A Dutch salvage company may be hired to try to save the Costa Concordia. There are two options: Patch up the 50-meter (160-foot) gash in the Concordia’s hull and attempt to refloat it, or carve up the liner where it lies into chunks small enough to be carried away on barges.
Refloating the ship would be the cleanest of the two options, but is extremely difficult because of the luxury liner’s size, the ship had about 45,000 tons of steel alone.
To refloat the stricken liner, salvage crews would likely use pulling barges strongly anchored to the sea bed and cables secured to the ship. They would likely also put cables on the land side of the ship to prevent its huge bulk from sliding toward the pulling barges as the vessel is righted.
Forces involved in attempting to pull upright a ship built of tens of thousands of tons of steel make refloating the Concordia unlikely.
That means salvagers are more likely to cut up the ship where it lies, a process that risks releasing pollutants into the waters off picturesque Tuscan coast near a maritime sanctuary for dolphins, porpoises and whales.
