A look at some of the famous liner disasters of recent times, including the Andrea Doria.

In the tradition of Erik Larson's Dead Wake comes The Last Voyage of the Andrea Doria, about the sinking of the glamorous Italian ocean liner, including never-before-seen photos of the wreck today. In 1956, a stunned world watched as the famous Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria sank after being struck by a Swedish vessel off the coast of Nantucket. Unlike the tragedy of the Titanic, this sinking played out in real time across radios and televisions, the first disaster of the modern age. Audiences witnessed everything that ensued after the unthinkable collision of two modern vessels equipped with radar: perilous hours of uncertainty; the heroic rescue of passengers; and the final gasp as the pride of the Italian fleet slipped beneath the Atlantic, taking some fifty lives with her. Her loss signaled the end of the golden age of ocean liner travel. Now, Greg King and Penny Wilson offer a fresh look at this legendary liner and her tragic fate. Andrea Doria represented the romance of travel, the possibility of new lives in the new world, and the glamour of 1950s art, culture, and life. Set against a glorious backdrop of celebrity and La Dolce Vita, Andrea Doria's last voyage comes vividly to life in a narrative tightly focused on her passengers – Cary Grant's wife; Philadelphia's flamboyant mayor; the heiress to the Marshall Field fortune; and many brave Italian emigrants – who found themselves plunged into a desperate struggle to survive. The Last Voyage of the Andrea Doria follows the effect this trauma had on their lives, and brings the story up-to-date with the latest expeditions to the wreck. Drawing on in-depth research, interviews with survivors, and never-before-seen photos of the wreck as it is today, The Last Voyage of the Andrea Doria is a vibrant story of fatal errors, shattered lives, and the triumph of the human spirit.

A breathtaking minute-by-minute account of the most catastrophic tragedy-at-sea since the sinking of the Titanic—told by a survivor. More than one half-century later, the catastrophic ramming of the MS Stockholm into the Italian luxury liner, the SS Andrea Doria in 1956, is relived in this candid, heartrending account. Author Pierette Domenica Simpson, who, with her grandparents, survived the tragedy off the shoals of Nantucket, shares the human and technical aspects of what has become known as the greatest sea rescue in history. As only an eyewitness can do, Simpson shares the survivors’ harrowing recollections that meticulously recreate the terrifying and heart-wrenching tragedy that united poor immigrants and wealthy travelers alike. They give their accounts of ultimate despair and infinite elation after staring at their own reflections in the black ocean that night and seeing death stare back. Equally dramatic are the revelations of new facts exposed by nautical experts from two continents that finally solve the mystery of who was to blame for this most improbable collision between two random ships on the open Atlantic.

In 1956, two luxury liners—the MS Stockholm and the SS Andrea Doria—equipped with every known safety device, collided off Long Island. The Stockholm was able to limp back to New York City, but the beautiful Andrea Doria, pride of the Italian Line, slipped slowly into the depths of the North Atlantic shortly after. Half a century later, the mystery of their convergence continues to fascinate readers and experts alike, right down to the stories of hidden treasures worth millions awaiting discovery deep in the Doria’s decaying hull. In Collision Course, author Alvin Moscow vividly re-creates the horror and magnitude of the catastrophe that struck the passengers and crews of both ships with such compelling realism that the reader relives the terror and confusion. The collision itself still baffles maritime experts and laymen alike by its enormity and utter improbability: that the two enormous ships, sailing in opposite directions on a calm sea, could converge at the same time and the same place. Moscow attended the four-month court hearings that sought to find the causes of the disaster, and reviewed six thousand pages of testimony and exhibits, interviewing all the principals to discover what actually happened that fateful night. Collision Course is an engrossing tale of human fallibility, and a must-read for any maritime history buff.

