SS Andrea Doria

History

Features

Designed by Italian architect Giulio Minoletti, Andrea Doria had a length of 212 metres (695 ft 6 in), a beam of 27 metres (88 ft 7 in), 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 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph), with a top speed of 26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph). She was neither the largest vessel nor the fastest of her day – those distinctions went to the 83,673 GRT RMS Queen Elizabeth and 38.32 knots (70.97 km/h; 44.10 mph) 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. 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.

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. 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 Rex, 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 Cristoforo Colombo 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. Three slower prewar vessels, Saturnia, Vulcania and Conte Biancamano, 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. Following the Italian Line's advertised route, she collected 794 passengers (152 First Class, 157 Cabin Class, 485 Tourist Class) 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 Doria's 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 400 nautical miles (740 km; 460 mi) 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 160 metres (525 ft) 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.

Collision course

To save time, the Stockholm set a homeward course south of the Nantucket Lightship and twenty miles (32 km) 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, Stockholm's speed was approximately 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) in visibility Carstens-Johannsen estimated to be six nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi).

The waters of the North Atlantic south of Nantucket Island are frequently the site of intermittent fog, as the cold Labrador Current encounters the Gulf Stream. As Stockholm and Andrea Doria were approaching each other head-on in the heavily used shipping corridor, the westbound Italian liner had been traveling in a heavy fog bank for hours. The captain had reduced speed slightly from 23.0 to 21.8 knots (42.6 to 40.4 km/h; 26.5 to 25.1 mph), activated the ship's fog-warning whistle, and had closed the watertight doors, all customary precautions while sailing in such conditions. However, the eastbound Stockholm had yet to enter the bank's western edge, and was seemingly unaware either of it or Andrea Doria's movement within it.

As the two ships approached each other in failing light at a combined speed of 40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph), each was aware of the presence of another ship only through radar. Compounding this, they apparently misinterpreted each other's course, and made no initial radio communication.

The original inquiry established that in the critical minutes before the collision, Andrea Doria gradually steered south, to her left, attempting a starboard-to-starboard passing, while Stockholm also turned about 20° southward, to its right, an action intended to widen the clearance of a port-to-port passing, but instead put the two vessels on a direct collision course. As a result of the extremely thick fog that enveloped Andrea Doria as the ships approached each other, the two were quite close by the time visual contact was established. By then, the crews realized that they were headed straight into one another; in spite of their last-minute evasion maneuvers they could not avoid ramming.

In the last moments before impact, Stockholm turned hard to starboard (right) and was in the process of reversing her propellers, attempting to stop. Andrea Doria, remaining at her cruising speed of almost 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) engaged in a hard turn to port (left), her captain hoping to outrun the collision. Around 11:10 p.m., the two ships collided, with Stockholm T-boning the starboard side of Andrea Doria.

Impact and penetration

Andrea Doria and Stockholm collided at almost a 90° angle. Stockholm's bow, heavily reinforced for operations in the icy North Atlantic, pierced Andrea Doria's starboard side about one-third of her length from the bow, under the ship's bridge. It penetrated the hull to a depth of nearly 40 feet (12 m), and the keel. Below the waterline, five fuel tanks on Andrea Doria's starboard side were torn open, and they filled with thousands of tons of seawater. Meanwhile, air was trapped in the five empty tanks on the port side, causing them to float more readily, contributing to a severe list.

Andrea Doria was designed with her hull divided into 11 watertight compartments, separated by steel bulkheads that ran across the width of her hull, rising from the bottom of the ship's hull up to A Deck. The only openings in the bulkheads were on the bottom deck, where watertight doors were installed for use by the engine crew and could be easily closed in an emergency. Her design specified that if any two adjacent watertight compartments were breached, she could remain afloat. In addition, following the rules and guidelines set by the International Conference for Safety of Life at Sea of 1948, Andrea Doria was designed to handle a list, even under the worst imaginable circumstances, but not one greater than 15°. However, the combination of the five flooded tanks on one side and the five empty tanks on the other left her with a list that, within a few minutes of the collision, exceeded 20°. While the collision itself penetrated only one of Andrea Doria's watertight compartments, the severe list would gradually pull the tops of the bulkheads along the starboard side below the level of the water, allowing seawater to flow down corridors, down stairwells, and any other way it could find into the next compartment in line. The collision had also torn into an access tunnel running from the generator room, which was located in the compartment directly aft of where the collision had happened, to a small room at the forward end of the tank compartment containing the controls for the tank pumps. But a fatal flaw in Andrea Doria's design existed, as at the point where the tunnel went through the bulkhead separating the two compartments, no watertight door was present. This allowed the generator room to flood rapidly, contributing to not only an increase in flooding, but a loss of electricity.

