Costa Concordia Recovery 'Dragging a dead body from the sea is something you never get used to'

Tasked with finding bodies aboard the Costa Concordia, a diver tells of life in the murky depths

"It's hard to explain how disorientating it is aboard something like the Costa Concordia," he said. "The vessel's tilted at nearly 90 degrees. Things are at the wrong angle; it's dark, and there bits of furniture, chairs, curtains and carpet and stuff moving around, and you never know what you're going to bump into or what's around the next corner. We have strong torches, but you still have to feel you way around."

Working in pairs, he and his 12-strong team worked their way through the ship's decks with all the divers connected to the surface by a cable, which they call the cord of Ariadne, after the cord the mythological figure gave to Theseus to help him escape from the maze of the Minotaur.

"That ship is huge. But the many of the actual spaces are very confined - the cabins and the stairwells. And all the time you're aware that the ship might move any time; you don't want to be trapped in there."

Yesterday morning the diving was called off after sensors showed that the ship had moved slightly but ominously on the rocky ledge just metres from Giglio's tiny port. "I wouldn't say that I was scared in there yesterday. But I'm always aware that it's a dangerous place to be."

Marshal Del Carro also was successful yesterday during his grim mission to find the bodies of those presumed dead aboard the stricken liner. He located five corpses, near one of the main restaurants, and assisted in pulling them from the water and on to a waiting vessel.

He said: "This isn't the first time I've done this. But dragging a dead person from the water is something you can never really get used to."

One of his diver colleagues, Rodolfo Raiteri, said he too had been affected by finding the dead tourists. "When you have dead people in front of you it's always shocking. You couldn't see a thing in that murky water and then we saw them; one, two, three; at the end we counted all five, flung there like puppets, all with orange life-jackets. Straight away you knew they were passengers."

Yesterday the divers were still waiting to see if they would be called on to re-enter the submerged decks of the wreck, to hunt for the remaining 28 passengers who were unaccounted for.

So far, five holes have been blown into the side of the liner to allow divers to explore the flooded areas more easily – and to escape more quickly if things go wrong. If the ship settles and shows no more signs of moving, three more blasts are planned.

"Things aren't looking good. But there maybe a few air pockets in there, and while there's the slightest chance of finding them alive we'll keep working," said Marshal Del Carro.