“Get back aboard! Damn it”
The behavior of the two captains, journalist Aldo Grasso wrote in the newspaper, contrasted the “two souls of Italy” — one of them represented by a “cowardly fellow who flees his own responsibilities, both as a man and as an official” and the man who tries to bring him back to his responsibilities.
A sentence loosely translated into English as “Get back aboard! Damn it” that Captain De Falco shouted in Schettino’s ears has already become an icon in Italy, emblazoning T-shirts for sale on the Web.
“It is more than a cry, full of sorrow, it’s a motivational hymn, a sign of renewed pride,” Mr. Grasso said in Corriere della Sera, while Captain Schettino’s insistence that it was too dark to rejoin the vessel was “the cry of a child,” according to columnist Adriano Sofri in La Repubblica.