Andrea Doria sent this SOS call: SOS DE ICEH [this is Andrea Doria] SOS HERE AT 0320 GMT LAT. 40.30 N 69.53 W NEED IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE

It was only through the initial radio distress calls sent out by each ship that they learned one-another's identity. Soon afterward, the messages were received by numerous radio and Coast Guard stations along the New England coast, and the world soon became aware that two large ocean liners had collided.

Assessing damage and imminent danger

Immediately after the collision, Andrea Doria began to take on water and started to list severely to starboard. Within minutes, the list was at least 18°. After the ships separated, Captain Calamai quickly brought the engine controls to "all stop". One of the watertight doors to the engine room may have been missing, though this issue was later determined to be moot. Much more importantly, however, crucial stability was lost by the earlier failure during routine operations to ballast the mostly empty fuel tanks with seawater as they were emptied, as the builders had specified (which, however, makes refueling more costly). Owing to the immediate rush of seawater flooding the starboard tanks, and because the port tanks had emptied during the crossing, the list was greater than would otherwise have been the case.

In the engine room, engineers attempted to pump water out of the flooding starboard tanks, but to no avail. Only a small amount of fuel remained, and the intakes to pump seawater into the port tanks were now high out of the water, making any attempt to level the ship futile. As the list increased over the next few minutes to 20° or more, Calamai realized that his ship was doomed.

Aboard Stockholm, roughly 30 feet (10 m) of her bow had been crushed and torn away. Initially, the ship was dangerously down by the bow, but emptying the freshwater tanks soon raised the bow to within four inches (10 cm) of normal. A quick survey determined that the major damage did not extend aft beyond the bulkhead between the first and second watertight compartments. In spite of her condition, the ship was soon determined to be stable and in no imminent danger of sinking.

Rescue operations

On Andrea Doria, the decision to abandon ship was made within 30 minutes of impact. A sufficient number of lifeboats for all of the passengers and crew was split evenly on each side of the Boat Deck. Procedures called for lowering the lifeboats until they could be secured alongside the glass-enclosed Promenade Deck one level below, allowing evacuees to climb out of windows directly into the boats. However, it was soon determined that the port side lifeboats were unlaunchable due to the severe list, which left them high in the air: lowering them would cause them to collide with the exposed hull, and cause them to tip. Compounding things, the list also complicated normal lifeboat procedures on the starboard side, making it necessary to lower the boats empty and somehow get evacuees to board them at water level. This was eventually accomplished through ropes and Jacob's ladders. In fear of causing a panic and stampeding of the starboard lifeboats, Captain Calamai decided against giving the order to abandon ship until help arrived. In the meantime, Second Officer Guido Badano made announcements over the loudspeaker system instructing passengers to put on their lifebelts and go to their designated muster stations.

Andrea Doria's radios had limited range, so her distress message making it clear that additional lifeboats were urgently needed was relayed to other ships that could receive it. The United States Coast Guard from New York City also coordinated on land.

In this case being in a busy shipping lane proved helpful to Andrea Doria. The first ship to respond to her distress call was the 120-metre (390 ft) freighter Cape Ann of the United Fruit Company, which was returning to the United States after a trip to Bremerhaven, Germany. Upon receiving the message from the stricken Andrea Doria, Captain Joseph Boyd immediately set a course for her. With a crew of 44 aboard and only two 40-person lifeboats, the assistance Cape Ann could offer was limited, but within minutes, she was joined by other ships heeding the distress call. The United States Navy transport USNS Private William H. Thomas, en route to New York from Livorno, Italy, with 214 troops and dependents also responded to the signal and made immediate progress towards the site. Her captain, John Shea, was placed in charge of the rescue operation by the US Navy and readily ordered his crew to prepare their eight usable lifeboats. Also joining the rescue was the United States Navy destroyer escort USS Edward H. Allen.

