A new explanation by Capt. Francesco Schettino, 51, for why he vacated the vessel after he smashed into the rocks last Friday night came as the Italian press pilloried him as negligent, sheepish and fearful. But his earlier account of hitting an uncharted obstruction received a credible boost. Lloyd’s List, a leading maritime publication, said on Wednesday that the ship had sailed close to the island last August, when it came within 230 meters of the coast — “slightly closer to the shore than where it subsequently hit rocks on Friday.”

Captain Schettino was quoted by La Repubblica as telling investigators that he had not planned to leave the ship as it tilted toward the water.

“The passengers were pouring onto the decks, taking the lifeboats by assault,” he said, according to the newspaper. “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.”

The drama has captivated Italy, offering at a time of political and economic uncertainty a national metaphor of hero and antihero: Captain Schettino, accused of leaving the ship prematurely with hundreds still aboard, and Capt. Gregorio Maria De Falco, a coast guard officer, who tried to cajole him via phone into returning and taking command of the evacuation. Leaked transcripts of their heated exchange have dominated the news coverage here, some of which has cast the final moments of the shipwreck as a clash of good and evil.