Costa Concordia: Salvaging a shipwreck

It's an exacting and dangerous job. So teammates stand by on deck in case of an emergency and a dive supervisor monitors and directs the action.

[Duane Morsner: Do you want to move back on your - on your camera and give us a wide shot of exactly what's going on down there.]

Duane "Monster" Morsner oversees a dive team.

Lesley Stahl: So you're just watching everything he does, listening to him?

Duane Morsner: And explaining to him exactly where to go because sometimes when you go past 30 meters you can get narcosis and it sort of affects your-- your thinking. And obviously if he's in trouble, I can see what the problems are, and help him out and check his depth, that sort of thing.

There's a salvage divers' camaraderie. They live in close quarters in floating barracks next to the ship. And while they come from eight different countries - speaking different languages - they're like soldiers in combat. They have each others' back.

[Duane Morsner: Move towards the bow of the Costa Concordia, please.]

Though these divers are in the water round the clock, each one can stay under no longer than 45 minutes at a time. They have five minutes to get from a depth of 40-feet into a decompression chamber. When a diver surfaces, it's a race to strip off his gear and get into the chamber.

The divers and everyone else work round the clock -- seven days and nights a week -- in a race against time. They have to remove the ship before storms like this one last month break it apart.

Nick Sloane: Every storm weakens the structure. And there will be a certain point where the structure and she will just say, "I've had enough."

Lesley Stahl: So is that what has you worried the most, the weather?

Nick Sloane: Yeah, yeah. When you have bad weather, you don't sleep.

Neither do the insurance companies that are footing the bill.

Lesley Stahl: So how much is this operation costing?

Nick Sloane: Well, basically it's going to be around about 400 million, plus or minus, and that's a lot of money.

Lesley Stahl: Did your company ever consider proposing just blowing it up? Cause I know a lot of salvage operations - they just dynamite--

Nick Sloane: Yeah, some places in the world, that would be a solution. In this scenario, I don't think it would ever be allowed.

Lesley Stahl: Is the reason because this is such a tourist area?

Nick Sloane: Oh, the environment is the number one priority.

Lesley Stahl: Number one.

That's because the ship settled in a nationally-protected marine park and coral reef that's home to dolphins, exotic fish, these huge rare mussels and more than 700 other botanical and animal species.

[Lesley Stahl: Sergio.

Sergio Girotto: Hi, Lesley.]

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[KnowledgeSeekerNow]

Tonnage: 114,500 GT
Displacement: 51,387 tonnes

The above are two totally different things.

[cabaraoke]

Why has Myth Busters not put in their 2 1/2 cents on the raising the Costa Concordia? They proved that all that was needed was to pump ping pong balls into a ship to raise it. They are building a superstructure platform to roll it on to, and huge pontoons to weld to the sides to float it for hauling away. I would have thought using the ping pong balls would have been faster, and less damaging to the sea floor.

[vagabondtraveler]

60 Minutes said the ship was only 60,000 GT. Costa says the ship was 114,000 GT. Why the discrepancy?
No way a 60,000 T ship could carry over 3,000 passengers.
Did they remove 50,000 GT before attempting salvage?

[KnowledgeSeekerNow]

Tonnage: 114,500 GT
Displacement: 51,387 tonnes

The above are two totally different things