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N0KFQ > TODAY 25.07.10 21:16l 109 Lines 5430 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 25
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Sent: 100725/1829Z @:N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA #:12881 [Branson] FBB7.00i $:12881_N
From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@WW
Jul 25, 1956:
Ships collide off Nantucket
At 11:10 p.m., 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian
ocean liner Andrea Doria and the Swedish ocean liner Stockholm
collide in a heavy Atlantic fog. Fifty-one passengers and crew
were killed in the collision, which ripped a great hole in the
broad side of the Italian vessel. Miraculously, all 1,660
survivors on the Andrea Doria were rescued from the severely
listing ship before it sunk late the next morning. Both ships
were equipped with sophisticated radar systems, and authorities
were puzzled as to the cause of the accident.
In the mid-1950s, more than 50 passenger liners steamed between
Europe and America, exploiting a postwar boom in transatlantic
ocean travel. The lavishly appointed Andrea Doria, put to sea in
1953, was the pride of the Italian line. It was built for
luxury, not speed, and boasted extensive safety precautions,
such as state-of-the-art radar systems and 11 watertight
compartments in its hull. The Stockholm, which went into service
in 1948, was a more modest ocean liner, less than half the
tonnage and carrying 747 passengers and crew on its fateful
voyage. The Andrea Doria held 1,706 passengers and crew in its
final journey.
On the night of July 25, 1956, the Stockholm was just beginning
its journey home to Sweden from New York, while the Andrea Doria
was steaming in the opposite direction. The Italian liner had
been in an intermittent fog since midafternoon, but Captain
Piero Calami only slightly reduced his speed, relying on his
ship's radar to get him to his destination safely and on
schedule. The Stockholm, meanwhile, was directed north of its
recommended route by Captain H. Gunnar Nordenson, who risked
encountering westbound vessels in the name of reducing travel
time. The Stockholm also had radar and expected no difficulty in
navigating past approaching vessels. It failed to anticipate,
however, that a ship like the Andrea Doria could be hidden until
the last few minutes by a fogbank.
At 10:45 p.m., the Stockholm showed up on the Doria's radar
screens, at a distance of about 17 nautical miles. Soon after,
the Italian ship showed up on the Stockholm's radar, about 12
miles away. What happened next has been subject to dispute, but
it's likely that the crews of both ships misread their radar
sets. Captain Calami then exacerbated a dangerous situation by
making a turn to port for an unconventional
starboard-to-starboard passing, which he wrongly thought the
other ship was attempting. About two miles away from each other,
the ship's lights came into view of each other. Third Officer
Johan-Ernst Bogislaus Carstens, commanding the bridge of the
Stockholm, then made a conventional turn to starboard.
Less than a mile away, Captain Calami realized he was on a
collision course with the Stockholm and turned hard to the left,
hoping to race past the bow of the Swedish ship. Both ships were
too large and moving too fast to make a quick turn. At 11:10
p.m., the Stockholm's sharply angled bow, reinforced for
breaking ice, smashed 30 feet into the starboard side of the
Andrea Doria. For a moment, the smaller ship was lodged there
like a cork in a bottle, but then the opposite momentum of the
two ships pulled them apart, and the Stockholm's smashed bow
screeched down the side of the Doria, showering sparks into the
air.
Five crewmen of the Stockholm were killed in the collision. On
the Andrea Doria, the carnage was much worse. The bow of the
Swedish ship crashed through passenger cabins, and 46 passengers
and crew were killed. One man watched as his wife was dragged
away forever by the retreating bow of the Stockholm.
Fourteen-year-old Linda Morgan was asleep on the Doria when the
impact somehow catapulted her out of bed and onto the
Stockholm's crushed bow. She was later dubbed "the miracle girl"
by the press.
With seven of its 10 decks open to the Atlantic waters, the
Andrea Doria listed more than 20 degrees to port in minutes, and
its watertight compartments were compromised. A lifeboat
evacuation began on the doomed ship. The evacuation initially
went far from smoothly. The port side could not be used because
the ship was listing too much, which left 1,044 lifeboat seats
for the 1,706 on board. Passengers in the lower cabins fought
their way through darkened hallways filling up with ocean water
and leaking oil. The first lifeboat was not deployed until an
hour after the collision, and it held more crew than
passengers.
Fortunately, the Stockholm, which had suffered a nonfatal blow,
was able to lend its lifeboats to the evacuation effort. Several
ships heard the Doria's mayday and came to assist. At 2:00 a.m.
on July 26, the Ile de France, another great ocean liner,
arrived and took charge of the rescue effort. It was the
greatest civilian maritime rescue in history, and 1,660 lives
were saved. The Stockholm limped back to New York.
At 10:09 a.m. on July 26, the Andrea Doria sank into the
Atlantic. Almost immediately, the wreck, located at a depth of
240 feet of water, became a popular scuba diving destination.
However, because of the extreme depth, the presence of sharks,
and unpredictable currents, the Doria is known as the "Mount
Everest" of diving locations.
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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