S.S. Andrea Doria of the Italian Line, 1953 The SS Andrea Doria was an ocean liner sailing from Genoa, Italy for the Italian Line. The ship was named after a famous 16th century Genoese admiral named Andrea Doria. She was 697 feet in length, with gross tonnage of 29,083, and a capacity of 1200 passengers, plus a crew of 500. She was a source of pride for Italy which was rebuilding its economy and reputation after World War II.
The ship was launched on June 16, 1951. The Andrea Doria was considered to be one of the most beautiful ocean liners, and over $1 million was spent on artwork and decor, including a life-size statue of Admiral Doria. Her maiden voyage came on January 14, 1953. The Andrea Doria had eleven watertight compartments whose bulkheads extended from A-Deck down to the double hull, as well as the latest radar to give warning of any vessels that may be passing near. Of all of Italys ships, she was supposedly the largest, fastest and safest.
On July 25, 1956, in one of history's most famous ship accidents, Andrea Doria was sailing in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket, to New York City from Genoa when the ship was involved in a collision with another passenger liner heading in the opposite direction. Although most passengers and crew survived, the luxury liner capsized and sank the following morning.
Collision at sea
On the night of July 25, 1956, at 11:10 p.m., in heavy fog, SS Stockholm of the Swedish-American Line and the Andrea Doria were approaching each other head-on in a well-used shipping corridor. The original inquiry established that the Andrea Doria attempted to avoid a collision by steering to the left, instead of following the nautical tradition of passing on the right. Compounded by the extremely thick fog, as the ships approached each other, guided only by radar, they apparently misinterpreted each others' course. There was no radio communication between them, and by the time visual contact had been established, they were unable to avoid a collision.
S.S. Andrea Doria the morning after collision with S.S. Stockholm in fog off Nantucket Island in Atlantic Ocean, July 26, 1956 When Andrea Doria and Stockholm collided, the sharp ice breaking prow of Stockholm pierced the starboard side of Doria, penetrating 3 cabin decks to a depth of nearly 40 feet, smashing occupied passenger cabins on several decks and at lower levels, ripping open several of her watertight compartments. The ship's large fuel tanks were mostly empty as the ship was nearing the end of its voyage to New York. The gash pierced five fuel tanks on the Doria's starboard side filling them with 500 tons of sea water while air was trapped in empty tanks on the port side, helping create an uncorrectable list.
Approximately 45 of the 1,706 passengers and crew of Doria were killed in the collision. Six crew members of the Stockholm who were in the bow impact area also perished in the collision. One 14-year-old child, Linda Morgan, a passenger in Cabin 52 of Doria, was discovered without major injury on the deck of Stockholm aft of the wrecked bow by crew members after the collision. She had miraculously survived the impact and apparently been thrown clear. Her half-sister, who shared the cabin on the Doria with her, perished in the collision.
Immediately after the collision, Doria began to quickly take on water, and started to list severely to the starboard side. Within minutes, the list was at least 18 degrees. As the water rose, it was soon discovered that one of the watertight doors to the engine room was missing. More importantly, however, stability was lost by the failure during routine operations to ballast the mostly empty fuel tanks as the builders had specified. Due to the immediate rush of seawater flooding the starboard tanks, and fact that the port ones were empty, an even greater list occurred than would otherwise have been the case. As the list increased over 20 degrees in the next few minutes, the captain realized there was no hope for his ship.
S.S. Stockholm heads to New York after collision with S.S. Andrea Doria, July 26, 1956 The decision to abandon ship was made within 30 minutes of impact. However, lifeboat operations were difficult since half of the lifeboats were on the port side, which made them unlaunchable due to the severe list. Thus, Doria required assistance in rescuing its passengers. Passengers unable to use the lifeboats on the Doria were eventually rescued by Stockholm, as well as SS Ile de France, a larger French Line ship in the area, who managed to rescue the bulk of the remaining passengers by shuttling its 10 lifeboats back and forth to Doria. As a result, loss of life was limited to those killed in the actual collision, and one child who suffered a fatal head injury during the loading of lifeboats.
By daylight, everyone had been evacuated from the Doria, and inquiries were made about towing her to shallow water. However, it was clear to those on scene who were watching helplessly that the stricken ocean liner was continuing to capsize. The Doria finally completed capsizing and sank 11 hours after the collision, at 10:09 a.m. on July 26, in an event covered widely by local media. Spectacular aerial photography of the stricken ocean liner capsizing and sinking won a Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for Harry A. Trask of the Boston Traveler newspaper.
