Fated captain pens memoir
Francesco Schettino, the former captain of the Coast Concordia cruise ship that capsized along Italian island of Giglio in 2012, has written about the disaster in a new 600-page book that promises to give his version of the story. The wreck killed 32 people. In February, Schettino was sentenced to 16 years in prison after an Italian court found him guilty of multiple counts of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship with passengers still onboard. Schettino has remained free as he appeals the conviction. The book, titled “Le Verità Sommerse” (“The Truth Submerged”), was co-written with the Italian journalist Vittoriana Abate. The book will serve as a memoir, detailing Schettino’s life before, during and after the disaster. Schettino hopes the book will set the record straight about what really happened that night through his own “minute by minute” account and evidence presented during trial. The wreck was salvaged in July 2014 and is currently being dismantled in Genoa, Italy.