Cruise disaster: Captain 'neared Italian rocks to greet friend on shore Prosecutors believe Mr Schettino had been intending to perform the nautical equivalent of a fly-by past the island's main port when the accident happened. It had apparently become a long-standing practice for the Costa Concordia to sail close to the island in order to greet its inhabitants with a siren from the ship. The tradition appears to have begun when the wife of a former senior officer lived on the island and he would take the ship close to Giglio to greet her. There were reports last night that the vessel's current officers had a friend ashore, from the Italian merchant navy, that they wanted to salute in a similar manner. As the ship approached the port from the south, it sailed too close to the coastline and struck a rocky reef, known to locals as "Le Scole," a few hundred yards out. Islanders said they had never seen the ship try to pass so close before. Ships usually pass by up to five miles away. A 160ft gash was torn in the £370 million ship's hull, causing it to take on large quantities of water in minutes and list violently. The 4,200 passengers and crew were told to abandon ship. Franco Verusio, the procurator of Grosseto who is leading the investigation, said: "Schettino approached the island of Giglio in a carelessly clumsy manner. The ship hit a reef which embedded itself in the left flank, the ship listed and took on lots of water in the space of two or three minutes. Captain Schettino was in command at that point. He was the one who ordered that course to be taken, at least according to what we have discovered. There was someone in particular that wanted to be signalled from the ship. Mr Schettino, who is being questioned on suspicion of multiple manslaughter, claimed yesterday that the reef had not appeared on the nautical charts and had not been picked up by the ship's navigation systems. "We should have had deep water beneath us," he said. We were about 300 metres [1,000ft] from the rocks more or less. Prosecutors also accused Mr Schettino of abandoning his ship "well before" the last of his passengers, a criminal offence that can carry a sentence of up to 12 years in jail. The captain denied this, insisting he was the last to leave. The Concordia capsized after the captain tried to turn around and head into the island's port in an apparent attempt to make it easier to evacuate. Survivors, including 23 British passengers and 12 British crew members, claimed the evacuation effort was "chaos." Mr Schettino's lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, said his client's manoeuvre had saved the lives of "several hundred people." The rescue of the Korean honeymoon couple and Mr Giampetroni, who had a broken leg, gave hope to divers searching thousands of cabins for the missing. The ship's "black box" navigation system is being examined - with officials saying that the vessel was up to four miles off course.