All at sea on ships with mod cons, but somehow two captains came to a rocky end

The captain should look where he's going next time - if he gets another chance.

Dunno if there is a special school where seamen are trained in the ignominious art of losing their way while captaining big ships and bringing their maritime careers to an abrupt end.

But Alf is bemused by events the led to Rena and Concordia running on to rocks in different parts of the world.

Interest in this country is strongly focused on the container ship Rena which ran on to the Astrolabe Reef, in the Bay of Plenty, at 2.14am on 5 October 2011.

This focus is largely explained by the huge environmental mischief caused by that event.

Today, Alf has been studying the interim report from the Transport Accident Investigation Commission on its independent inquiry into the grounding.

Left hand down a bit – oh, bugger, it looks like Italy is closer than we thought

The short distance between ship and shore is what most amazed Alf, when he checked out the Daily Mail’s pictures of the cruise ship which capsized off the coast of Italy.

The Costa Concodia overturned after hitting rocks or a sandbar.

But it was only just off the coast.

It finished up so bloody close to a nearby village that it was in serious danger of becoming a road hazard.

This proximity to dry land makes nonsense of the accounts given by some passengers of this being like the sinking of the Titanic.