Costa Concordia: captain's actions 'disgraceful" says cruise ship's reluctant hero It was the most horrible experience of my life. A tragedy, a heartache that I will carry with me forever. Mr Schettino, has reportedly said the reason he was in a lifeboat while thousands of panic-stricken passengers and crew were trying to evacuate was because he "tripped" and fell into the rescue craft. Captain Bosio was not working on the Costa Concordia but had boarded the ship to get to his home town of Savona, near Genoa. He is understood to have coordinated the entire rescue effort, working alongside crew members throughout the night, helping women and children into lifeboats. He is the captain of one of the Concordia's sister ships, the Serena. His actions appear to be in stark contrast to those of Mr Schettino, who allegedly had a meal with a female friend after the ship's collision, leaving 4,200 panicking passengers and crew to fend for themselves. Captain Bosio added: "We managed to avoid the worse and have the world crash down around us. I just want to rest and forget. Don't call me a hero. I just did my duty, the duty of a sea captain - actually the duty of a normal man. I and the others with me just did our duty. We looked each other in the eyes for a second and then we Just got on with it. Transcripts from the ship's black box suggest that Schettino wasted valuable minutes before raising the alarm. By the time he did so, terrified passengers had already called the coastguard, warning them of the catastrophic collision. It was left to junior officers to help lead passengers to safety, allegedly lowering lifeboats into the water before the official order was given. At 9.49pm on Friday, less than 10 minutes after the accident, Schettino was asked over the ship radio by the Livorno harbourmaster: "Concordia, is everything OK?" The response from the ship was "positive." But five minutes later the liner was contacted again after a passenger allegedly reported a problem and mentioned the word "shipwreck." The inquirer was reportedly told: "It is just a technical problem." Officers have complained that, rather than taking decisive control of the situation, Schettino spent the hour after the collision on his mobile phone. Eventually, Capt Bosio began to evacuate the ship, at 10.45pm, some 13 minutes before Schettino gave the abandon-ship instruction. A further damning conversation took place between Schettino and coastguard official Gregorio De Falco at 12.42am, two hours before the majority of the ship's passengers and crew were evacuated. Mr De Falco's mounting anger and frustration with Schettino has seen him too hailed a hero. He repeatedly asked the commander what on earth he was doing by jumping into a life boat before his 4,200 passengers and crew had been evacuated and ordered him to return to the stricken ship. Mr De Falco wept with anger and frustration at the loss of life from the tragedy. The captain broke down in tears when he realised in the early hours of Saturday morning that people had died in the accident. I cried, and I don't believe that is a sign of weakness. To be human is not a weakness," he told La Repubblica newspaper. Commander De Falco, the head of the port authority in Livorno, on the Italian mainland, insisted that he was no hero - he had simply done his duty by repeatedly ordering Capt Schettino to get out of a lifeboat and take control of the evacuation of 4,200 crew and passengers from the cruise liner. The captain appears not to have obeyed the order and a short time afterwards went ashore, leaving passengers and crew to fend for themselves. The heated exchanges were "an epic metaphor of the struggle between heroism and cowardice" one newspaper said. Commander De Falco, who was born in Naples and grew up on the island of Ischia near Naples, said the "true heroes" in the saga were the hundreds of personnel from the Coast Guard, navy, Carabinieri and fire service who were rushed to the island of Giglio to help deal with the emergency. He singled out the helicopter crews who rescued dozens of people from the crippled ship. Mr Schettino told investigating magistrates in Grosseto, on the Italian mainland, that he ended up in the lifeboat by accident. During three hours of interrogation on Tuesday, he reportedly said: "The passengers were pouring onto the decks, taking the lifeboats by assault. I didn't even have a life jacket because I had given it to one of the passengers. I was trying to get people to get into the boats in an orderly fashion. Suddenly, since the ship was at a 60 to 70 degree angle, I tripped and I ended up in one of the boats. That's how I found myself there. He said he got stuck in the lifeboat for an hour before it was lowered into the water off the coast of Giglio island. Also with him was Dimitri Christidis, the Greek second in command of the Concordia and Silvia Coronica, the third officer, according to La Repubblica newspaper.