Forty-four nautical miles (81 km; 51 mi) east of the collision site, the French Line's Île de France was eastbound from New York en route to her home port of Le Havre, with 940 passengers and a crew of 826 aboard. At 44,500 tons and 241 metres (791 ft) in length, the 30-year-old luxury liner was among the largest and fastest passenger liners on the North Atlantic run. On that voyage, having left New York the same day as Stockholm, she was under the command of Captain Raoul de Beaudéan, a well-respected veteran of the seas who had served the French Line for 35 years. Upon hearing of the collision and the distress call, de Beaudéan was at first skeptical of the thought of a modern ship like Andrea Doria actually foundering, and knew that if he did steer back to the collision site only to find that Île de France was not needed, it would mean having to return to New York to refuel and delay her passengers, which could have been a financial blow to the French Line. At the least he needed to contact Andrea Doria to size up the situation. His attempt was unsuccessful, but after communicating with Stockholm, Cape Ann, and Thomas, he grasped that the lives of over 1,600 people were at risk, turned Île de France around, and set a direct course for Andrea Doria.

Andrea Doria capsizes and sinks

Once the evacuation was complete, Captain Calamai of Andrea Doria shifted his attention to the possibility of towing the ship to shallow water. However, it was clear that it was doomed.

After all the survivors had been transferred onto various rescue ships bound for New York, Andrea Doria's remaining crew began to disembark – forced to abandon the ship. By 6:00 am, even Captain Calamai was in a rescue boat. The sinking began at 9:45 am and by 10:00 that morning the Andrea Doria's starboard side dipped into the ocean and the three swimming pools were seen refilling with water. As the bow slid under, the stern rose slightly, and the port propeller and shaft became visible. As the port side slipped below the waves, some of the unused lifeboats snapped free of their davits and floated upside-down in a row. It was recorded that Andrea Doria finally sank bow first 10 hours after the collision, at 10:09 am on 26 July 1956. The ship had drifted 1.58 nautical miles (2.93 km; 1.82 mi) from the point of the collision. Aerial photography of the stricken ocean liner capsizing and sinking won a Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for Harry A. Trask of the Boston Traveler newspaper.

Return to New York; families

Because of the scattering of Andrea Doria passengers and crew among the various rescue vessels, some families were separated during the collision and rescue. It was not clear who was where, and just who had survived, until all the ships with survivors arrived in New York. In all, six different ships participated in the rescue of the passengers and crew of Andrea Doria, including the heavily damaged Stockholm, which steamed back to New York under its own power with a United States Coast Guard escort after the others.

During the wait, New York City–based ABC Radio Network news commentator Edward P. Morgan broadcast a stirring account of the collision, not telling listeners that his 14-year-old daughter Linda Morgan had been aboard Andrea Doria and was feared dead. It was later revealed that she had been thrown from her bed when the two ships collided only to land on Stockholm's deck, suffering moderate but not life-threatening injuries and earning the epithet "miracle girl". The following night, after learning the good news, Edward P. Morgan's emotional broadcast became one of the more memorable in radio news history.

Among Andrea Doria's passengers were Hollywood actress Ruth Roman and her three-year-old son, Richard. In the 1950 film Three Secrets, Roman had portrayed a distraught mother waiting to learn whether or not her child had survived a plane crash. She and her son were separated from each other during the collision and evacuation. Rescued, Roman had to wait to learn her child's fate, which resulted in a media frenzy for photos as she waited at the pier in New York City for her child's safe arrival aboard one of the rescue ships. Actress Betsy Drake, who was married to movie star Cary Grant at the time, also escaped from the sinking liner, as did Philadelphia mayor Richardson Dilworth and songwriter Mike Stoller (of the team Leiber and Stoller).

Assisted by the American Red Cross and news photographers, the frantic parents of four-year-old Norma Di Sandro learned that their injured daughter had been airlifted from Stockholm to a hospital in Boston, where the previously unidentified little girl had undergone surgery for a fractured skull. They drove all night from New York to Boston, with police escorts provided to their convoy in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. When they arrived, the child was still unconscious and the doctors said all that could be done was wait to see if she woke up. The little girl never regained consciousness, and succumbed to her injuries.

Casualties

A total of 51 lives were lost in the collision and sinking, consisting of 46 passengers from the Andrea Doria and five members of the crew of Stockholm. Of the 46 passengers lost aboard Andrea Doria, 43 died as a result of the collision. No remains were ever recovered of these casualties, and they are believed to remain entombed within the wreck.

