Wreck of SS Andrea Doria

 scuba diving facility / area, place with historical importance, shipwreck, invisible

SS Andrea Doria was an Ocean Liner built for the Italian Line at the Ansaldo Shipyards of Genoa and placed into service in January 1953. Named after the 16th-century Genoese Admiral Andrea Doria, the ship became an icon of Italian national pride and was the largest, fastest and most opulent Ocean Liner serving the Italian Line as she cruised Mediterranean, Southern Atlantic and North Atlantic routes.

Establishing a well-earned reputation for being luxurious as well as reliable during her subsequent three years of service, the Andrea Doria was once again steaming at near-capacity from Genoa to New York on her 101st voyage across the Atlantic when she entered a fog bank of Nantucket on the night of July 25th, 1956. Activating standard fog safety procedures, Andrea Doria's crew sealed the ships watertight doors, activated her fog whistle and “reduced” her speed to 21.8 knots as she entered the Westbound Sea Lanes leading to Ambrose Light. Heading Eastbound from New York City at the same time and sailing under clear skies, the Swedish American Line passenger liner MS Stockholm made her way towards Andrea Doria at 18.1 knots, her crew unable to sight the approaching ships lights through the thick fog bank ahead of them.

Forced to rely on their onboard radar systems to monitor each other’s movements, crews aboard the Andrea Doria and Stockholm did not communicate their intentions as the two ships closed distance at a combined speed of 40 knots, and as a result both crews assumed that they would pass each other on opposite sides. Aboard Andera Doria, the officer in command ordered the ship to turn to Port so she would pass the Stockholm Starboard-to-Starboard while at the same time officers aboard Stockholm began to turn their ship to Starboard in an attempt to leave Andrea Doria to Port. With both ships commencing their turns shortly after 2305hrs, their high speed meant that by the time radar returns indicated they were on a collision course there was little time to react.

Aboard the Andrea Doria, realization that the ship was in extreme danger prompted orders for an increase in speed and a turn hard to Port in a last second attempt to avoid collision, while crews aboard the Stockholm sent her engines to full reverse and swung her bow to Port to lessen the severity of the coming impact. Despite these last-minute maneuvers, at 2310hrs the sharply-raked and ice-reinforced bow of the Stockholm slammed into the Andrea Doria's hull, pushing as far as 40ft into the Cruise Liner both above and below the waterline before the two ships separated and drifted apart in the fog.

Crew aboard Andrea Doria quickly raced to contain the massive amount of seawater pouring into the ship and evacuate passengers from affected areas, a task made difficult by the ships near-immediate 18 degree list to Starboard as hundreds of tons of seawater quickly filled empty fuel tanks along Andrea Doria's Starboard side. Compounded by nearly empty fuel tanks on her Port Side acting as floatation bladders, the ships list continued to grow even as her crew activated all available pumps onboard to return the ship to an even keel. These efforts were steadily rendered ineffective as the ship's growing list and progressive flooding of the engine room meant that the majority of the Andrea Doria's pumps had to be shut down and abandoned, all but sealing the Liner's fate.

Realizing that time was of the essence, Captain Piero Calamai issued the abandon ship order for all passengers at 2340hrs and the laborious process of evacuating the surviving 1,083 passengers and 571 crew into the ships operational lifeboats began. Compounded by the ships list rendering half her lifeboats unlaunchable and the other half almost impossible to safely load without the use of rope ladders, the evacuation effort was further complicated by many of Andrea Doria's crew evacuating their stations before the passengers, leading to mass panic. Assisted by lifeboats from the still-afloat Stockholm through the night, the rescue effort was aided greatly by the arrival of the Ocean Liner SS Ile de France, which used 10 of its own lifeboats to eventually recover 750 of Andrea Doria's passengers and crew. Musters taken aboard the rescue ships would later reveal that 52 of Andrea Doria's passengers, mainly those berthed in the area of the collision, had perished in the collision while the Stockholm had lost five of her crew who were berthed in her destroyed bow.

Dawn on July 26th found the Andrea Doria still afloat and manned by Captain Calamai and a skeleton crew of volunteers still desperately trying to save the wounded ship, however as her list passed 35 degrees to Starboard and began to increase in speed the final members of her crew abandoned Andrea Doria to her fate shortly after 0900hrs. Now adrift under clear and sunny skies, the once-proud ship continued to roll onto her Starboard side until fully capsizing at 1000hrs. With seawater now pouring down her exposed funnel into her engine and boiler rooms, Andrea Doria quickly flooded and sank bow-first at this location at 1009hrs.

Numerous lawsuits were filed by several parties following the loss of Andrea Doria, many of which were privately settled out of court. A Congressional inquest carried out by the United States would later assign blame nearly equally to the crew of both ships, as both were negligent in their radio communication, radar operation and in their failure to reduce speed while running through thick fog. Further liability was also laid on the crew of Andrea Doria for not counter-flooding her empty fuel tanks and thereby reducing the crippling effect they had to her buoyancy following the impact, however later investigations of the Andrea Doria's wreck have indicated that there was little chance she could have survived the damage inflicted by the Stockholm's bow.

Located by contract divers immediately following her loss at this location lying on her Starboard side in approximately 240ft of water, the Andrea Doria's Port rail now sits 160ft below the surface of the Atlantic. This depth puts the wreck within the reach of professional SCUBA divers, however the depth, currents and significant amount of expertise required to reach the wreck have led to it being termed the "Mount Everest of scuba diving". Over the years since her loss, the wreck has been extensively stripped by artifact hunters and by nature itself, with the majority of its upper decks having collapsed to the seabed. Nevertheless, the allure of diving the wreck still draws hundreds of divers each year, despite the very real dangers which have claimed the lives of 16 divers since 1985.

www.andreadoria.org/
njscuba.net/sites/site_andrea_doria.php