Hearing three violinists playing My Heart Will Go On, Rose Metcalf stopped in her tracks. It was around 9pm on 13 January 2012 and the 23-year-old ship’s dancer was crossing the ballroom of the Costa Concordia cruise liner, as they played the theme tune from Titanic. About to have coffee with the Peruvian man she was dating, she told them: “That’s a bad omen, you shouldn’t play that.” Hours later, one of the violinists was among the 31 people who perished when the ship, carrying 4,200 passengers, struck rocks by Italy’s Giglio Island, near Tuscany, and began to capsize.
Rose, from Bournemouth, features in the Netflix number one show - Shipwrecked: Nightmare At Sea, which tells how she helped 400 people to safety.
Moment of Impact
Recalling the moment of impact, she says: “I was thrown back in my seat, my cappuccino lurched upwards. The boat began to shudder. It felt like an earthquake. There was a loud groaning sound, almost like a wail. It went on for a long time. Plates were smashing, lights flickered. People held their breath.”
Now 37, she continues: “I knew in that moment we were f***ed. The ship has 12 watertight compartments that run along the length of it and if one or two are breached, it can stay afloat. But three or more, it’s a certainty that it’s going to sink. It was exactly the same on the Titanic. We were going down.”
Chaos and Heroism
The Costa Concordia's safety training had been basic, according to Rose, who now lives in Malibu with her actor partner Kalond. She says: “I remember saying to a friend, ‘If anything happens, none of this is going to work in a real life situation.”
Rose recalls shock silence descending, saying: “All the passengers were wide-eyed, frozen. I yelled, ‘Get your life jackets. Get to the lifeboats’ Everyone was running, crashing into each other, screaming, yelling, crying. People were getting hurt. Blind panic is dangerous. And nobody in charge was telling them what was going on.”
According to reports, Captain Francesco Schettino deviated from the ship's pre-approved route to perform a "sail-by salute" - a close-to-shore maritime greeting to the residents of Giglio Island. But the ship struck rocks and a 174ft gash was torn in the port side of the hull. Rose says: “I thought I was going to die. Crew members were passing around cigarettes and cracking morbid jokes, making light of death because there was nothing else to do.”
Human Chain Rescue
The corridor became like an open lift shaft, with hundreds of passengers and crew stuck on the wrong side to the lifeboats. Brave Rose took charge, telling crew members to form a human chain down the almost-vertically tilted corridor, to provide safe passage down.
Rose says: “It was a case of, ‘if we don't go now, we'll be completely trapped and we'll just sink, we'll get sucked under.’”
Knowing the lifeboats were touching the water and time was running out, she opened a door to the perilous corridor and, one by one, Rose and a crewmate grabbed crew members by the armpits and flung them to the other side. She says: “They would then loop themselves onto the bannister and form a human chain that others could climb down.”
Rose helped 400 people escape, before the ship’s tilt became so extreme that she and four others were stuck. All she had on her was a broken torch. She says: “I was just really resigned to death, because I didn't see any way off.” She tied a fire hose to a banister, but it was too short to reach water level. “I had pulled a torch out of a wall too,” she says. “The wires broke. I just shoved it in my pocket.”
Rescue via Torch Light
Borrowing someone’s old Nokia phone, she sent her dad, Philip, back in the UK, a Facebook message. Despite it being the early hours of the morning, he was awake - and called the Italian Coast Guard. She says: “He was like, ‘Do you know that the Costa Concordia is sinking?’ They said, ‘No, we haven't heard anything.’ And he said, "My daughter's on it. Get out there now.’
A helicopter was deployed, but it was too dark to see them. Then Rose remembered the torch. She says: “I took out my earring and reconnected the wires using the metal. I just started clicking it on and off. “A boat spotted the light and alerted the helicopter crew, who zip-lined the stranded five to safety. But 32 people, including a five year old, perished. Praising the ship’s engineer, who navigated the stricken vessel onto a sand shelf, Rose says: “That's what saved 4,000 people's lives. If the boat had been on the open water, the loss of life would have been unthinkable.”
Trauma and Aftermath
Left deeply traumatised, Rose says: “I lost the next eight years of my life. I had PTSD and survivor's guilt. I self sabotaged good things, because I felt undeserving of happiness.” She also had a failed marriage, saying: “I felt like a victim for a long time.”
Costa Concordia owners didn’t cover Rose’s lost wages and belongings, or her therapy costs. She says: "If they’d sent a mayday call, everyone on board would have been entitled to €30,000 compensation… but they chose not to send one.”
Rose moved to America six months after the disaster, where she had specialist therapy. She says: “My healing process took a very long time. But slowly life went from black and white to technicolor again.”
Compelled to help others, she even worked with a law firm for a year to create a class action to improve maritime safety. She says: “Unfortunately, it didn't work. Carnival Cruise Lines, the parent company, kicked the case out of America. It got taken back to the Italian local courts. Not much has changed.”
The ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino was jailed for 16 years for manslaughter and abandoning passengers. Rose says: “Justice has not been done. If all of the parties responsible could be held accountable instead of just individuals, then I believe that maritime safety would improve.”
Finding Purpose
Rose, who will not get back on a massive cruise ship, feels safety improvements are imperative to guard against another disaster. Now a successful business coach, Rose is using her own experience to certify women as ‘nervous system regulation practitioners’ - the therapy she says healed her.
She says: “I’ve found my purpose. What happened on the Costa Concordia was incredibly traumatic, but I’m creating a ripple effect and turning that horror into hope.”
*A spokesperson for Costa said: “We do not consider it appropriate to revisit matters that have been thoroughly examined and addressed in the relevant forums. We extend our deepest condolences for the suffering endured by all those affected by that tragic event.”
The Costa Concordia Disaster
Hours after embarking on a Mediterranean cruise from Civitavecchia on 13 January, 2012, Captain Francesco Schettino ordered an unauthorised detour to perform a sail-by salute, where a ship edges close to shore to sound its horn for spectators on land.
Driven by wind and currents, the crippled liner drifted back toward Giglio Island, settling at a severe tilt on an underwater sand bank.
The crew failed to properly track the ship's proximity to underwater rocks. Then, due to language barriers, an Indonesian helmsman accidentally steered the ship in the wrong direction for 13 critical seconds.
At 9:45pm, the stern of the ship slammed into the Scole Rocks. The collision tore a 174-foot gash along the port side of the hull. Seawater flooded the engine room and generator compartments, knocking out electrical power and leaving the 952-foot vessel unable to steer or manoeuvre.
Driven by wind and currents, the crippled liner drifted back toward Giglio Island, settling at a severe tilt on an underwater sand bank.
Instead of calling mayday, Schettino downplayed the catastrophe to passengers and port authorities. For over an hour, the crew said the ship was simply experiencing a temporary blackout.
By the time Schettino finally ordered the ship to be abandoned at 10:54pm, the vessel had tilted so sharply that many lifeboats could not be deployed.
In mass panic, hundreds of passengers jumped directly into the freezing sea.
Schettino abandoned the ship in a lifeboat while approximately 300 passengers and crew members remained trapped on board, defying orders from the Italian Coast Guard to return and oversee the evacuation.
More than 4,200 people were rescued, though 32 people died, including a five year old child.
Schettino was jailed for 16 years in 2015 - convicted of manslaughter, causing the wreck, and abandoning ship in 2015.
The wreck was the target of the largest and most expensive maritime salvage operation in history, costing around $2 billion. In 2014 it was towed away and scrapped.
