# 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster 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. ## 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 Giglio[1]. 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 off[2]. 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 responder[1]. Visually the format took two main shapes. One was a 'Keep Calm and Vada a Bordo Cazzo' t-shirt riff on the British wartime poster[2]. The other was a wave of photoshops and English-language image macros of Schettino's face, hosted on caption sites like Memegenerator, Quickmeme, and Memebase[3]. ## 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' template[2]. Mashable reported that a Facebook page titled 'Vada a bordo, cazzo' went live that day and pulled in close to 4,000 likes by evening[2]. 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 day[3]. 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 listed[2]. The BBC picked up the story internationally, publishing its own English translation of the De Falco audio and giving the phrase reach well beyond Italy[1]. ## How to Use 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 ### What is 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster? It refers to the January 13, 2012 grounding of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia off Isola del Giglio, which spawned the catchphrase 'Vada a bordo, cazzo' after a leaked Coast Guard radio call[1]. ### Where did 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster come from? The meme came from a radio recording published by Corriere della Sera on January 17, 2012, in which Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco ordered Captain Francesco Schettino to return to his sinking ship[1]. ### What does 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster mean? The associated phrase 'Vada a bordo, cazzo' translates as 'Get on board, dick,' a scolding aimed at Schettino for abandoning the vessel before evacuation was complete[2]. ### How do you use 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster? Users typically apply the phrase as a mock command to anyone shirking duty, often over a 'Keep Calm and Carry On' style poster or as an image macro captioning Schettino's face[2]. ### Is 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster still popular? The meme peaked in the week of January 17, 2012 across Twitter and Facebook and lives on as a classic Italian internet reference from the disaster[3]. ## References 1. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16599655]() 2. [https://mashable.com/2012/01/18/get-on-board/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/vada-a-bordo-cazzo]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/2012-costa-concordia-disaster Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library