I'm not the captain's lover': Costa Concordia mystery woman speaks out Domnica Cemortan, a former dancer, reportedly had dinner with Capt Francesco Schettino on the night that he smashed his cruise ship into rocks off the coast of Giglio, forcing the evacuation of its 4,200 passengers and crew. When the cruise ship collided with rocks off the coast of Giglio at 9.42pm last Friday, she said she was asked by the captain to go the bridge to help translate announcements into Russian. Around 100 Russian tourists were on the week-long cruise around the Mediterranean. Sure, I was close to Capt Schettino - I was translating what he was telling me to say. I translated into Russian what he and his second in command were telling me in Italian - that passengers should return to their cabins because it was just a power failure. I repeated that last phrase maybe 10 times. She said she regarded the captain as "a hero" because he had managed to steer the stricken ship a few hundred yards along Giglio's coast until it ran aground on the coast, close to the island's tiny harbour. She contradicted reports that the captain abandoned ship well before hundreds of passengers and crew. I'm sure that he was still on the bridge (around midnight) because it was at that time that he told us to leave, to abandon ship. I and another colleague said that we wanted to stay. But he told us to run. I saw him a long time later, on the island. Ms Cemortan was born in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, and studied dancing there. But she has spent much of her life in Bucharest in neighbouring Romania and has dual citizenship.e_SClBCapt Schettino is under house arrest at his home in Meta di Sorrento near Naples and faces at least 12 years in jail if convicted of abandoning his ship and multiple counts of manslaughter. Italian judicial authorities want to talk to Ms Cemortan and believe she may be able to shed light on what happened that night.