O
ne of the most famous shipwrecks in modern history was born on July 26, 1956. At 10:09 a.m. to be precise. Her
name was Andrea Doria. Like most shipwrecks, hers
was a tragic birth. Labour pains commenced on the previous evening at 11:10 p.m., when she collided with the Swedish liner Stockholm some 55 miles (88km) south of Nantucket, Rhode Island. Fifty-two people perished in the collision and subsequent sinking: passengers in their staterooms aboard the Andrea Doria, crewmembers serving their watch below in the forecastle of the Stockholm.
On the Night A small flotilla of nearby vessels raced to the scene of the catastrophe to participate in the massive rescue operation. Some 1,650 souls abandoned ship in lifeboats. Captain Piero Calamai was among the last to leave the listing Italian liner before she rolled onto her side. The bow settled slowly to the
bottom. Flooding seawater forced compressed air through the vacated compartments. The hull settled lower as it lost buoyancy. The stern disappeared from view with a final convulsive plunge. At that moment the palatial ship was converted to a shipwreck.Only 28 hours passed before the first scuba divers descended to the sparkling clean hull: Peter Gimbel and Joseph Fox. Although the wreck lay in 240 feet (73m) of cold Atlantic water, the port hull rose to a depth of 150 feet (46m). Gimbel exposed eight frames of black-and-white film with a Leica camera in a waterproof housing. These first photographs of the submerged Andrea Doria were published in Life magazine on August 13, 1956. Seeing his pictures in print fueled an obsession that kept Gimbel going back to the wreck for the next quarter century. A few weeks later, Gimbel
At a depth of 200 feet, Tom Packer hovers next to the Doria’s stern bell immediately after its discovery. Some of the sea anemones were scraped off in order to read the name that was stamped in bronze
returned to the Doria (the wreck’s newly shortened nickname). Instead of acting impetuously on his own, this time he was supported by the editors of Life. He and his fellow divers remained on site for a week. The exterior of the hull and superstructure appeared intact, the paint was bright and clean and
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