could still be raised. Consequently, in my opinion, the sooner the authorities allow the salvors to start operations the better would be the chances of refloating her and getting her into service again. This scenario should be an eye opener to Malta although the local Tug Malta would be in a position to assist in the salvage operations.