Monday,
July 24, 2006
Italian Luxury Liner
"Andrea Doria": Still Claiming Lives on
50th Anniversary
The
ANNOTICO Report
On
July 25, 1956, the 29,000-ton Italian luxury liner "Andrea Doria" was speeding toward New York, on the last leg
of a trans-Atlantic crossing, when it was rammed by the Swedish ship
"Stockholm", just south of Nantucket, Mass.and
sank in 200 feet of water, killing 51 people.
Half
a century later, the Andrea Doria is still taking a
toll. It's called the
Capt.
Robert Meurn, professor emeritus at the U.S. Merchant
Marine Academy on Long Island explains that the
Among
the survivors of the "Andrea Doria" was
film star Ruth Roman and songwriter Mike Stoller, who
on landing in
Thanks
to Walter Santi
LONG
SUNKEN SHIP STILL CLAIMS LIVES
By
Richard Pyle,
Associated
Press
July
24, 2006
BOSTON
(July 24) - On a foggy July night in 1956, the Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria was speeding toward New York on the last leg of a
trans-Atlantic crossing when it collided with a passenger ship and sank,
killing 51 people.
Half
a century later, the Andrea Doria is still taking a
toll as it rests on its side about 200 feet down in frigid waters south of
At
least 14 people have died while exploring the wreck. The latest fatality came
July 8, when researcher David Bright suffered decompression sickness after
making his 120th trip to the Andrea Doria ahead of an
anniversary dive there.
"It's
called the
In
1956, Meurn was a 19-year-old cadet aboard a training
ship and heard the distress calls from the collision the night of July 25.
It
was at the U.S. Coast Guard station across
"We
have collided with another ship. Please. Ship in
collision."
The
message was from the sleek, white
The
3-year-old Andrea Doria then radioed its own SOS, a
last cry from a vessel already doomed. Water gushing into the gaping hole
drowned many victims and tilted the 700-foot liner so sharply that her portside
lifeboats could not be lowered.
Fortunately,
at least 15 ships were close enough to respond. In all, about 1,660 people on
the Andrea Doria were saved. On the Andrea Doria, 46 people died. Five were lost on the
The
luckiest, and later the most famous, survivor was 14-year-old Linda Morgan, the
daughter of radio commentator Edward P. Morgan. She was vaulted from her cabin
on the Andrea Doria to the
Other
survivors included film star Ruth Roman and songwriter Mike Stoller,
who on landing in
The
cause of the collision "has been called a mystery but it really isn't --
it was human error," Meurn said by telephone
from his home.
Each
ship blamed the other, but the case was settled out of court, leaving the issue
of responsibility unresolved.
Meurn, among others, contends that the
The
In
any case, notes a recent book, "Alive on the Andrea Doria!"
by survivor Pierette Dominica Simpson, Calamai achieved his aim as most of the liner's 1,706
passengers survived -- far more than on the Titanic in 1912 and the Lusitania in 1915, the other two major Atlantic ship
disasters of the 20th century.
The
collision led to changes that make a similar event today unlikely -- the
defining of shipping lanes, improved radar and bridge-to-bridge VHF
communication between ships. Andrea Doria and
While
improvements in technology have made the once-unreachable Doria
popular with divers, Simpson -- only 9 at the time of the wreck -- quotes
Bright as calling it "a very hazardous adventure ... one of the most
difficult dives in the world."
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