The Story Of The Andrea Doria

what's up guys my name is jake when i was a kid i remember having a coffee table book and reading all about classic and iconic shipwrecks it was the 2005 lost ships of robert ballard and it sparked my childhood curiosity on ocean liner disasters a vast collection of some of the most iconic shipwrecks of all time so it's no surprise that what happened on july 25th 1956 piqued my interest as it became one of the most infamous maritime disasters in history one that ultimately brought down the almost brand new icon of italian pride this is the story of the sinking of the ss andrea doria this video was very fittingly sponsored by maritime replicas stay tuned to the end of the video to see how you can get a discount from me on purchasing your very own museum grade model ship it was the late 1940s and italy was just coming off of world war ii which had shattered their economy the country had lost more than half of their merchant vessels during the war so in an attempt to re-establish italy's role in the vital shipping industry the partially state-owned italian line had commissioned two new passenger vessels these ships were promised to be fitted by some of the finest artisans in italy all within a sleek and stylish exterior italian line's newest flagship started construction in 1950 and was to be named the andrea doria her sister ship was also laid down not long after and given the name the christopher columbo almost three years later andrea doria was ready for her maiden voyage setting out of genoa italy on january 14 1953 on route to new york city andrea doria was a symbol of pride for her country a physical and monumental showcase of italy's engineering prowess while she may have not been the largest or the fastest at the time italian line had ensured that andrea doria would be outfitted as one of the most luxurious vessels afloat famous italian architect giulio miroletti was hired to ensure that and once the vessel began service passengers noticed from the cabins to the grand spaces the vessel became known for its ultra-contemporary design with lavish artwork throughout she was also the first vessel to feature three outdoor swimming pools for each class of cabin and also one of the few to have air conditioning throughout overall andrea doria was 29 000 tons 700 feet long with a 90 foot beam she could carry a maximum of 1 241 passengers and 563 crew safety was another large aspect which was given some thought to like most ocean liners of the time italian lions had planned for the vessel to do regular transatlantic crossings from europe to north america so she was fitted with 11 watertight compartments it was believed that if any two of these compartments were breached the vessel could stay afloat and if there was the case of abandoning ship there would also be enough lifeboats for every soul on board made up of eight on each side of the vessel even in technology the bridge was more informed with early radar detection fitted in all in all andrea doria was thought to be one of the most capable luxurious and safest vessels afloat a floating liner embodiments of the opulence and style italy was known for however despite all of the praises and capabilities she was thought to have had this monument of engineering would soon face its ultimate test over the next three years or so the vessel had completed 50 atlanta crossings successfully carrying thousands of passengers to and from the continents the 51st crossing was also going to be rather mundane sailing from genoa italy to new york city in the united states andrea doria set sail on july 17 1956 with around 90 percent occupancy at the helm was captain piero kalem a decorated sailor and well respected among his crew this was to be his last voyage as master of the andrea doria since he was soon to be promoted to her sistership after three european ports of call the luxury ocean liner began her journey across the atlantic with 1706 people on board across the ocean a passenger ship named the ms stockholm began its journey from new york city to gothenburg sweden she was owned by the swedish american line and was actually one of the smallest ocean crossing vessels at the time at just 12 165 tons less than half the size of the doria however while the stockholm's reputation was more on comfort over style the vessel was unique in that it was designed with a reinforced ice-breaking bow for northern passings she was known to be one of the most reliable passenger vessels at sea aboard are over 700 passengers and crew all heading eastbound it's july 25th and the stockholm is sailing out into open waters around 200 nautical miles away is the andrea doria traveling in the opposite direction about to conclude her nine-day atlantic voyage since around 2 40 pm the doria had been encountering heavy fog the captain ordered a reduction of speed and began sounding the fog horn with all of her watertight doors closed which is often standard procedure in this type of weather meanwhile as the sun sets the stockholm was traveling south of the nantucket light ship which at the time was a beacon to worn vessels of the uncharted nantucket shoals however in violation of the north atlantic track agreement the stockholm was traveling around 20 miles north of the recommended eastbound passage she was moving at around 18 knots and this decision to travel further off course was deliberate in order to save time but this also meant that the stockholm was traveling the wrong way in a busy westbound passage the very same one that the andrea doria is currently steaming down while the stockholm hadn't reached the fogbank yet both vessels had known about each other's presence via radar on the bridge of the doria apparently they knew another vessel was traveling in the opposite direction but had believed that it was on a different course neither ship had attempted radio contact at around 11 pm both ships were approaching each other at almost 20 knots each as the radar blips grew closer and the fog thickened even more the andrea doria gradually steered to their left in an effort to try and widen the distance for a starboard to starboard passing by now the officers on the bridge could get a visual of the ship off into the distance with a high rate of speed in an unchanged course