2012 Costa Concordia Disaster — Aerial view of Costa Concordia capsized near Giglio island with rescue vessels around it

2012 Costa Concordia Disaster

2012catchphraseclassic

Published August 15, 2026

The 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster produced 'Vada a bordo, cazzo' (Italian for 'Get on board, dick'), yelled by Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco at cruise captain Francesco Schettino after Schettino fled his grounded ship. A leaked audio tape released January 17, 2012 turned the line into t-shirts, a Twitter hashtag, and Schettino image macros within days.

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Overview

The 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster meme centers on one Italian phrase, 'Vada a bordo, cazzo,' shouted by Coast Guard officer Gregorio De Falco at cruise captain Francesco Schettino during a radio call the night the ship hit rocks off Isola del Giglio1. In English the line translates roughly to 'Get on board, dick,' and it stuck because Schettino had already abandoned the vessel while thousands of passengers were still struggling to get off2. On the tape De Falco furiously ordered the captain back aboard to count children, women, and people needing help, framing him as a coward against a plain-spoken responder1.

Visually the format took two main shapes. One was a 'Keep Calm and Vada a Bordo Cazzo' t-shirt riff on the British wartime poster2. The other was a wave of photoshops and English-language image macros of Schettino's face, hosted on caption sites like Memegenerator, Quickmeme, and Memebase3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Italian news media / Facebook (viral spread)
Date
2012

On January 13, 2012, the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia struck a rock off Isola del Giglio in Tuscany and capsized, killing eleven people in the first days of the disaster2. Captain Francesco Schettino was arrested with first officer Ciro Ambrosio on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter after steering too close to shore and leaving the ship before evacuation was finished3.

Four days later, on January 17, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published a leaked radio recording of De Falco confronting Schettino from the Livorno Coast Guard station1. In one exchange De Falco said, 'Schettino, maybe you saved yourself from the sea, but I'll make you pay for sure. Go aboard'1. The line 'Vada a bordo, cazzo' came from the same call, and Italian broadcasters replayed the audio for days.

How It Spread

By the afternoon of January 17, the same day the tape leaked, #vadaabordo was trending on Twitter and Italian users were printing the phrase onto shirts using the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' template2. Mashable reported that a Facebook page titled 'Vada a bordo, cazzo' went live that day and pulled in close to 4,000 likes by evening2.

That first Facebook page grew past 10,000 likes by January 19, and a second page under the same name gathered more than 4,800 likes in its first day3. Followers overlaid the line onto photos of Schettino, particularly ones playing on his courtroom claim that he 'tripped' into a lifeboat as the Costa Concordia listed2. The BBC picked up the story internationally, publishing its own English translation of the De Falco audio and giving the phrase reach well beyond Italy1.

How to Use This Meme

The catchphrase is typically used as a mock rebuke to anyone bailing on a responsibility, either quoted straight in Italian or dropped over a 'Keep Calm' style poster. Image macros often pair the line with photos of Schettino himself or with any figure caught fleeing a mess they caused.

Frequently Asked Questions