The area of Andrea Doria's hull where Stockholm's bow penetrated encompassed five passenger decks. On the uppermost of these decks, the Upper Deck, at least eight first-class cabins were destroyed. In all, six first-class passengers lost their lives. In cabin 46, Colonel Walter Carlin had been in the bathroom brushing his teeth at the time of the collision and miraculously survived, while his wife Jeanette was killed. Later aboard Stockholm, crewmen searching the wreckage of the mangled bow sighted the remains of a woman matching Mrs. Carlin's description lodged in the wreckage, but before they could recover it, debris became dislodged and the body fell into the sea. In direct line of Stockholm's bow on the upper deck were cabins 52 and 54, which were occupied by Camille Cianfarra, a longtime foreign correspondent for The New York Times, his wife Jane, their 8-year-old daughter Joan and 14-year-old Linda Morgan, Jane's daughter from her previous marriage to American journalist Edward P. Morgan. Joan was killed instantly, while Camille died from severe injuries moments after the collision. Jane was seriously injured, but was rescued by some other passengers, among them Dr. Thure Peterson, who had been next door in cabin 56. He sustained only minor injuries, while his wife Martha was gravely wounded and was trapped along with Jane Cianfarra. After a long struggle to free her, largely on the part of her husband, Martha succumbed to her injuries a few hours after the collision. One deck below on the Foyer Deck, near the first-class entrance, Ferdinand Melly Thieriot, circulation director of The San Francisco Chronicle, along with his wife Frances (whose grandson is the actor Max Thieriot) were killed, as their suite was in direct line of Stockholm's bow. Their 13-year-old son Peter, who occupied a cabin further down the corridor, survived.

On the decks below, titled A, B and C Decks, the loss of life was greater, as it was the location of several sections of tourist-class cabins. On A Deck, eleven passengers, consisting of ten women and one elderly clergyman, were all killed. In Cabin 230, three women, Margaret Carola, Christina Covino and Amelia Iazzetta, were killed instantly. Carola had been on board with her elderly mother Rosa Carola, who had also been assigned a berth in the cabin but because she suffered from a variety of health problems, she had been in the ship's infirmary at the time of the collision and survived. Covino and Iazzetta were both sisters from New York who were returning from a visit to Italy. They were accompanied by Iazzetta's husband Benvenuto, who had been berthed in another cabin and survived.

Aftermath

Because the collision did not happen in the United States waters, and because neither the Andrea Doria nor the Stockholm were U.S. ships, the United States Coast Guard did not investigate the collision, nor did the United States Navy.

Litigation and determination of fault: 1956–1957

Several months of hearings were held in New York City in the aftermath of the collision. Prominent maritime attorneys represented both the ships' owners. Dozens of attorneys represented victims and families of victims. Officers of both ship lines had testified, including the officers in charge of each ship at the time of the collision, with more scheduled to appear later until an out-of-court settlement was reached, and the hearings ended abruptly.

Both shipping lines contributed to a settlement fund for the victims. Each line absorbed its own damages. For the Swedish-American Line, damages were estimated at $2 million, half for repairs to Stockholm's bow, and half for lost business during repairs. The Italian Line sustained the loss of Andrea Doria's full value, estimated to be $30 million.

A U.S. Congressional hearing was also held, and provided some determinations, notably about the lack of ballasting specified by the builders during the fatal voyage and the resulting lack of seaworthiness of Andrea Doria after the collision. The Italian Line's chief lawyer was Morgan J. Burke Jr., who was awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his efforts.

While heavy fog was given as the primary cause of the accident, and it is not disputed that intermittent and heavy fog are both frequent and challenging conditions for mariners in that part of the ocean, these other factors have been cited:

Andrea Doria's officers had not followed proper radar procedures or used the plotting equipment available in the chartroom adjacent to the bridge of their ship to plot and then calculate the course, position and speed of the other (approaching) ship. Thus, they failed to realize Stockholm's speed and course.

Andrea Doria had not followed the long-established rule that vessels approaching head-to-head both turn towards the right (to starboard). As Stockholm turned to starboard, Andrea Doria turned to port, closing the circle instead of opening it. Beyond a certain point, it became impossible to avoid a collision.

Resulting reforms

The Andrea Doria–Stockholm collision led to several rule changes in the immediate years following the incident to avoid a recurrence. Since this was essentially a radar-assisted collision event, in which over-use was made of poorly handled technology, shipping lines were required to improve training on the use of radar equipment. Also, approaching ships were required to make radio contact with one another. Both ships saw each other on their radar systems and attempted to turn. Unfortunately, one of the radar systems was poorly designed, resulting in the collision. Marine craft today are required to turn to starboard (right) in a head-on situation.

