In 2012, a 23-year-old dancer Rose Metcalf used her earring to help save 400 people as Costa Concordia sank on her first day at work

The Costa Concordia disaster remains one of the most haunting cruise ship tragedies of recent decades. But amid the chaos of the 2012 sinking, one young crew member, Rose Metcalf, found herself taking charge when hundreds of people needed help.

Rose Metcalf was just 23 years old and working as a professional dancer aboard the Costa Concordia when the ship struck a granite reef near Giglio Island, Italy, on January 13, 2012. What began as her first day at work quickly turned into a fight for survival and an extraordinary rescue effort.

Metcalf recently revisited the terrifying night on the U.K. daytime show Good Morning Britain, explaining how she ended up helping around 400 people escape the stricken ship and eventually used her own earring to signal rescuers.


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How did Rose Metcalf signal rescuers with her earring?

One of the most remarkable details from Metcalf's account involves a small piece of jewelry. She ripped a light from the wall and kept it with her. Later, she realized she could use it to attract the attention of search-and-rescue teams.

When she spotted a helicopter overhead, Metcalf realized the rescuers could not see the people trapped on the ship. She then rewired the light using her earring and flashed it toward the helicopter in an attempt to signal the rescuers. That improvised signal became one of the most striking moments in her account of surviving the Costa Concordia disaster.

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Who is Rose Metcalf?

Rose Metcalf was a professional dancer working aboard the Costa Concordia when the cruise ship disaster unfolded. She was one of only 12 fluent English speakers among those aboard, and that language ability unexpectedly placed her in a position of responsibility during the emergency.

Metcalf initially had been assigned to conduct a roll call involving around 30 crew members. But as the situation deteriorated, her role expanded dramatically.

“I was one of 12 fluent English speakers on board,” Metcalf said. “But I ended up being responsible for about 400 just because nobody else was stepping up,” she added.

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What happened to the Costa Concordia?

The Costa Concordia struck a granite reef close to Giglio Island at around 9:45 p.m. local time on January 13, 2012. The impact caused the vessel to flood and eventually tip onto its side. Evacuating the ship took more than six hours.

There were 3,229 passengers and 1,023 crew members aboard, and 32 people ultimately died in the disaster. For Metcalf, the scale of the emergency became clear as the ship began to list increasingly severely.

Rose Metcalf helped create a human chain

As the Costa Concordia turned on its side, some of the lifeboats inside the vessel became inaccessible. Metcalf realized that simply trying to reach the water wasn't as straightforward as it appeared. She initially suggested throwing people across a gap, but quickly recognized how dangerous that would be.

“I wasn’t composed; I was in complete fight-or-flight,” Metcalf laughed. “This hallway had become like [an elevator] shaft. There was a banister [on] the far side of it, so I said, ‘Why don’t we throw people across?’ ”

The idea was abandoned because falling could have been fatal. Instead, Metcalf came up with another solution: people would hold onto the banister and link arms to form a human chain.

“We climbed down each other so that you can get to water level,” explained Metcalf. “The problem was... we were so high up, we’d have hit the water like concrete.”

She added: “That’s what you don’t realize. When you see the ship listed on its side, you think you could just step off it. You can’t.”

She thought the ship was going down like the Titanic

The situation became even more frightening as the Costa Concordia continued to turn. Metcalf said she was eventually trapped with four other people as the ship shifted further.

“We thought we were going down like the Titanic,” she recalled.

At one point, she prepared herself to enter the water if necessary. “This little slideshow went through my mind, of my life,” she said, describing the moment she realized she could die. Despite the fear, Metcalf continued looking for ways to help others.

Rose Metcalf's Costa Concordia story returns years later

More than a decade after the Costa Concordia disaster, Metcalf's story has resurfaced through her recent television appearance and the Netflix documentary Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea, in which she also recounts her experience.

Her story stands out because she wasn't a senior officer or a seasoned emergency responder. She was a 23-year-old dancer on her first day at work, suddenly confronted with a ship tipping onto its side and hundreds of people needing direction.

What followed was a combination of quick thinking, improvisation and teamwork — from forming a human chain to using an earring to help rescuers locate those still trapped aboard.

And while the Costa Concordia tragedy claimed 32 lives, Metcalf's recollection offers a remarkable reminder of how ordinary people can find themselves performing extraordinary acts during a disaster.