SOUNDINGS

No. 11 · Italian ocean liner

SS Andrea Doria

Lost 26 July 1956 · North Atlantic · about 75 m

Italy's elegant post-war liner sank off Nantucket in 1956 after a collision in fog; a vast rescue saved almost everyone aboard.

Flag
Italy (Italian Line)
Built
Ansaldo, Genoa, 1950–1953
Length
about 213 m
Aboard
1,706
Lives lost
46, and 5 crew of the Stockholm
Survived
about 1,660
Position
40°29.4′ N, 69°51.0′ W
Lies at
about 75 m, sand and clay
NANTUCKETMARTHA'S VINEYARDCAPE COD71°W70°W69°W41°N050 nautical milesSS Andrea Doriaabout 75 mN
Atlantic Ocean south of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
SS Andrea Doria at sea
SS Andrea Doria at sea. Unknown photographer, 1953-1956 · Public domain

Andrea Doria was the pride of Italy's post-war merchant fleet, on her 51st westbound crossing and one night from New York. She stayed afloat for eleven hours after the collision, long enough for ships to come.

Cause. In fog, she and the Swedish liner Stockholm misread each other's positions on radar and turned towards each other. Stockholm's bow tore into her starboard side.

Plate · elevation, starboard side

The ship

ANDREA DORIA AB

Load waterline

A The funnel and the terraced decks
B The raked bow

Elevation, starboard side

The last hours

Ship drawn to scale; the water below is not.

  1. 17 July 1956

    Out of Genoa

    Andrea Doria began her crossing to New York under Captain Piero Calamai.

  2. 25 July, evening

    Fog off Nantucket

    She ran for hours through dense fog at only slightly reduced speed. The eastbound Stockholm was approaching the same fog bank; each saw the other only on radar.

  3. About 23:10

    The collision

    Stockholm's reinforced bow struck her starboard side and cut deep into the hull. She quickly listed more than 20 degrees.

  4. Night

    Half the boats useless

    The list meant the port-side lifeboats could not be launched. Calls for help brought the freighter Cape Ann, the navy transport Private William H. Thomas and other ships.

  5. 26 July, about 02:00

    Île de France

    The French liner turned back to help, arrived about three hours after the collision with all her lights blazing, and took aboard the largest number of survivors.

  6. About 06:00

    Everyone off

    By around dawn all the survivors had been taken off. Captain Calamai was among the last to leave.

  7. 10:09

    She rolls over

    Eleven hours after the collision she rolled onto her starboard side and sank, watched from aircraft overhead.

10 m · 5 fm
20 m · 11 fm
30 m · 16 fm
40 m · 22 fm
50 m · 27 fm
60 m · 33 fm
70 m · 38 fm

At 75 m the pressure is about 9 times what it is at the surface.

1The hull cracking open2Upper decks, fallen to the seabed3Bow
  1. The hull cracking open
  2. Upper decks, fallen to the seabed
  3. Bow

Survey plan, seen from above: she lies on her starboard side, so her port side faces the surface.S sand and clay · about 75 m

As found

Where she lies

She came to rest on her starboard side in about 75 m of water. Over the decades the hull has cracked, the upper decks have slid off onto the seabed and the wreck is steadily collapsing. Currents, cold and fishing nets make her one of the most dangerous wreck dives in the world.

Found

Her position was known. Divers Peter Gimbel and Joseph Fox made the first dive on her the day after she sank.

Today

A wreck in international waters without formal protection.

Sources