Later investigations and study

Unanswered questions about the tragedy, and questions of cause and blame, have intrigued observers and haunted survivors for over 50 years. The fact that Andrea Doria and Stockholm were speeding in heavy fog (21.8 knots and 18.5 knots, respectively, at the collision) and questions about their seaworthiness arose at the time. Captain Calamai never assumed another command because the Italian Line feared bad publicity. However, largely because the out-of-court settlement agreement between the two shipping companies ended the fact-finding that was taking place in the hearings immediately after the disaster, no resolution of the cause(s) was ever formally accomplished. This has led to continued development of information and a search for greater understanding, aided by newer technologies in over half a century since the disaster.

Recent discoveries using computer animation and newer undersea diving technology have shed additional light on some aspects.

Many years later, scientific study of the actions of the two crews indicated a possibility that the third mate on Stockholm misinterpreted his radar in the minutes prior to the impact. Recent studies and computer simulations carried out by Captain Robert J. Meurn of the United States Merchant Marine Academy and based on the findings of John C. Carrothers suggest Stockholm Third Officer Carstens-Johannsen misinterpreted radar data and badly overestimated the distance between the two ships. The poor design of the radar settings, coupled with unlighted range settings and a darkened bridge, makes this scenario possible. Some critics have suggested that a simple and available technology, a small light bulb on the radar set aboard Stockholm, might have averted the entire disaster. Instead, he may have unintentionally steered the Swedish ship into a collision with the Italian liner.

Exploration of Andrea Doria's impact area revealed that Stockholm's bow had ripped a much larger gash in the critical area of the large fuel tanks and watertight compartments of the Italian liner than had been thought in 1956. The question of the "missing" watertight door, although still unanswered, was probably moot: Andrea Doria was doomed immediately after the collision.

"...In maritime navigation, all collision avoidance manoeuvres are made based on the Collision Regulations COLREG. Although these rules have helped in managing the maritime traffic and also advised every vessel about the collision avoidance manoeuvres that need to be taken in every situation, they have not stopped accidents from happening (Demirel and Bayer, 2015; Lušić and Erceg, 2008). After a deep study of the COLREG a number of issues that can cause a hassle and confusion for the OOW (Officer On Watch) were identified (Belcher, 2002; Demirel and Bayer, 2015; Szlapczynski and Szlapczynska, 2015; Wylie, 1962)..." Extracted from Distance Comparative Review of Collision Avoidance Systems in Maritime and Aviation - Hesham Abdushkour, Osman Turan, Evangelos Boulougouris, Rafet Emek Kurt (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom), a paper addressed to the transfer of TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) aerospace technology to maritime navigation.

Wreck site

Due to the luxurious appointments and initially good condition of the wreck, with the top of the wreck lying initially in 27 fathoms (49 m; 162 ft) of water, Andrea Doria has been a frequent target of treasure divers. It is commonly referred to as the "Mount Everest of scuba diving." The comparison to Mt. Everest originated after a July 1983 dive on Andrea Doria by Captain Alvin Golden during a CBS News-televised interview of the divers following their return from a dive expedition to the wreck aboard RV Wahoo. The depth, water temperature, and currents combine to put the wreck beyond the scope of recreational diving. The skills and equipment required to successfully execute this dive, such as use of mixed gases and staged decompression, put it in the realm of only the most experienced technical divers. The wreck is located near 40°29.408′N 69°51.046′W.

A week after Andrea Doria sank, divers Peter Gimbel and Joseph Fox managed to locate the wreck of the ship, and published pictures of the wreck in Life.

In 1968, film director Bruno Vailati, together with Stefano Carletti, Mimi Dies, Arnaldo Mattei, and Al Giddings (an experienced American diver), organized and directed the first Italian expedition to the wreck, producing the documentary titled Andrea Doria -74. The wreck was marked with a bronze plaque with the inscription: "We came here to work to make the dream come true and return the Andrea Doria to the light".

Peter Gimbel later conducted a number of salvage operations on the ship, including salvaging the first-class bank safe in 1981. Despite speculation that passengers had deposited many valuables, the safe, opened on live television in 1984, yielded thousands of American silver certificates, Canadian bank notes, American Express travellers checks, and Italian bank notes, but no other valuables. This outcome apparently confirmed other speculation that most Andrea Doria passengers, in anticipation of the ship's scheduled arrival in New York City the following morning, had already retrieved their valuables prior to the collision.