the stockholm however still couldn't see the doria and only relied on the radar which appeared to be showing the two ships around 12 miles apart in reality though it's believed that the stockholm's radar was set to a different range scale so in reality they were more like four miles apart with the gap closing the stockholm turned 20 degrees to the right which they believed was going to widen their distance with the massive ships now visible through the dense fog and the reality of where their mistakes had put them the stockholm tried to make a last-minute maneuver hard to starboard with their engines at full reverse the andrea doria kept her 22 knots and turned hard to port however there was no stopping what was about to happen at 11 10 pm the stockholm collided bow first into the andrea doria's starboard side the collision caused catastrophic damage to both ships crushing in the stockholm's entire prowl but even worse tearing a massive hole into the doria's hull almost immediately the andreadoria began listing around 18 degrees the collision had torn open five fuel tanks on the doria's starboard side which quickly filled with water this coupled with the fact that there was no fuel in the port side tanks since she was at the end of her journey meant that the list was even more severe but still only one watertight compartment had been breached and of course she was designed to stay afloat even if two had been compromised however this would only remain true if the vessel listed no more than 15 degrees andrea doria was already at 20 due to the empty fuel tanks which meant over time water would seep over top the water type bulkheads and eventually take the ship down the generator room which could have been vital to using the pumps for stabilization had also been flooded from the crash rendering it not an option ultimately the damage was considered too much and the captain ordered an abandoned ship as radio distress calls were sent out the andrea doria was sinking it's now been just 30 minutes after the collision and immediately passengers were making their way to the lifeboat deck all boats on the starboard side filled with scared passengers had been lowered into the dark seas below however on the other side of the ship there was an issue because the vessel had been listing to such a violent degree launching lifeboats on the port side became impossible which now meant there were hundreds of passengers still on board with no place to go however luckily that wasn't the case as the stockholm was close by their crew assessed the damage and deemed the vessel was in no immediate danger of sinking so the stockholm began taking on survivors and used their own lifeboats to ferry passengers from the doria back to their ship meanwhile distress calls had gotten the attention of a cargo ship the united states navy and a large passenger vessel called the ill de france all of which were making their way to the sites as quickly as they could over the course of the next few hours the stockholm as well as other nearby freighters continued to assist with the rescue it wasn't until the ill de france came into range however that hope was restored thanks to the massive size of the france their efforts using the lifeboats to rescue the passengers off the sinking andrea doria sped up the process through the night various ships of all different classes helped transfer survivors off the sinking liner a remarkable effort which proved successful as 1633 people had been evacuated finally with the captain and his senior officers on the last boat from the doria daybreak revealed how catastrophic the situation had become with seemingly everyone off the ship the andrea doria continued to list further and further to starboard as she did more and more seawater found its way over the watertight bulkheads through windows down hallways and staircases as other compartments filled with water in turn that only made the list worse that cycle continued as the weight of the flooding pulled her further and further down suddenly the ship became swallowed by the ocean slowly capsizing as water rushed over the bow this caused the ship to roll completely on our starboard side as the sinking accelerated incredibly especially for the time this was all captured on camera just as the ship started to go down finally at 10 09 am on july 26 1956 the andrea doria had slipped beneath the surface right in front of the passengers who had just gotten offer it had been 11 hours since the collision and the andrea doria was now gone 51 people in total had lost their lives 46 aboard the doria and five from the stockholm the disaster made headlines all over the world the pride and flagship of the italian fleets perishing in the first major peacetime accident since the titanic all happening on the eastern american coast almost immediately the two shipping lines began fighting in court over who was to blame after several months of hearings and lawsuits from the victims families a joint out-of-court settlement was established from both corporations contributing with payments to those affected while no official conclusion was ever published the andrea doria as well as her crew was actually the ones put mostly to blame pivotal decisions like not following proper radar procedures and failing to adhere to the long standard rule which states that when a vessel is approaching head-on you are to turn right to allow passing the doria had turned to port as the stockholm correctly turned to starboard the crew was also not following company protocol with filling the empty fuel tanks with seawater as ballas which ultimately led to the severe list but that leads to one of the most prominent factors of the disaster being andrea doria's actual design ever since her maiden voyage the vessel was known to be quite unstable notably encountering a storm on that maiden voyage and listing all the way to around 28 degrees that's with a design that would only allow lifeboats to be lowered no greater than 15 degrees so that beautiful styling came with some serious concerns but speaking of that design what happened to her sister ship well that vessel carried on atlantic service until around 1973 afterwards she was sold for various other tasks while being unmaintained the ship was eventually sold in 1982 