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On the night of July 25, 1956, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria was struck by the Swedish ship MS Stockholm in heavy fog off the coast of Nantucket. The collision left the Doria damaged and listing heavily to one side, but thanks to the efforts of rescue ships, 1,660 people were saved before the ship finally capsized and sank the following morning. Fifty-one others lost their lives, igniting a debate over the cause of the disaster that continues to this day.

Though not the largest or fastest ocean liner of its era, the 697-foot Andrea Doria was widely regarded as the most beautiful. Its decks were dotted with three outdoor swimming pools, and it was dubbed a "floating art gallery" for its dazzling array of paintings, tapestries and surrealist murals. There was even a life-sized bronze statue of the ship's namesake, a 16th century Genoese navigator. Equally impressive were the Doria's safety features. It boasted two radar screens-a relatively new technology on ocean liners-and its hull was divided into 11 watertight compartments. Anxious travelers could also take solace in the presence of Captain Piero Calamai, a venerable Italian mariner and veteran of both World Wars.

The Doria safely completed 100 transatlantic crossings between 1953 and 1956, and it initially seemed that its 101st would be no different. After leaving Italy on July 17, 1956, the ship stopped at three ports in the Mediterranean and then steamed into the open ocean on a nine-day voyage to New York City. Along with 572 crewmembers, it held 1,134 passengers ranging from Italian immigrant families to business travelers, vacationers and even a few notables such as Hollywood actress Ruth Roman.

On July 25, the Doria entered the heavily trafficked sea-lanes off the Northeast coast of the United States. That same day, the 524-foot Swedish passenger liner Stockholm departed New York on a voyage to its homeport of Gothenburg. By around 10:30 p.m., the two ships were approaching one another from opposite directions off Nantucket. Neither was following the established "rules of the road" for ocean travel. Despite sailing in heavy fog, Captain Calamai had ordered only a minor reduction in speed to stay on schedule for an early morning arrival in New York. Stockholm, meanwhile, was steaming north of the recommended eastbound route in the hope of shaving time off its journey.

Around 10:45 p.m., Calamai's radar picked up a blip representing Stockholm. The Swedish vessel, under the watch of third officer Johan-Ernst Carstens-Johannsen, spotted the Doria on its own radar a few minutes later. It was a situation both had encountered countless times, yet on this occasion the two ships somehow came to opposite conclusions about one another's locations. Carstens plotted the Doria to his left and prepared to pass port-to-port, while Calamai, fixing Stockholm's location to his right, maneuvered for a more unconventional starboard-to-starboard passage. One of the men-it's still not certain who-had misread his radar and inadvertently steered his ship toward the other.

The officers didn't realize they were on a collision course until shortly before 11:10 p.m., when Calamai finally spotted Stockholm's lights through a thick curtain of fog. "She's coming right at us!" one Doria officer shouted. With just moments to spare, Calamai ordered a hard left turn in an attempt to outrun the other ship. Carstens, having spotted the Doria, tried to reverse his propellers and slow down. It was too late. Stockholm's icebreaker bow crashed into Andrea Doria's starboard side like a battering ram, snapping bulkheads and penetrating some 30 feet into its hull. It remained lodged there for a few seconds, then broke loose, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the Doria.

Onboard Andrea Doria, passengers felt a tremendous jolt accompanied by the sound of clanging metal. Actress Ruth Roman described hearing a "big explosion like a firecracker." In one of the lounges, the ship's orchestra was playing the song "Arrivederci, Roma" when they were abruptly hurled from their stage by the force of the crash.

Those who only ended up with scrapes and bruises could consider themselves fortunate. The collision killed five people on Stockholm and dozens more on the Doria, which had seen a large section of its starboard side turned into twisted metal. Italian immigrant Maria Sergio and her four young children all perished on impact as they slept. In another cabin, Brooklyn resident Walter Carlin discovered that the exterior wall of his room had been completely sheared off. His wife, who had been reading in bed, had simply disappeared. By far the most extraordinary story concerned Linda Morgan, who was sleeping in a starboard side cabin. The crash killed her stepfather and stepsister, but Morgan was somehow lifted from her bed and thrown onto the crumpled bow of Stockholm, where she landed with only a broken arm. "I was on the Andrea Doria," she told the astonished Stockholm sailor who found her. "Where am I now?"

