The Sinking Story of the Andrea Doria
On the night of July 25, 1956, the ocean liner Andrea Doria collided with the SS Stockholm, killing 51 people and triggering one of the largest civilian maritime rescue operations in history.
Though not the largest or fastest ocean liner of its day, the 697-foot Andrea Doria was widely considered the most beautiful. Its decks were adorned with three outdoor pools and it was known as a “floating art gallery” for its dazzling collection of paintings, tapestries, and surrealist murals. There was even a life-size bronze statue of a 16th-century Genoese navigator on board, inscribed with the ship’s name.
The Doria’s safety features were equally impressive. It was equipped with two radar screens—a relatively new technology in ocean-going vessels—and its hull was divided into 11 watertight compartments. Anxious passengers also found solace in the company of Captain Piero Calami. Calami was an experienced Italian seaman who had fought in World War I and World War II.
The Doria safely completed 100 transatlantic voyages between 1953 and 1956, and it was initially thought that it would do the same for its 101st voyage. After departing Italy on July 17, 1956, the ship stopped at three Mediterranean ports before setting sail for the high seas for a nine-day trip to New York. On board were 572 crew members and 1,134 passengers, including Italian immigrant families, business travelers, vacationers, and even celebrities such as Hollywood actress Ruth Roman.
The United States suffered losses when Germany torpedoed a British passenger ship suspected of smuggling weapons, and public anger increased pressure on President Wilson to join the war.
On July 25, the Doria entered the busy sea lanes of the northeastern coast of the United States. That same day, the 524-foot Swedish passenger ship Stockholm departed New York for the port of Gothenburg. At approximately 10:30 p.m., the two ships met from opposite directions near Nantucket Island. Neither ship followed the established “rules of the road” for maritime navigation.
Despite the heavy fog, Captain Calami ordered a slight reduction in speed in order to reach New York on time in the early morning. Meanwhile, the Stockholm was heading north of the proposed eastbound course, hoping to save time.
At approximately 10:45 p.m., Calami’s radar detected a flash that represented the Stockholm. A few minutes later, under the watch of Third Officer Johan Ernst Carstens-Johansen, the Swedish ship spotted the Doria on radar. They had encountered this situation countless times before, but this time, the two ships’ judgments of each other’s positions were unexpectedly contradictory.
Carstens marked the Doria’s position to his left and prepared to sail to the other side from the port side; while Calami marked the Stockholm to his right and performed an unconventional right-to-starboard turn. One of the crew members – it is not clear who – misread the radar signal and inadvertently steered his ship into the other ship.
It was not until around 11:10 p.m., when Calami finally saw the lights of the Stockholm in the thick fog, that the two realized they were about to collide. “Here she comes!” a crew member on the Doria shouted. Moments earlier, Calami had ordered a sharp turn to port to try to avoid the other ship.
After spotting the Doria, Carstens tried to reverse the propellers to slow down. But it was too late. The bow of the icebreaker Stockholm hit the starboard side of the Andrea Doria with great force, breaking through the bulkhead and penetrating the hull about 30 feet deep. The bow got stuck there for a few seconds before breaking free, leaving a large hole in the side of the Doria.
Aboard the Andrea Doria, passengers felt a violent jolt, accompanied by a metallic crash. Actress Ruth Roman described hearing “a huge explosion like a firecracker.” In an auditorium, the ship’s orchestra was playing “Adieu, Roma” when the force of the impact suddenly toppled them off the stage.
Those who suffered only scrapes and bruises considered themselves lucky. The collision claimed the lives of five people aboard the Stockholm and dozens more aboard the Doria, which reduced much of the ship’s starboard side to twisted metal. Italian immigrant Maria Sergio and her four young children were all killed in their sleep by the collision. In another cabin, Brooklyn resident Walter Carlin found the outer wall of his room completely blown off. His wife, who was reading in bed, had also completely vanished.
The most bizarre story was that of Linda Morgan, who was sleeping in a cabin on the starboard side. The accident claimed the lives of her stepfather and half-sister, but Morgan was somehow plucked from her bed and thrown onto Stockholm’s sagging bow, leaving her with only a broken arm. “I was on the Andrea Doria,” she told the astonished Stockholm crewman who found her. “Where am I now?”
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After the shock of the collision, crews on both sides quickly assessed the conditions of their respective ships. While the Stockholm was in no danger of sinking, the Doria was badly damaged, listing more than 20 degrees to starboard and leaking water from its watertight compartments.
Calami decided to abandon ship, but soon ran into catastrophic trouble: the ship was listing so badly that the eight lifeboats on the Doria’s port side could not be launched. The remaining lifeboats on the starboard side could only carry about 1,000 passengers and crew. The Andrea Doria radioed: “The danger is imminent. We need as many lifeboats as possible – but we can’t use our own.”
Fortunately, Calami’s ship was floating in the busy Atlantic Ocean. As the crippled Stockholm began to rescue Doria’s passengers, several other ships responded to the distress call and rushed to the scene. The first, a small cargo ship called Cape Ann, arrived around 12:30 a.m. Two U.S. Navy ships soon followed, but lifeboats were still scarce. Finally, around 2 a.m., a large French ship, the Ile de France, approached the Doria, illuminating the darkness with searchlights, and began to use lifeboats for rescue.
Despite the arrival of rescuers, the situation on the Doria remained dire. Debris from the collision trapped some passengers in their cabins, and many below decks were forced to navigate smoke-filled corridors and knee-deep water to reach the main deck. Those crammed into the useless lifeboats on the port side faced their own plight.
As the Doria listed to starboard, the main deck became a steep slope. To reach the starboard lifeboats, many had to slide down the deck on their backs, carefully stopping before going over the edge and into the water. Meanwhile, the ship continued to rock and was in danger of capsizing at any time.
The largest rescue operation in maritime history lasted for hours, but by 5:30 a.m., almost all of the Doria’s survivors had been evacuated. Seven hundred fifty-three people were placed on the Ile de France, and the rest were dispersed to Stockholm and four other ships. Captain Calami seemed ready to sink with his ship, but after the crew refused to abandon him, he reluctantly boarded the last lifeboat. Hours later, as the rescue fleet headed for New York Harbor, the Andrea Doria finally capsized and sank. At 10:09 a.m., the ship sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
The collision killed a total of 51 people, including five on the Stockholm and 46 on the Doria. The two shipowners blamed each other for the accident, but eventually reached an out-of-court settlement to avoid a trial, and neither side was formally held accountable. In the years since, investigators have used crew statements and computer simulations to try to reconstruct the scene on the night of the disaster.
Despite the obvious faults in both ships, many researchers now believe that Carstens made a fatal mistake: misreading radar data and misjudging the Doria’s distance by miles than it actually was. However, the dispute over the cause of the sinking continues to this day.
The Stockholm was finally repaired. Meanwhile, the Andrea Doria wreck lies at a depth of about 230 feet in the North Atlantic. It has become a mecca for divers, who call it the “Mount Everest” of the diving community. However, low visibility and erratic currents have prevented the 60-year-old wreck from continuing to cause casualties. Since 1956, more than a dozen people have died trying to explore its underwater grave.