ABC Radio Network news commentator Edward P. Morgan was based in New York City and bravely went "on-the-air" and broadcast a professional account of the collision of the ocean liners, not telling listeners that his 14-year-old daughter had been aboard the Andrea Doria and was believed to have been killed. He did not know that Linda Morgan, the "miracle girl", was alive and aboard the heavily-damaged Stockholm which was able to steam back to New York under its own power. After learning later the good news, his broadcast sharing his emotions became was one of the more memorable in radio news history.
Litigation and determination of fault: 1956
There were several months of hearings in New York City in the aftermath of the collision. Prominent maritime attorneys represented the ships' owners. Dozens of attorneys represented victims and families of victims. Officers of both ship lines had testified, including the officers in-charge of each ship, with more scheduled, when an out-of-court settlement was reached, and the hearings ended abruptly.
Both shipping lines contributed to a settlement fund for the victims. Each line sustained its own damages. For the Swedish-American Line, this was estimated at $2 million, half for repairs to the Stockholm's bow, and half for lost business during repairs. The Italian Line sustained a loss of the full value of the Andrea Doria, estimated to be $30 million.
In the end, heavy fog would be the main reason given as the cause of the accident. However, at the time, these factors were apparent to some observers.
- 1. The officers of the Andrea Doria had not followed proper radar procedures or used the plotting equipment available in the chartroom adjacent to the bridge of their ship to calculate the position and speed of the other (approaching) ship. Thus, they failed to realize the Stockholm's size, speed, and course.
- 2. The Andrea Doria had not followed the proper "Rule of the Road" in which a ship should turn right in case of a possible head-on crossing at sea. As the Stockholm turned right, the Andrea Doria turned left and there was no way to avoid the collision.
- 3. The Captain of the Andrea Doria was deliberately speeding in heavy fog, an admittedly common practice on passengers liners. The applicable "Rule of the Road" required speed to be reduced to a stopping distance within 1/2 the distance of visibility. At a practical level, this would have meant reducing the speed of the ship to virtually zero in the dense fog experienced.
- 4. The collision occurred in an area of the northern Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Massachusetts where both intermittent and heavy fog is common. However, prior to the collision sequence, the Stockholm had apparently not entered the edge of the fog bank which had engulfed the Andrea Doria for several hours. Thus, the officer-in-charge of the Stockholm incorrectly assumed that his inability to see the other vessel was due to conditions other than fog, such as a very small fishing vessel or a blacked-out military ship on maneuvers. He had no idea it was another passenger liner speeding through fog.
- 5. The stability and seaworthiness of the Andrea Doria was an issue neither ship line wanted to address. The immediate, severe, and uncorrectable list immediately following the collision sequence was obviously a concern, compounded greatly by the fact that the ship remained afloat for many hours and actually had capsized before sinking. There had been stability problems during earlier cruises and the empty fuel tanks were not ballasted with sea water as specified by the builders, an operating economy. There was also an issue of a "missing" watertight door between bulkheads near the engine room which was thought to have contributed to the problems on the Doria after the collision. The ship's designers and engineers had been scheduled to testify just before the hearings were abruptly concluded due to the out-of-court settlement agreement. And, owners of the Stockholm had another new ship being constructed by the same firm which built the Andrea Doria.
Changes to avoid recurrence
In the years after the Andrea Doria-Stockholm collision, many changes in rules and technology took place. Training on radar and the equipment itself were each vastly improved. Radio communication was required between ships. In modern times, global positioning satellite (GPS) technology has vastly improved the method of determining a ship's location from the days when dead reckoning was the primary resource for mariners who could not see any navigational aids. The unused plotting equipment in the chartroom immediately behind the bridge of the Andrea Doria and the early radar equipment available on the bridges of each ship would all be antiques today.
Later investigations and study
The unanswered questions about the tragedy and questions of cause and blame have intrigued observers and haunted survivors for almost 50 years. The Captain of the Andrea Doria never assumed another command, and died a broken man.
Recent discoveries using newer undersea diving technology and computer animation have shed some additional light on some aspects.
- 1. Exploration of the impact area on the wreck of the Andrea Doria revealed that at the time of the collision, the bow of the Stockholm ripped a much larger gash in the critical area of the large fuel tanks and watertight compartments of the Italian liner than had been thought in 1956. The issue of the "missing" watertight door, although still unanswered, was moot: the Doria was doomed immediately after the collision sequence.