Following the shock of the collision, both crews scrambled to take stock of their vessels. While Stockholm was found to be in no danger of sinking, the Doria had sustained critical damage and was listing over 20 degrees to its starboard side, allowing seawater to spill through its watertight compartments. Calamai resigned himself to abandoning ship, but soon encountered a catastrophic problem: the list was so bad that the Doria's eight portside lifeboats could no longer be launched. The remaining starboard side craft could only carry around 1,000 of the ship's passengers and crew. "Here danger immediate," Andrea Doria radioed. "Need lifeboats-as many as possible-can't use our lifeboats."

Luckily for Calamai, his ship was floating in a heavily traveled strip of the Atlantic. While the mangled Stockholm began rescuing passengers from the Doria, several other vessels answered its distress calls and raced to the scene. The first, a small freighter called the Cape Ann, arrived around 12:30 a.m. Two American Navy ships followed shortly thereafter, but lifeboats remained scarce. Finally, around 2 a.m., a massive French ocean liner called the Ile de France maneuvered alongside the Doria, lit up the darkness with its floodlights and began making rescues with its lifeboats.

Though help had arrived, the situation aboard the Doria remained perilous. Debris from the collision had trapped some of the passengers in their cabins, and many on the lower levels had to brave smoke-filled hallways and knee-deep water on their way to the main deck. Those who gathered by the useless portside lifeboats faced their own set of problems. With the Doria listing to its right, its main deck had turned into a steep, slippery slope. To reach the starboard side lifeboats, many had to lie on their backs and slide down the deck, making sure to stop before they careened off the edge and into the water. All the while, the ship continued to roll, threatening to capsize at any moment.

The rescue-one of the largest in maritime history-lasted several hours, but by 5:30 a.m., nearly all the Doria's survivors had been evacuated. 753 people were placed aboard the Ile de France, with the rest scattered aboard Stockholm and four other vessels. Captain Calamai seemed ready to go down with his ship, but reluctantly boarded the last lifeboat after his crew refused to leave him behind. A few hours later, as the rescue fleet steamed toward New York harbor, Andrea Doria finally capsized and flooded. At 10:09 a.m., it disappeared beneath the Atlantic.

All told, 51 people had died as a result of the collision-five on Stockholm and 46 on the Doria. The ships' owners both blamed the other for the tragedy, but following an out of court settlement, a trial was averted and neither was officially held responsible. In the years since, investigators have used crew depositions and computer simulations to try and recreate the night of the disaster. While there were obvious mistakes from both ships, many researchers now believe that Carstens made the crucial error by misreading his radar and concluding that the Doria was several miles farther away than it actually was. Nevertheless, debate over the cause of the wreck continues even today.

Stockholm was eventually repaired and still sails today under the name Astoria. Andrea Doria, meanwhile, rests in some 240 feet of water in the North Atlantic. It has become a hallowed site among scuba divers, who call it the "Mt. Everest" of diving, but poor visibility and unpredictable currents have ensured that 60-year-old wreck is still claiming lives. Since 1956, at least 16 people have perished while trying to explore its watery grave.

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On the night of July 25, 1956, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria was struck by the Swedish ship MS Stockholm in heavy fog off the coast of Nantucket. The collision left the Doria damaged and listing heavily to one side, but thanks to the efforts of rescue ships, 1,660 people were saved before the ship finally capsized and sank the following morning.

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From an explanation of why the Mary Rose was built, through to the latest theories about why she sank, we've brought together a wealth of resources that tell the story of this wonderful ship. You'll find plenty of fascinating facts and images too.
Meet the Crew

Mary Rose STEM Lab

Dive in

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From an explanation of why the Mary Rose was built, through to the latest theories about why she sank, we've brought together a wealth of resources that tell the story of this wonderful ship. You'll find plenty of fascinating facts and images too.

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Since the Italian cruise ship sank off the coast of Tuscany on Jan. 13, many new facts have come out.

As you may recall from TKN 's article about the disaster, the captain of the 13-deck Costa Concordia cruise ship steered the boat too close to an island. Rocks tore a hole in the hull and the ship sank.

