Costa is back in the news with a widely reported incident where the Costa Pacifica cruise ship violently struck a piling in the Port of Marseille this morning. The cruise ship sustained a gash of around 8 meters long, which luckily is above the waterline. 

Costa down-played the incident stating that the damage was just

Cruise industry expert Professor Ross Klein’s website, Cruise Junkie, mentions an incident this last Sunday involving a passenger ferry in France.

High winds broke a dozen mooring lines to the Napoleon Bonaparte, a passenger and vessel ferry. The impact with the pier ripped a 30-metre long hole in the stern, causing water to