Sunken oceanliner still claiming lives
Staff and agencies
24 July, 2006
By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - 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.
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 Mount Everest of diving. It‘s such a dangerous depth, but it attracts a lot of interest," said Capt. Robert Meurn, professor emeritus at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island and, like his friend Bright, an expert on maritime history and the Andrea Doria in particular.
It was at the U.S. Coast Guard U.S. Coast Guard station across Long Island that first word of the disaster was received in a crackling radio message at 11:22 p.m.:
The message was from the sleek, white Stockholm, a Swedish passenger ship that had left New York a few hours earlier. In the swirling fog, the Stockholm‘s bow, reinforced for northern icefields, had ripped into the starboard side of the 29,000-ton Andrea Doria, the erstwhile flagship of the Italian Line.
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 Stockholm.
Other survivors included film star Ruth Roman and songwriter Mike Stoller, who on landing in New York was told by his partner, Jerry Lieber, that their song "Hound Dog" had just been recorded by "some white kid named Elvis Presley." Stoller, who had been away four months, asked, "Elvis who?" Each ship blamed the other, but the case was settled out of court, leaving the issue of responsibility unresolved.
The Stockholm suddenly looming out of the fog spurred the Doria‘s captain, Piero Calamai, to order "hard a-port!" — a sharp left turn — but also too late to avoid the collision. The fact that Calamai did not immediately sound an abandon ship alarm became one of several controversies after the sinking.
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 Stockholm could communicate only through their radio rooms.
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."
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
