Crews Right Cruise Ship in Waters Off Italy
In a costly, painstaking and potentially perilous operation, salvage workers raised the battered hull of the cruise ship Costa Concordia early Tuesday after removing it from two granite reefs where it ran aground just off this tiny island last year, killing 32 people.
Engineers and other workers started to turn the Costa Concordia, which has been lying off Giglio Island since running aground last year, killing 32 people.
The 19-hour, highly complicated salvage operation had managed to completely rotate the ship from a crazy angle on its side to the vertical, leaning it on an underwater platform built underneath, engineers said. As the vessel slowly emerged, the full extent of damage to its hull when it capsized became apparent, as if a giant fist had driven into its flank, twisting cabins and staterooms out of shape.