Watch the video of the ship below.
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Air travel may have long supplanted sea travel as a means of passenger transport but “going on a cruise” is still a catchphrase for a sweet little vacation getaway while managing to see some beautiful coastal tourist destinations.
And why not? It’s been more than a hundred years since the Titanic sunk and a lot of progress has been made in the realm of ship design and state-of-the-art systems to ensure that both passengers and crew stay as safe as possible while giving maximum enjoyment.
However, one thing that technology can’t do even today is to totally conquer Mother Nature. And that can be seen in this video that captured in vivid detail the moment the luxury cruise ship Costa Deliziosa almost smashed into a dock in Venice during a particularly strong hail storm.
They may be built for luxury, but these steel behemoths still average out at 100,000 gross tons (with some being heavier than that). You don’t need to be a physics major to imagine how much damage such a big object can cause to other boats and infrastructure alike. And the one taking the video, who was literally a stone’s throw away from Costa Deliziosa, must have felt no small amount of trepidation at the way the approaching ship came dangerously close to the wharf.
The ship was actually about to leave port while being pulled by tugs but was unable to maintain its balance due to the severe weather. That forced the captain to sound its emergency siren as the tugs frantically worked to pull the giant ship away from the dock. They succeeded, but just barely. The ship almost narrowly avoided smashing into a yacht that was also anchored in Riva Sette Martiri.
The cruise company Costa issued a statement stating: “A sudden weather event affected Costa Delicious (The ship) with hard gusts causing a deviation during its passage from Canal guidance under the Commander and three tugboats which promptly assisted the ship.”
It was a truly terrifying event for everyone involved and five people were actually injured. Social media users who likely recalled the collision between a ship and a small boat in the Giudecca canal just a month before called on authorities to institute measure so that such an incident can be avoided in the future.
It was a sobering lesson not to take Mother Nature likely.