Get back on the ship

Get back on the ship... That is an order! Coastguard's furious call to 'Captain Coward' as cruise passengers drowned

• Francesco Schettino claims he 'saved thousands of lives' 
• Appears in court after being arrested on suspicion of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship
• Repeatedly ignored orders from desperate coastguard to return to ship as he sat in lifeboat
• Junior officers led a 'mutiny' after he dithered in giving orders
• Five more bodies found by divers bringing to 11 the number of confirmed dead
• 24 still missing as fears grow over 500,000 gallons of leaking fuel
• Divers scouring boat blow holes in it with explosives as escape route if it should sink

The captain of the Costa Concordia repeatedly defied direct orders to return to his stricken ship. 

Extracts from a heated telephone conversation between Francesco Schettino – dubbed Captain Coward – and an Italian coastguard on the night of the sinking reveal the skipper tried to argue that he could co-ordinate the evacuation of thousands of stranded passengers from the safety of his lifeboat.

At one point the coastguard, clearly infuriated by Schettino’s feeble excuses, shouts: ‘You get back on board! That is an order!’ He also says: ‘Listen, Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Damn it, go back on board!’

Disgraced: Captain Francesco Schettino leaves court in Italy after a day of heavy criticism, in which heated phone calls between him and the coastguard were played

On trial: The captain of the stricken Costa Concordia cruise liner (in brown jacket) enters the court ahead of his grilling

The details emerged as the death toll from Friday night’s tragedy rose to 11 as five more bodies were recovered – the one woman and four men had lifejackets on and were huddled in the rear of the ship near an emergency evacuation point.

The transcript also shows how the coastguard mocked the fleeing captain as he urged him to fulfil his duty by returning to the £400million vessel, which came to grief after hitting rocks off a Tuscan island.

But with his terrified second-in-command sitting next to him, he flatly refuses – complaining that it is ‘dark and he can’t see anything’ – before asking how many fatalities there have been.

Trawling: Police scuba divers scour the ship for survivors and bodies, using explosives to blast debris and other obstacles out of their path

Wreckage: Rescuers search frantically for any remaining passengers as hopes fade for the 24 passengers and crew still missing

Race against the clock: The hulking vessel could slip and plunge to the sea bed at any minute

The startling exchange was revealed as: 

• Schettino appeared in court in Grosseto, Tuscany, for the first time and was told he faces up to 15 years in jail but insisted: ‘I did not abandon my ship. I saved thousands of lives.’
• Twenty-four people remained missing, including a honeymooning bride.
• A ‘race against time’ began to stop 500,000 gallons of fuel leaking.
• Divers used explosive charges to blow holes in the Concordia to create quicker entry routes for search teams.

Brave team: The divers are working under the danger that furniture or debris could slip and crush them if the boat lists

Human chain: Rescue workers climb on to the Concordia in the faint hope that some passengers may be clinging to life in a freak air pocket

Tale unfolding: Five more bodies were found on the Costa Concordia, as the coastguard revealed how the captain refused to go back on board

Appearance: Police officers stand outside the Grosseto courthouse where Captain Francseco Schettino appeared before a magistrate

Discovery: A scuba diver is pictured dragging a body out from the stricken cruise liner Costa Concordia as the confirmed death toll rises to 11

Blasting through: The bright flash of an explosion shows where Italian navy divers have used 'micro-charges' to force their way through the hull of the capsized Costa Concordia - in a bid to find missing passengers and crew

Peeling the hull away: Rescuers use an inflatable raft to get to the blast points and continue their search for survivors. Debris and the 'sideways' nature of the ship have hampered rescue efforts

Last night a judge granted Schettino, 52, release from prison to be placed under house arrest. He will have to stay at his £175,000 apartment in the seaside town of Meta di Sorrento near Naples, where he lives with his wife and daughter, while the investigation is continued.