- 2. Recent studies and computer simulations carried out by Captain Robert J. Meurn of the United States Merchant Marine Academy and based on the findings of John C. Carrothers suggest that young third officer in charge of the Stockholm misinterpreted radar data and badly overestimated the distance between the ships. This was a likely scenario due to the poor design of the radar settings and the fact that the controls for the range setting were not illuminated on the darkened bridge. Much like the Captain of the Andrea Doria, such a possibility of fault is a great burden to this now-retired seaman. Some reviewer have pointed out that a simple and available technology, a small light bulb on the radar set aboard the Stockholm, might have averted the entire tragedy.
Diving on the wreck site
Due to the luxurious appointments and relatively good condition of the wreck, with the top of the wreck lying initially in only 160 feet (50 m) of water, the Andrea Doria is a frequent target of treasure treasure divers, and is frequently referred to as the "Mount Everest of Scuba Diving."
The day after it sank, two divers, Peter Gimbel and Joseph Fox, managed to locate the wreck of the Doria, publishing pictures of the wreck in Time Magazine. Gimbel later went on to conduct a number of salvage operations on the ship, including salvaging the First Class Bank Safe in 1981, eventually opening the safe on live television in 1984. Despite speculation that passengers had deposited many valuables, the safe yielded little other than American silver certificates and Italian bank notes. This disappointing outcome apparently confirmed other speculation that most Andrea Doria passengers had already retrieved their valuables prior to the collision in anticipation of the ship's scheduled arrival in New York City the following morning. The ship's bell was taken in the late 1980's and the statue of Genoese Admiral Andrea Doria, for whom the ship was named, was removed from the first-class lounge. After years of looting by divers, little of value is thought to remain on the wreck site.
Sadly, compounding the tragedy of 1956, artifact recovery on the Doria has not been without additional loss of life. Dozens of scuba divers have lost their lives diving the wreck. Just as the weather and sailing environment proved fatal to the Andrea Doria, the diving conditions in this area of the turbulent North Atlantic are also considered very treacherous. Strong currents, heavy sediment that can reduce visibility to zero, and sharks all pose a serious hazard. Dr. Robert Ballard who visited the site in a nuclear-powered U.S. Navy submersible in 1995 reported that thick fishing nets draped the hull. It is also known that an invisible web of thin fishing lines, easily snagging scuba gear, provide more danger. Additionally, as time passes, the wreck is slowly collapsing, with the top of the wreck now at 190 feet (60 m), and many of the passageways have begun to collapse.
Heritage
Memorial wreath placed at Andrea Doria shipwreck site by survivors, July 2002 The bow of the Stockholm was repaired at a cost of $1 million. Today, she sails as a refurbished cruise ship as the M.S. Valtur Prima.
The story of the accident was retold by Alvin Moscow in his book Collision Course: The Story of the Collision Between the 'Andrea Doria' and the 'Stockholm' which was published in 1959.
A group of survivors maintains contact with each other through a website maintained by an Andrea Doria survivor. Some stay in touch through a newsletter, and there have been reunions, and memorial services.
Books
Moscow, Alvin, (1959) Collision Course Putnam Publishing Group; ISBN 0448120194 (noted updated version published in 1981)
Haberstroh, Joe (2003) Fatal Depth: Deep Sea Diving, China Fever and the Wreck of the Andrea Doria The Lyons Press; ISBN 1585744573
Goldstein, Richard (2003) Desperate Hours: The Epic Rescue Of The Andrea Doria John Wiley & Sons
Mattsson, Algot (1986) Out Of The Fog: The Sinking Of The Andrea Doria (Translated from Swedish by Professor E. Fisher and edited by Gordon W. Paulsen) Cornell Maritime Press; ISBN 0870335456
McMurray, Kevin F. (2001) Deep Descent: Adventure And Death Diving The Andrea Doria Pocket Books. ISBN 0743400623
Ballard, Robert D. (1997) Lost Liners: From the Titanic to the Andrea Doria the Ocean Floor Reveals It's Greatest Ships Hyperion; ISBN 0786862963;
Meurn, Robert J. (1990) Watchstanding Guide for the Merchant Officer Cornell Maritime Press, ISBN 0-87033-409-3
Gentile, Gary (1989) Andrea Doria: Dive to an Era Gary Gentile Productions; ISBN 0962145300
Kohler, Peter C. (1988) The Lido Fleet Seadragon Press. ISBN 0966305205
Hoffer, William (1982) Saved: the Story of the Andrea Doria-The Greatest Sea Rescue in History Simon & Schuster; ISBN 0517364905
Carletti, Stefano (1968) Andrea Doria '74 Gherando Casini Ed, Italy
Gladstone, Eugene W. (1966) In The Wake Of The Andrea Doria: A Candid Autobiography by Eugene W. Gladstone McClelland and Stewart Limited, Canada.
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