Kathy Kerbow had just got up to dance whenshe heard a deafening crash.
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| The Andrea Doria lists heavily. |
The ship shuddered violently and then beganto list.
It was clear that there had been acatastrophic collision. Yet neither Kathy, nor anyone else on board the SSAndrea Doria, realised that the stricken linerwould soon sink to the bottom of the sea.
The Andrea Doria was the epitome of luxury. Launched in 1951, this glittering linerwas making a routine of the Atlantic with some 1,700 passengers and crew onboard.
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| The epitome of luxury |
On 25 July, 1956, she was nearing the endof her voyage and due to arrive in New York on the following morning.
For many hours she had been sailing throughdense fog. The captain had reduced speed - a customary procedure in suchconditions - and closed the ship’s watertight doors.
With visibility reduced toa few feet, he was reliant on the vessel’s radar.
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| Stockholm: still afloat. Just. |
Outside the fog bank, but travellingtowards it at high speed, was the MS Stockholm,another passenger liner. The two vessels had reached a combined speed of 40knots.
Each captain was aware of the other vessel:the Andrea Doria was steering hard to port, forCaptain Calamai was intending to pass the Stockholm starboard to starboard.
The Stockholm was meanwhile steering hard to starboard, intending to pass the AndreaDoria port to port. This meant that the two vesselswere actually heading directly towards each other.
At 11.10pm, the Stockholm slammed into the side of the Andrea Doria, her ice-breaking prow ripping through the metal and penetratingdeep into the cabins.
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| Doomed: nothing could save her. |
‘Pandemonium broke out,’ recalled KathyKerkow, ‘chairs fell over and glasses broke. Many people were pushing passedme, running to the other side of the room.’
Kathy attempted to return to her cabin toget her life jacket, aware that the ship was in danger. The corridors andstairs were choked with people trying to get out on deck.
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| The end... |
Passenger David Hollyer was in his cabinwhen the collision occurred. ‘We were rocked by a violent lurch accompanied by ahorrendous scraping noise. The lights blinked briefly. Within seconds our cabinhad tipped steeply.’
He leaped out of bed; he and his wife thenjoined the throng of passengers trying to get on deck.
No one yet realised that the collision hadbeen catastrophic. Five empty fuel tanks had been ripped open: these instantlyfilled with 500 tons of seawater. The ship began to list sharply. The engineersattempted to pump out the water but it failed to right the ship.
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| ... is nigh. |
The Stockholm was also badly damaged; the entire bow had been crushed andmangled. Yet a hasty check correctly concluded that she would not sink.
On the Andrea Doria, the captain took the reluctant decision to abandon ship. Therewere enough lifeboats for everyone, but such was the list of the vessel thatthose on the port side could not be lowered.
There was no question of women and childrenfirst. The first three boats to reach the Stockholm contained Italian crew members.
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| On the bottom: artist's impression |
For many on board, it was a struggle to getout on deck. ‘We crawled on our hands and knees up the steeply slantinghighly-polished ballroom floor across broken glass [and] debris from the bar…’recalled Daniel Hollyer. ‘We finally reached the high port side of thepromenade deck.’
He and his wife eventually slipped into thewater and swam to one of the lifeboats sent from the Stockholm.
There were now other ships on the scene,including the SS Ile de France which had pickedup the SOS distress signal.
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| There are prizes for those who dare |
By daybreak, all those not killed in theinitial collision had been rescued, leaving 46 dead on board.
Captain Calamai still hoped to save hisstricken liner, but by 9am even he gave up hope. The ship began to sink at9.45am.
‘Shortly after 10 o’clock, she gave up thestruggle, recalled Hollyer, ‘turning over and sliding prow first into herwatery grave in a froth of foam and bubbles.’
The 46 people who died in the collisionwere not the only fatalities. In the last 30 years, ten divers have died whileexploring the wreck.
With shredded nets trailed over the vessel,a disintegrating hull and treacherous currents, the Andrea Doria remains a death trap for those daring enough to dive to this mosttantalising of luxury graveyards.
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| UK paperback |
NOW PUBLISHED IN PAPERBACK
And for my American readers, it is now published under the title: The Boy Who Went to War: The Story of a Reluctant German Soldier in WWII available here
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Newly published US edition |
'Idiosyncratic and utterly fascinating... an extraordinary tale of hardship, horror and amazing good fortune' James Delingpole, The Daily Mail
