Giglio, Italy -- Rescue workers recovered five bodies from the wreckage of the Costa Concordia cruise ship Tuesday, according to Italian officials, bringing to at least 11 the number of people known to have died in the disaster.
The five bodies were found after Italian Navy divers blasted holes in the ship's hull to provide rescue divers with better access to the ship's interior, but it was unclear if those efforts led to the discoveries.
With nearly two dozen people still reported missing from the ship, which is lying on its side in the Tuscan waters off Giglio, Italy, a judge ordered its captain held pending a later decision on whether he should be released.
Capt. Francesco Schettino, is under arrest and may face charges that include manslaughter, shipwreck, and abandoning a ship when passengers were still on board, chief prosecutor Francesco Verusio said.
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| Port authority yells at cruise captain |
Questions abound for captain of doomed cruise ship
In transcripts of conversations between Schettino and the Italian Coast Guard, published by the Corriere della Sera newspaper, the captain gives conflicting accounts of what happened when the ship hit rocks Friday night just off Italy's western coast, leading to what passengers described as a chaotic and surreal scene as they rushed to evacuate.
At first, Schettino tells an official he had abandoned the vessel, according to the transcripts which prosecutors say match those they are using in their investigation.
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But as the official questions his decision, Schettino appears to reverse course and say he had not abandoned ship but was "catapulted into the water" at some point after the ship ran into a rock, began taking on water and started listing.
In a later conversation, an Italian Coast Guard official demands Schettino return to his ship, the transcripts show.
"You get on board! This is an order!" the Coast Guard official instructed Schettino.
"You have declared 'Abandon ship.' Now I'm in charge. You get on board -- is that clear?" the port official said.
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Rescue and recovery efforts continued Tuesday, with divers searching the ship for survivors and remains.
It was unclear exactly how many people were missing. There were roughly 4,200 people on the Costa Concordia when it ran aground -- about 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members, the vast majority of whom made it off the ship safely.
Before the discovery of the five bodies Tuesday, authorities had said 28 people were missing, including 14 Germans, six Italians, four French citizens, two Americans, and one each from Hungary, India and Peru. There was continued confusion Tuesday about the number of missing Germans, according to the German Foreign Ministry.
One person on the list of missing was found dead Monday, but authorities have not specified which one it is.
In addition to the deaths, the wreck has given rise to concern about environmental damage.
Map shows location of disasterCosta ConcordiaChristened: 2006
Concordia: Italian for "concord" or "harmony."
Weight: 114,000 gross tonnage
Length: 951 feet (290m)
Max speed: 23 knots
Accommodation: 1,500 cabins
Facilities: Wellness center, five restaurants, 13 bars, four pools, giant movie screen.
The ship had about 2,300 tons of fuel on board at the time of the wreck, said Costa cruises chairman and chief executive Pier Luigi Foschi.
But he said that so far there was "absolutely no evidence of fuel leaking into the sea."
The ship appeared stable and its fuel tanks were intact Tuesday, said Martin Schuttenaer, a spokesman for Boskalis, the parent company of Dutch Smit and Salvage, which has monitors in place to keep track of the ship's movement.
He said equipment to begin transferring the ship's fuel will be ready on Wednesday, but that the current priority is rescue and recovery.
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Divers have been searching the skyscraper-sized ship, working underwater in pitch blackness. Italy's Coast Guard said Tuesday it has located a second "black box," or data recorder, from the ship. Operations were under way to retrieve the recorder, said Coast Guard Warrant Petty Officer Massimo Macaroni.
Information from the device, along with that from another that has already been recovered and is being analyzed by prosecutors, will provide authorities with "a complete picture of how the disaster unfolded," Macaroni said.
Schettino's attorney, Bruno Leporatti, said in a statement Monday that his client was "shattered, dismayed, saddened for the loss of lives and strongly disturbed."
But, he said, Schettino is "nonetheless comforted by the fact that he maintained during those moments the necessary lucidity to put in place a difficult emergency maneuver ... bringing the ship to shallow waters." That move, Leporatti said, saved the lives of many passengers and crew members.
Survivors described the panic that ensued after the ship's collision with the rocks.
"Debris was flying ... pandemonium just started," said Georgia Ananias, who was in a dining room. "It was horrible, and people were slipping and falling."
Others described a tumultuous ordeal trying to board life boats, in part because the tilt of the ship made boarding some boats difficult.
"When we finally got on the life boat, it took several minutes to get everybody on," Valerie Ananias said. "People were screaming and crying."
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Italian prosecutors have ruled out a technical error as the cause of the incident, saying the captain was on the bridge at the time and had made a "grave error."
Prosecutors are considering whether others may share responsibility for the crash with the captain.
Foschi placed blame for the wreck squarely on the captain, saying Schettino had deviated from frequently traveled routes.
"The captain decided to change the route and he went into water that he did not know in advance," Foschi said.
Foschi said passengers would get "material compensation for their loss," but declined to go into details.
One person who was scheduled to board the Concordia Saturday said he was offered a refund, but will not get the refund for three months.
Built in 2006, the Concordia had been on a Mediterranean cruise from Rome with stops in Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.
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