for scrap metal however that wasn't the only sister the doria had as it turns out after the 1956 disaster italian lions had commissioned a replacement vessel for their fleet so they used the same design ever so slightly scaled it up and launched it in 1960 called the ss leonardo da vinci that vessel was actually 4 000 tons larger than the andrea doria and displayed even more how poorly designed it was the da vinci was also very prone to rolling in bad weather so as a result the company fitted 3 000 metric tons of iron to the hull in an effort to help stabilize the ship this was obviously a desperate attempt to help fix the broken design and this added weight only made the ship even more fuel hungry after just five years the vessel was changed to offer pleasure cruises around warmer climates however by 1976 the ship was passed to a subsidiary of italian lines in 1978 she was removed from service and laid up until a four-day long fire broke out aboard the abandoned ocean liner she eventually capsized in the harbor and was later re-floated then broken up for scrap metal ending the doria class of ships but what about the vessel that ultimately sunk the doria the swedish flag to stockholm well you are not going to believe this but the stockholm an ocean liner built in 1948 has been operating up until 2020 that is an insanely long service for a ship especially one from this era it being one of the only still in service ocean liners to this day of course over a 72 year long period some changes have been made and new owners have come through around 11 in fact with 10 different name changes in 1993 she was completely refitted to become a full-time cruise ship with a massive gutting and new additions to the superstructure today she's called the astoria and looking at the ship now it is pretty hard to tell that it ever once looked like this however it is insanely cool that you can take a cruise aboard the ship that sunk the andrea doria but now the only place to see the iconic sunken ocean liner is 250 feet under the ocean 52 miles off the coast of nantucket island and 230 miles from its intended destination of new york city the wreck site however has been quite dangerous for divers looking to explore taking the lives of at least 13 since 1998 due to the strong currents and the aluminum makeup of the vessel superstructure massive parts of the andreadoria have fallen off the wreck has been deteriorating rather quickly and at this point it's almost unrecognizable as to the luxury liner it once was andrea doria was only three years old when she sank a tragic loss for the struggling country she was the pride of a beautiful and luxurious italian ocean liner iconic for the era of class and elegance however due to fatal flaws she was designed with and human error from both ships the doria met a quick and famous end while the scale and prominence of the vessel can be compared to other major maritime disasters like the titanic i think the andreadoria will always go down in history as a luxury ocean liner met with unfortunate circumstances yet thanks to the calm and professional crew helped save almost everyone on board it was a showcase on proving no matter how much technology advances and how safe designers think they have made something accidents always happen and when it comes down to it the survival of those on board give thanks to the heroic men and women who stood up to the challenge and saved lives i think the early morning of july 26 1956 proved that and made the andrea dorian known as one of the most successful and elaborate maritime rescues in history i remember a few years ago i visited the old premier cruise lines headquarters in port canaveral in there was a massive model of the oceanic after seeing the plaque reading maritime replicas i immediately did some searching until just a few months ago when i decided to take the dive and buy my very own model ship custom made from maritime replicas i spoke with warren samet who's owned the company for the past 33 years and has been curating a portfolio of superb quality and excellent work he's worked with almost every major cruise line and is trusted by massive companies globally he was incredibly kind to me and it got me thinking that his company would be a great sponsor for this video since they have several models in overstock finished and ready to be sent to a new home they have an assortment of cruise ships and ocean liners but perhaps most notably out of them is the andreadoria which is highly detailed and proportionate to the actual real vessel which if you do some research on ship models is not often the case now obviously these types of collectibles are not for everyone but if you email maritime replicas today and mention brights and films brought you there then you can get five percent off your purchase which i believe is a pretty great deal so if you're like me and have a special appreciation for this type of detailed artwork and craftsmanship then i truly couldn't implore you more to reach out yourself and inquire about getting your own model today email them through replicas aol.com and make sure that you say you came from brightson films to get five percent off thanks to maritime replicas for sponsoring this video and if you're one of the lucky people who snatched up one of their overstock models shoot me a picture of it on twitter as i'd love to see where you display it i don't know if you could tell but i'm a pretty big fan of models thanks for watching everyone so you

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 1,077,998

Rating: 4.9547963 out of 5

Keywords: STORY OF THE ANDREA DORIA

Id: 3D7WK-kcGas

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/European_Red_Fox]

The channel generally doe a a bit of everything, but they do have a few more shipwreck videos. Also some about cruise companies that went bust and more if you want to check out their stuff. I’ve been subscribed for a while and usually they always have a neat video.

[u/TheGovernor94]

His mini documentaries are fantastic. Severely underrated channel IMO

[u/SpaceAcee]

Brilliant channel. I’d highly recommend literally all of his other stuff, without sounding to general.

[u/Pray44Mojo]

Is that the Queen Elizabeth visible in some of the shots of the listing Andrea Doria?