THE COSTA CONCORDIA: 2006 IMO 9320544

Sept. 16, 2013 - The Costa Concordia ship lies on its side on the Tuscan Island of Giglio, Italy. Engineers succeeded in wresting the hull of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia from the Italian reef where it has been stuck since it capsized in January 2012, leaving them cautiously optimistic they can rotate the luxury liner upright and eventually tow it away. Never before has such an enormous cruise ship been righted, and the crippled Concordia didn't budge for the first three hours after the operation began.

GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy –  Engineers have declared the crippled Costa Concordia cruise ship completely upright after a 19-hour operation to pull it from its side where it capsized last year off Tuscany.

Shortly after 4 a.m. Tuesday, a foghorn rang out on Giglio Island and the head of Italy's Civil Protection agency, Franco Gabrielli, announced that the ship had reached vertical and that the operation to rotate it was complete.

Applause rang out among firefigters in the tent where Gabrielli and other project engineers made the announcement.

Officials said there was no apparent pollution in the waters around the ship as a result of the operation.

FINALLY:

IF ONE WERE TO ASK: WHICH OF THE ILL-FATED SHIP WAS BIGGER: WAS IT THE TITANIC OR THE COSTA CONCORDIA?

To compare the two ill-fated ships, we pulled together stats from old press releases from Fincantierei, which built the cruise liner, as well as sites dedicated to the histories of the famed SS United States and Queen Mary, also worthy of Titanic comparisons.

Here's how they measure up:

Length

Costa Concordia: 951.4 feet

Titanic: 882.9 feet

Passenger Capacity

Costa Concordia: 3,780

Titanic: 2,440

Number Of Crew Members

Costa Concordia: 1,068

Titanic: 860

Number Of Decks

Costa Concordia: 13

Titanic: 9

Gross Tonnage

Costa Concordia: 112,000 gross tons

Titanic: 46,329 gross tons

The Costa Concordia is bigger than the Titanic in every respect, except in lives lost. 32 people died after the Costa Concordia crashed, while more than 1,500 were killed in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

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