But as Schettino faces the prospect of charges of multiple manslaughter, causing shipwreck and abandoning ship, the devastating transcript of Friday night’s events appeared to make a mockery of his claims that he had ‘saved’ lives.

In a series of increasingly desperate telephone exchanges with coastguards, the first conversation with Schettino – Concordia’s captain of six years – is only nine minutes after the luxury liner – containing 4,200 passengers – hit an underwater reef.

Even though it had suffered a fatal gash in its port-side hull, Schettino tells a worried harbourmaster that everything is fine, other than a ‘small technical problem’.

When officials again managed to contact the captain, who by now was safely on shore despite hundreds of passengers still being on board, he says he is unable to return as the liner has started to list.

Instead of obeying the orders, Schettino was reportedly seen getting into a taxi and leaving the scene as passengers were left to fend for themselves.

It has previously been claimed that the disgraced skipper steered to within 300 yards of the rocky shores of the picturesque isle of Giglio so he could perform a ‘salute of respect’ for a retired officer as well as to impress his head waiter’s family on shore.

He should have been at least five miles out to sea but insists the rocks he struck were not marked on his charts. He has also been accused of dining with beautiful women as the liner crashed into rocks and of raiding the safe before jumping ship.

Last night Schettino’s wife Fabiola came to his defence, saying: ‘Much of what has been published about his actions are still to be verified while those who know him well have testified that he is absolutely dedicated to his work and his professionalism as can be demonstrated by his quick, decisive actions which helped limit the consequences of the accident for all the passengers onboard.' 

Meanwhile, hopes faded for the 24 passengers and crew still missing, including honeymooning bride Maria D’Introno, 30.

The rest of her party jumped into the sea and swam to a nearby headland. 

Her husband, Vincenzo Rosselli, 40, of Biella near Turin, said: ‘The main thing on my mind was for my 74-year-old father who has a problem with his hip. We all had lifejackets but Maria couldn’t swim and she was scared of the water.’ 

Desperate: Passengers line up on the side of the Costa Concordia and move down along the side of the vessel during the evacuation operation

A hole created by micro explosions in the Costa Concordia as rescuers attempt to get to areas of the ship they haven't reached

Anger: Hundreds of people are signing up to a Facebook group to berate the captain of the ship Francesco Schettino

Search and rescue: Underwater photographs show a diver searching the Costa Concordia, left, and a huge gaping hole in the vessel, right

Bruno Leporatti, Francesco Schettino's lawyer, addresses the media after his client says he saved 'thousands of lives'

Yesterday rescuers created a series of controlled explosions on the 117,000-ton ship so that the hundreds of cabins and corridors could be searched more quickly.

The idea was also to provide a vital escape route should the Concordia slip from its resting place on a rock and plunge 100 yards to the seabed. 

Dogs have also been brought in to help with the search. 

All are working under constant danger that waves or movement might send debris or heavy furniture crashing down on them. 

In one part of the ship, a grand piano is said to be leaning precariously against an underwater wall.

Yesterday one rescue worker said it would need a ‘miracle’ to find any survivors in the flooded section of the ship as they would need a freak air pocket for oxygen and to keep dry to avoid hypothermia. 

It was also claimed last night that junior officers led a ‘mutiny’ against Schettino and ordered passengers to the lifeboats after he delayed in giving the command to evacuate for an hour after hitting the rocks.

Extraordinary footage of Friday’s evacuation, shot by infrared video camera from a coastguard helicopter, emerged of hundreds of passengers on the hull of the upturned ship trying to clamber down a single rope to a few crowded, wave-lashed lifeboats.

One man said emerging from the terror inside the ship to find himself perched on top of the slowly submerging hull was ‘like waking up from one nightmare and stumbling into another’.

By this time, it was claimed, crew members were shoving their way past passengers. 

One of the crew was screaming: ‘I don’t want to die!’

Sunk: Rescuers hunt desperately for survivors yesterday as the Costa Concordia remains lying on its side