"And what, you want to go home, Schettino? It's dark, so you want to go home?" De Falco yelled. "Go on the prow of the ship, using the rope ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what they need. NOW!"



Schettino said he would go back, but he did not. Instead, according to witnesses quoted in Italian papers, he landed on the island, hailed a cab and went to a hotel.



T-shirts scupper skipper



In the dark, according to witness accounts, passengers were still clinging to the slanting hull or calling out to loved ones they would never see again.



The striking exchange between the raging mariner and the cowardly captain is destined to go down in maritime history. It has already spawned T-shirts in Italy quoting part of the dressing down. The shirts read: "Vada a bordo, (bleep)!" or "Get the (bleep) on board."



In a small piece of good news for the beleaguered skipper, a judge unexpectedly released him from jail Wednesday and sent him home on house arrest.



Schettino admitted during a closed court hearing that he was at the helm of the Costa Concordia when the luxury liner wrecked in the Mediterranean Friday.



"It was me in command," at the moment of impact, Schettino told the judge, the Ansa news agency reported.



"I saved hundreds, thousands of people," he claimed, arguing that, by steering close to shore after the liner began to take on water, he gave his passengers an easier escape.



He also denied that he abandoned ship before the rescues were complete — despite the stark evidence of his taped phone call with De Falco.



Schettino will remain under house arrest in his home in a village near Sorrento until the next hearing.



He faces 15 years in prison on charges of manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing a shipwreck.



A grim look on his deeply tanned face, Schettino had no comment leaving the court.



Prosecutor Francesco Verusi, who had called Schettino a flight risk, was livid that he was let go.



Five more drowned passengers were found in the sunken liner Wednesday — bringing the toll to 11 dead and 24 missing.



The bodies of the dead fished out of the sunken ship were four men and one woman, all between 50 and 60 years old.



They were wearing life jackets and were found near one of the assembly points where passengers were told to gather in an emergency.



Three Italian families say that even though their loved ones are on the saved list, they have not heard from them.



More than 4,200 passengers and crew were on the luxury liner when rocks tore open her hull and she foundered off the Tuscan island of Giglio.



A Minnesota couple, Jerry Heil, 69, and wife Barbara, 70, remain among the missing.



The bad press for Schettino just kept coming: a Filipino cook told reporters that Schettino and an unidentified woman tried to order dinner half an hour after the liner began to sink, and the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported the crew mutinied against their captain and began launching lifeboats 13 minutes before he gave the abandon ship order.



Schettino's wife, Fabiola Russo, issued a statement extending her sympathies to the families of the victims, but defending her husband's professionalism and cautioning against a rush to judgment.



With Larry McShane



hkennedy@nydailynews.com