Book Description Who will survive the most catastrophic collision ever between two ocean liners? On July 25, 1956, after nine days of blissful travel, passengers on the Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria are hurled into a struggle for survival. As the murky fog lifts on the black Atlantic, the sea becomes a mirror in which passengers stare at death in the face. Their destinies are literally suspended on a rope and in the hands of their fellow passengers and crew. Don t jump! we heard the crewman beg from above. Wait your turn for the rope! Everybody, wait your turn! Written by a survivor of the catastrophic Andrea Doria-Stockholm collision, the novel is an up close and personal anatomy of a shipwreck on the Atlantic Ocean on July 25, 1956. Life on board the safest and most beautiful passenger liner after World War II opens new portholes to the world for passengers of every age and background. We meet nine-year-old Piera (the author), shy and overly protected, immigrating to the New World with her grandparents where she will finally meet her mother. The reader then travels First Class, where Daniel, a sixteen-year-old would-be naval architect is doing an internship with the help of his father. There is also a mysterious and fearful elderly passenger on board. Through him, all the characters intersect at the finale, in a most miraculous way. The voyage itself sets the foundation for surviving insurmountable odds during the collision and rescue operations. Premonitions, excerpts from Moby Dick, discussions on the Titanic, and a terrible sea storm, prepare the reader for the inevitable. Ultimately, the story is that of the greatest sea rescue in history . This story could only be told through the sensibilities of a survivor. It s so compelling that it could be made into a movie. Yet, Ms. Simpson took measures to preserve scientific, engineering, and historical accuracy. William H. Garzke, Jr. Chairman of the Marine Forensics Committee, The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. Simpson s telling is a well-paced account of the ship s decline and the families the catastrophe affected. Her female perspective helps mold a heartily compelling tale...A pleasant voyage for anyone seeking a personal history of the ocean liner. Kirkus Reviews Ms. Simpson became the first shipwreck survivor to give a complete human and scientific account of her own shipwreck with her book, Alive the Andrea Doria! The Greatest Sea Rescued in History. The author is a member of the national marine forensics committee of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. The chairman of marine forensics endorsed her first publication for shipwreck research. Ms. Simpson frequently speaks about shipwreck survival to local and international groups and the media. For more information on Pierette Simpson and Alive on the Andrea Doria! The Greatest Sea Rescue in History: www.pierettesimpson.com. For watching and reading the author s media interviews: http: //www.pierettesimpson.com/press/ and http: //www.pierettesimpson.com/press/costa-concordia/

Depicts five famous ships that have been lost at sea in modern times, the Empress of Ireland, the Lusitania, the Andrea Doria, the Brittanic, and the Titanic.

The New York Times–bestselling author of Unsinkable “recounts the disaster from the vantage point of nearby vessels” (Publishers Weekly). A few minutes before midnight on April 14, 1912, the “unsinkable” RMS Titanic, on her maiden voyage to New York, struck an iceberg. Less than three hours later, she lay at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. While the world has remained fascinated by the tragedy, the drama of those fateful hours was not only played out aboard the doomed liner. It also took place on the decks of two other ships, one fifty-eight miles distant from the sinking Titanic, the other barely ten miles away. The masters of the steamships Carpathia and Californian, Capt. Arthur Rostron and Capt. Stanley Lord, were informed within minutes of each other that their vessels had picked up the distress signals of a sinking ship. Their actions in the hours and days that followed would become the stuff of legend, as one would choose to take his ship into dangerous waters to answer the call for help, while the other would decide that the hazard to himself and his command was too great to risk responding. After years of research, Daniel Allen Butler now tells this incredible story, moving from ship to ship on the icy waters of the North Atlantic—in real time—to recount how hundreds of people could have been rescued, but in the end, only a few outside of the meager lifeboats were saved. He then looks at the US Senate investigation in Washington, and ultimately, the British Board of Trade inquiry in London, where the actions of each captain are probed, questioned, and judged, until the truth of what actually happened aboard the Titanic, the Carpathia, and the Californian is revealed. “Powerful . . . very, very well-done.” —New York Times–bestselling author Clive Cussler

Capt. Dudley J. Paquette was on the lake that night. he knows why the Edmund Fitzgerald couldn't survive the harrowing storm.