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It may be the ship isn't salvageable and it isn't possible to right it, patch it up and send it on its way”

Dawn GormanInternational Tug & OSV

A statement by the parent company, Costa Crociere, said the ship could be lifted with "balls of air" and once floating, towed away by tugs.

The process is called parbuckling, an old-fashioned way to get ships upright, says Mr Lacey. This involves barges with huge winches slowly heaving the ship into position, bit by bit.

"You need a huge turning movement - the power you need to apply to pull the thing into the vertical position. It's simple physics.

"There was a similar operation on the Herald of Free Enterprise in 1987 but that ship was a quarter of the size."

Air bags could be placed under the starboard side by divers and then inflated to help push it upright, he adds, but those alone would not have sufficient force.

There is a huge amount of food on the ship, which will smell if not removed.

And the passengers' belongings in cabins on the port side will also need to be recovered, says Mr Lacey.

Much of what is inside the ship and below the sea level is likely to be written off, he says.

Some of it is has already floated to the surface.

"A lot could be replaced quite easily but the bigger damage is to the bottom of the ship - the machinery and electronic systems."

The hole in the hull on the port side is 48.8m (160ft) wide

"It's possible, with small areas of damage, to prefabricate a [steel] patch and put it into place," says Dawn Gorman, editor of the magazine, International Tug & OSV.

"But whether that's possible with damage this size, we don't know."

If it could be patched up, the next step would be to pump the water out and stabilise it, a very lengthy process, says Ms Gorman.

"But there's no point pumping the water out unless the damage has been patched up, and that's a big hole.

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 861