Something odd here ..... On 16 Feb. I was cataloging a load of old photos, including the one I posted. As the Allegra's sister ship Costa Marina had been withdrawn from service and sold I thought it would be just a matter of time before the Allegra would also be up for disposal. For no other reason except a whim I put a similar picture dating from 2005 up on Shipspotting (a very large enthusiast's site) and thought no more about it. Then, just over a week later this ship, to which I hadn't given the slightest thought for years, suffers this calamity.
Premonition ?? ..... Am I psychic in my frail dotage ?? ...... Nah! - just mental!
Poor old Costa has suffered some very bad press lately. The tragedy of the Concordia cannot be compared to this incident, but nevertheless the usually uninformed media hysteria will doubtlessly run it's course.
I'm reminded of the Achille Lauro which suffered an engine room fire off Somalia in 1994. Here the ship burned out and finally sank. Since then huge improvements were made to fire control systems, and in the case of the Costa Allegra they seem to have worked well.
