Today marks the 65th anniversary of the sinking of the Italian liner Andrea Doria, and D/V Tenacious is livestreaming a commemoration of the sinking over Facebook that you can watch embedded here.
Not among the largest or fastest, Andrea Doria was one of the most beautiful. Named after the 16th-century Genovese Admiral Andrea Doria, the ship was launched on 16 June 1951 and entered service on 14 January 1953.
On the night of 25 July 1956, near the end of Andrea Doria’s voyage from Genoa to New York, the Swedish-American Liner Stockholm collided with her starboard side off the coast of Nantucket in one of history’s most infamous maritime disasters. Andrea Doria immediately listed to starboard, rendering half of her lifeboats unusable. This shortage of lifeboats would have resulted in massive loss of life, but the ship remained afloat for 11 hours, allowing for 1660 passengers and crew to be evacuated and saved, most notably by the French Liner SS Île de France.
Andrea Doria capsized and sank the next morning and remains the worst maritime disaster to occur in US waters since the capsizing of the Eastland in 1915. Today, the Andrea Doria lies in 240 feet of water and is considered the “Mount Everest of scuba diving,” continuing to claim lives from the depths.
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