Divers find five bodies inside ship's hull in Italy

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GIGLIO, Italy, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The Costa Concordia's captain was under house arrest in Italy after apparently having ignored orders to return to the cruise ship he abandoned, officials say.

Britain's Sky News reported transcripts of taped telephone conversations reveal Capt. Francesco Schettino of Naples ignored the orders from the Italian coast guard after the ship capsized Friday off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

Italian divers found five more bodies submerged in the wreckage of the Costa Concordia, raising the death toll to 11, officials said.

The grim discovery was made after crews blew holes into the hull of the capsized ship to try to locate 23 people still missing, ANSA reported.

Schettino faces charges of manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing a shipwreck. He denies all the charges.

Telephone transcripts released by authorities hinted Schettino was evasive when ordered by a port official to supervise the rescue, Sky News said. Prosecutors said they suspect Schettino and his first officer left the ship up to 3 hours before all passengers and crew were evacuated.

Excerpts of the exchange indicate Schettino received instructions from a port official to return to the ship.

"Now you go to the bow, you climb up the emergency ladder and co-ordinate the evacuation," the official reportedly tells him. "You must tell us how many people, children, women and passengers are there and the exact number of each category."

"What are you doing? Are you abandoning the rescue? Captain, this is an order, I am the one in charge now," the official said. "You have declared abandoning ship. There are already bodies."

"How many?" Schettino responded.

"That is for you to tell me," the official said. "What are you doing? Do you want to go home?"

In an earlier phone conversation, Schettino told port authorities, "[We] cannot get on board because the rear of the ship is keeling over."

Italian coast guard Warrant Petty Officer Massimo Macaroni said crews also were trying to retrieve a second "black-box" recorder found in the wreckage, ABC News reported.

The device, along with another already located recorder, will be analyzed and provide authorities with "a complete picture of how the disaster unfolded," CNN reported.

Italian Environment Minister Corrado Clini said rescuers couldn't "rule out that we may find other people alive" and said "for the moment" there was no evidence of fuel spilling out from the half-sunk liner into the marine preserve.

Rescue efforts were halted for several hours Monday because the vessel resting on a 120-foot ledge shifted slightly as the water got rough. Officials said they feared the ship could slip off the ledge into water that is 224 feet deep.

Adding to the pressure are growing concerns the 500,000 gallons of fuel on the ship could seep into the ocean, creating an ecological crisis, ABC News reported. Rescue boats have placed around the vessel a temporary floating barrier to contain any spill.

Clini said Prime Minister Mario Monti would declare a state of emergency to release government funds to help prevent an environmental disaster, the chances of which he said were "very high" unless the ship's 500,000 gallons of fuel were removed immediately.

The "entire archipelago" faces an ecological calamity, "depending on how the sea moves," Clini said.