Evelyn Bartram Dudas (22) was the first woman to successfully dive onto Andrea Doria. Dudas reached the wreck in June 1967; she and her future husband, John Dudas, retrieved the ship's compass. Other well-known divers to explore Andrea Doria are Steve Belinda, John Chatterton, Gary Gentile, Gary Gilligan, Richie Kohler and John Mattera.

Diving fatalities

Artifact recovery on Andrea Doria has resulted in additional loss of life. At least 22 scuba divers have lost their lives diving on the wreck, and diving conditions at the wreck site are considered very treacherous. Strong currents and heavy sediment that can reduce visibility to zero pose serious hazards to diving this site. Dr. Robert Ballard (who found the wrecks of the ocean liner RMS Titanic, the German battleship Bismarck, the American aircraft carrier Yorktown and torpedo boat PT-109) who visited the site in a US Navy submersible in 1995, reported that thick fishing nets draped the hull. An invisible web of thin fishing lines, which can snag scuba gear, increases danger. The wreck is slowly collapsing; the top of the wreck is now at 58 metres (190 ft), and many of the passageways have begun to collapse.

The wreck site is nicknamed "The Everest of Wreck Diving" because of the number of deaths exploring the site.

1956: William Edgerton, 23, part of an effort to photograph the recently sunk Andrea Doria, died shortly after one of the valves on his breathing apparatus became partially closed.

1981: John Barnett drowned while diving on Andrea Doria.

1984: Frank Kennedy surfaced unconscious after a dive on Andrea Doria and died on board RV Wahoo before help arrived.

1985: John Ormsby drowned after being caught in wires.

1988: Joe Drozd died during a dive on Andrea Doria.

1992: Mathew Lawrence and Mike Scofield drowned while diving on Andrea Doria.

1993: Robert Santuli died from oxygen poisoning while diving on Andrea Doria.

1998: Craig Sicola, Richard Roost, and Vincent Napoliello all died diving on Andrea Doria.

Legacy

MS Stockholm

Stockholm's bow was replaced in New York at a cost of $1 million.

Stockholm continued to sail for nearly 80 years under various names. In late 2025, after years of neglect in Rotterdam, it was finally sold for scrap following an auction by order of a local court.

Survivors

Survivors went on with their lives with a wide range of experiences. Captain Calamai never accepted another command, and lived the rest of his life in sadness "as a man who has lost a son", according to his daughter. Most of the other officers returned to the sea. Some survivors had mental problems for years after the incident, while others felt their experience had helped them value their lives more preciously.

In culture

Two bronze medallions, commissioned by survivors Pierette Domenica Simpson and Jerome Reinert and survivor's daughter Angela Addario, are in the South Street Seaport Museum of New York, and in the Museo del Mare of Genova, Italy.

California sculptor Daniel Oberti created the two works called The Greatest Sea Rescue in History.

A large-scale painting, The Andrea Doria Crosses the World Trade Center by Ronald Mallory, was commissioned by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for Windows on the World at the World Trade Center. The painting hung on the 107th floor since 1982, and was lost with the destruction of the towers on 11 September 2001.

An oil painting, The Andrea Doria in Genoa Harbor by Michael E. Von Drak, commissioned June 1986 by Bruno P. Pella for his Ristorante Grifone, San Francisco, California.

In 1969 Polish rock band Niebiesko-Czarni with singer Wojciech Korda recorded the song "Andrea Doria"

In 1973, German singer Udo Lindenberg published an album titled Alles klar auf der Andrea Doria (All's Well on the Andrea Doria), containing a song of the same name.

The liner is also referenced in the Steely Dan song "Things I Miss The Most" from their 2003 album Everything Must Go.

In 1986 Brazilian rock band Legião Urbana recorded the song "Andrea Doria" in their second album Dois.

The liner is mentioned in more than 500 of the many written biographies of Elvis Presley, because one of the survivors was Mike Stoller of the songwriting team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. As Stoller reached the port of New York, Leiber informed him at the main dock that their 1952 composition "Hound Dog", a number one R&B record for Big Mama Thornton, was once more and right there and then, the number one record in the nation in all three charts: R&B, Pop and C&W, albeit this time "by a young Mississippian by the name of Elvis Presley". Stoller, who had been in Europe for over 10 months, did not know who Presley was, so he asked Leiber the now famous "Elvis who?". They would go on to write several more number one hits, including two written exclusively for Presley, "Don't", a number one in early 1958, as well as the title song and most of the soundtrack for Presley's third movie, the 1957 MGM production of the mega hit "Jailhouse Rock".