SS Andrea Doria () was a transatlantic ocean liner of the Italian Line (), put into service in 1953. She is widely known from the extensive media coverage of her sinking on July 26, 1956, which included the rescue of 1,660 of her 1,706 passengers and crew.
Named after the 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the ship had a gross register tonnage of 29,100 and a capacity of about 1,200 passengers and 500 crew. Of all Italy's ships at the time, Andrea Doria was the largest, fastest and supposedly safest. Launched on 16 June 1951, she was home-ported at Genoa, and began her maiden voyage on 14 January 1953.
On 25 July 1956, the New York City–bound vessel was approaching the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States. There was thick fog and when Andrea Doria finally noticed the eastbound passenger liner of the Swedish American Line, they were already too close to each other and on a collision course. Struck on her starboard side, the top-heavy Andrea Doria immediately started to list severely and take on water, which left half of her lifeboats unusable. The consequent shortage of lifeboats could have resulted in significant loss of life, but the ship stayed afloat for over 11 hours after the collision.Samuel Halpern, An Objective Forensic Analysis of the Collision Between Stockholm and Andrea Doria The calm, appropriate behavior of the crew, together with improvements in communications, and the rapid response of other ships, averted a disaster similar in scale to that of in 1912. While 1,660 passengers and crew were rescued and survived, 46 people on the ship died as a direct consequence of the collision. The evacuated luxury liner capsized and sank the following morning. This accident remains the worst maritime disaster to occur in United States waters since the capsizing of at Chicago in 1915.
While the rescue efforts for both ships were successful, the cause of the collision, culpability, and the loss of Andrea Doria generated much continued interest in the media and many lawsuits. No determination of cause was ever formally published, largely due to a confidential out-of-court settlement agreement between the two shipping companies signed during hearings immediately after the disaster.
History Features
Designed by Italian architect Giulio Minoletti, Andrea Doria had a length of , a beam of , and a gross register tonnage of 29,100. The propulsion system consisted of steam turbines attached to twin screws, enabling the ship to achieve a service speed of , with a top speed of . She was neither the largest vessel nor the fastest of her day – those distinctions went to the 83,673 GRT and SS United States; instead, her forte was luxury.
When fully booked, the ship was capable of accommodating 1,241 passengers; 218 in first class, 320 in cabin class, and 703 in tourist class. As was the rule aboard transatlantic passenger liners, each passenger class was strictly segregated to specific parts of the ship. First class accommodations were located amidships on the upper decks, cabin class accommodations were located just abaft of first class, and tourist class accommodations were divided between the forward and aft ends and were connected by corridors that ran the full length of the ship. Each class had its own separate dining room, lounges, and social halls, designated areas of open deck space and enclosed promenades, and even their own outdoor swimming pools with verandas. A crew of 563 was aboard.Passenger Accommodation Deck Plan. Andrea Doria: Tragedy and Rescue at Sea. Over $1 million was spent on artwork and the decor of the cabins and public rooms, including a life-sized statue of Admiral Doria.
Safety and seaworthiness Andrea Doria was built with a double hull divided into 11 watertight compartments. Any two of these could be filled with water without endangering the ship's safety. She was equipped with the latest early-warning radar, and carried sixteen steel lifeboats, eight on each side, enough by regulation to accommodate all passengers and crew. These came in three designs; two 58-person launches for emergency use, two 70-person motorboats with inboard radio transmitters, and 12 146-person hand-propelled rowboats.
However, despite its technological advantages, the ship had serious flaws relating to its seaworthiness and safety. Model testing during the design phase predicted she would develop a huge list when hit by any significant force. This was proven during her maiden voyage, when the vessel listed 28° after being hit by a large rogue wave off Nantucket. Her tendency to list was aggravated when her fuel tanks were nearly empty, which was usually at the end of a voyage.Othfors, Daniel. Andrea Doria. The Great Ocean Liners: Andrea Doria .
This stability issue became a focus of the investigation after the sinking, as it was a factor in both the capsizing and the crew's inability to lower the port-side lifeboats. The bulkheads of the watertight compartments extended only up to the top of A Deck, and a list greater than 20° allowed water from a flooded watertight compartment to pass over its top into adjacent compartments. In addition, the design parameters allowed the lowering of the lifeboats at a maximum 15° list. Beyond this limit, up to half of the lifeboats could not be deployed.
Construction
At the end of World War II, Italy was struggling with a collapsed economy.Andrea Doria. LostLiners.com. It had lost half its merchant fleet through wartime destruction and reparations awarded to various Allied forces. The losses included the bombing and sinking of , a former Blue Riband holder for her record transatlantic crossing. To show the world that the country had recovered from the war, and to reestablish the nation's pride, the Italian Line commissioned two new vessels of similar design in the early 1950s. The first was to be named Andrea Doria, after a famed 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the second after explorer Christopher Columbus.
