THE importance of dedication,commitment and attachment to duty may again come to fore as the Captain of a luxury cruise liner that keeled over off, at Tuscany, killing at least five people, was on Saturday arrested after survivors told stories of how the ship master, Francesco Schettino bailed out of the vessel without waiting to be the last to do so.

Ship masters in emergency situations are expected to be the last to depart their vessel, a key reason why many of them have actually gone down with their sinking bottom.

Subsequently, the authorities announced within 24 hours of the accident, the arrest of the captain, Schettino, and first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, even as Italian media reported they could face charges of multiple homicide and ship abandonment before all passengers were rescued.

The captain “approached Giglio Island in a very awkward way, hit a rock that stuck into its left side, making (the boat) list and take on a huge amount of water in the space of two or three minutes,” Grosseto prosecutor Francesco Verusio told reporters.

The passengers who described scenes that share semblance with the legendary titanic to the BBC news said they rushed to get into lifeboats through which about 100 people had to be rescued from the sea. Forty-one passengers are still unaccounted for.

The Costa Concordia with more than 4,000 people on board apparently hit a reef, tearing a 70- to 100-metre (230- to 330-foot) gash in its hull, just hours after setting off on Friday from Civitavecchia a port near Rome.

The ship quickly listed, leaving it half submerged in shallow waters near the island of Giglio, off the west coast of Italy.

Fire chief Ennio Aquilino told AFP his men had “plucked 100 people from the water and saved around 60 others who were trapped in the boat.”

At least 42 were injured, including two seriously — a woman with a blow to the head and a man struck in the spine. Medical sources however maintained that most only suffered broken limbs and hypothermia.