These ships were intended to deliver express service on the Italian Line's "Sunny Southern Route" between Genoa and New York, stopping only at Cannes, Naples, and Gibraltar.The Pittsburgh Press, 10 May 1953 Three slower prewar vessels, , and , among the handful of dowagers to survive the conflict, would follow a meandering route that included additional stops at Azores, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Palermo.
Construction of Andrea Doria started at Yard No. 918 at Ansaldo Shipyard in Genoa. On 9 February 1950, the ship's keel was laid on the No. 1 slipway, and on 16 June 1951, Andrea Doria was launched. During the ceremony, the ship's hull was blessed by Giuseppe Siri, Cardinal Archbishop of Genoa, and christened by Mrs. Giuseppina Saragat, wife of the former Minister of the Merchant Marine Giuseppe Saragat.
Maiden voyage Initially, Andrea Doria had been scheduled to depart Genoa on her maiden voyage on 14 December 1952, but amid reports of machinery problems during sea trials, the departure was delayed to 14 January 1953.The Ships: Andrea Doria. Andrea Doria: Tragedy and Rescue at Sea. Following the Italian Line's advertised route, she collected 794 passengers (152 First Class, 157 Cabin Class, 485 Tourist Class)New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1957 before heading into the open Atlantic for New York. During the voyage she encountered heavy storms on the final approach to New York, listing a full 28° after being hit by a particularly large wave. She arrived on 23 January and received a welcoming delegation that included New York Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri.
Final voyage Outbound
The 51st westbound crossing of Andrea Doria to New York began as a typical run on the North Atlantic. Her most recent eastbound crossing from New York had concluded on 14 July 1956, and after a three-day turnaround, she was scheduled to be outbound from Genoa on Tuesday, 17 July. On this run, she was booked to roughly 90% of her total passenger capacity, with 1,134 passengers travelling aboard: 190 in first class, 267 in cabin class and 677 in tourist class. Combined with a crew of 572, a total of 1,706 persons would sail aboard her to the United States.
On the morning of 17 July, Andrea Doria began to take on her first passengers at 8 a.m. A total of 277 embarked there: 49 first class, 72 cabin class and 156 tourist class. Among those traveling in first class were Hungarian ballet dancers Istvan Rabovsky and Nora Kovach, who had defected from the Soviet bloc to the United States just three years earlier. The ship departed at 11 a.m. on the first leg of her journey.
She arrived at Cannes on the French Riviera mid-afternoon that same day. An additional 48 passengers boarded there: 30 first class, 15 cabin class, and 3 tourist class. Among them was a Hollywood actress who would become one of Andrea Dorias most famous passengers, Ruth Roman, travelling with her three-year-old son Richard. The famous songwriter Mike Stoller was aboard as well. From Cannes Andrea Doria sailed southeast to Naples, arriving the following morning. A total of 744 came aboard there: 85 in first class, 161 in cabin class, and 498 in tourist class. Most of the latter were emigrants from impoverished regions of southern Italy on their way to new lives in North America. She departed just after 6 p.m., arriving two days later off Gibraltar. A total of 65 passengers boarded: 26 first class, 19 cabin class, 20 tourist class, before she set out for New York.
On 25 July, just before noon, the passenger liner Stockholm of the Swedish American Line departed New York Harbor on her 103rd eastbound crossing across the Atlantic, headed to her home port of Gothenburg, Sweden. At 12,165 tons and in length, roughly half the size of Andrea Doria, Stockholm was the smallest passenger liner on the North Atlantic run during the 1950s. Completed in 1948, she was of a much more practical design than Andrea Doria. Originally built to accommodate only 395 passengers in two classes, Stockholm was designed without the opulence of Andrea Doria because the Swedish-American Line was aware that the rapid growth of air travel would bring an end soon to the age of transatlantic passenger travel. However, they did not envision the massive surge in tourism fueled by the buoyant American economy that arose during the 1950s. As a result, the Swedish-American Line withdrew Stockholm from service in 1953 for an overhaul that included an addition to her superstructure to provide accommodations for an additional 153 passengers, increasing her capacity to 548. This proved successful, as by 1956 Stockholm had gained a worthy reputation on the North Atlantic.
Stockholm left New York booked almost to capacity, with 534 passengers and a crew of 208. She was commanded by Captain Harry Gunnar Nordenson, though Third Officer Johan-Ernst Carstens-Johannsen was on duty on the bridge at the time of the accident. This was his first time alone on the bridge of a ship, and he had been up since 06:00 that morning supervising baggage-loading and passenger-boarding in New York.
Collision course To save time, the Stockholm set a homeward course south of the Nantucket Lightship and north of the recommended eastbound course for ships leaving the United States, placing Stockholm directly in the path of inbound westward traffic, a violation of the 1953 North Atlantic Track Agreement to which the Swedish American Line was a signatory. Cruising under clear skies, Stockholms speed was approximately in visibility Carstens-Johannsen estimated to be .