There were more than 4,200 people on board; some said that while they were scrambling to leave the ship, they saw the captain already in a lifeboat.

Since TKN reported on the story on Jan. 15 there have been many accusations against the captain, Francesco Schettino, who is currently under house arrest.*

He is accused of manslaughter (unintentional murder), causing a shipwreck and leaving the ship when there are passengers and crew still on board.

Audio of a conversation between Schettino and the Italian Coast Guard has shocked people; the Coast Guard orders Schettino to get back on the boat and make sure everyone gets off. Schettino says he is already in a lifeboat. The Coast Guard yells at Schettino, telling him to climb the rope ladder and get back on board. Schettino stalls, saying that it is dark and that there are others on board helping with the rescue.

Recently, another audio recording was released by the Italian media in which Schettino appears to be saying that he will stay on the ship until everyone else is off.

Other accusations have come out against the captain. It appears that Schettino was steering the enormous ship close to the island in order to "salute" someone on the island. There are reports that he has done it before.

The captain has complained that the rocks he hit were not on his maps. However, the reef is indicated "on maritime and even tourist maps," according to the Globe and Mail newspaper.

There is also a report that a woman was on the bridge at the time of the accident. One passenger said he saw the captain and the woman dining on prawn cocktail, shrimp pasta and red wine before the crash.

The woman told a reporter she was there to translate instructions because she speaks several languages. The woman says the captain is "a hero," saying he saved thousands of lives.

Fifteen people died in the wreck; as of Jan. 23 at least 17 people were still missing.

However, there may have been stowaways on board the ship, whose names are not on the official list of passengers. That may mean that the number of people who have died or are missing is higher than previously believed.

The ship is in a special area of the Tyrrhenian Sea which contains protected marine animals including the endangered Mediterranean monk seal. An oil spill would be an environmental disaster.

The ship contains 2,400 tonnes of oil and 200 tonnes of diesel fuel. Workers are trying to get the oil off the ship to prevent a spill.
*When a person is "under house arrest" it means that rather than being in jail, they have to stay in their house. Often the police use a special electronic ankle bracelet on the person which they can't remove; that lets police know if the person leaves their house.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
TKN reported that one woman is calling the captain a hero. And yet, so many others are saying his behaviour was disgraceful. How can there be such different opinions? How should a journalist deal with conflicting information?

Reading Prompt: Text Features
Three images are included in today's article. How do the photographs add to your understanding of the article and the collision of the Costa Concordia? If only one image were included, which one would you pick? Why?

Primary & Junior
Identify a variety of text features and explain how they help readers understand texts (OME, Reading: 2.3).

Intermediate
Identify a variety of text features and explain how they help communicate meaning (OME, Reading: 2.3).

Grammar Feature: 1 to one
When writers include numbers in their writing, it's not always clear whether to write the digit (1, 2, 3, etc.) or the word (one, two, three). Here is a rule that helps: For numbers greater than nine, use digits. Spell out numbers nine or smaller.

Underline all of the numbers you can find in today's article and images. Then, add them all up and write the sum in words.

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New Facts Emerging About Italian Cruise Ship Disaster

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Since the Italian cruise ship sank off the coast of Tuscany on Jan. 13, many new facts have come out. As you may recall from TKN 's article about the disaster, the captain of the 13-deck Costa Concordia cruise ship steered the boat too close to an island.

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http://www.timeforkids.com/news/shipwrecked/136711

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SS Gothenburg

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Stories of some of the significant shipwrecks during Australia's history

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Lusitania

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Engraving by Norman Wilkinson/The Illustrated London News/Library of Commons

A century ago, a 30-year-old passenger on the Lusitania named Minnie Campbell was minutes away from going down with the fast-sinking ocean liner, which had just been torpedoed by a German U-boat, when a Cunard Line employee pushed her into one of the last lifeboats launched into the Atlantic.

"You're just a tiny thing," the seaman supposedly told the young Scot as he flung her into the nearly full lifeboat. From that boat Minnie watched the Lusitania slip beneath the frigid water off the coast of Ireland, killing nearly 1,200 people.

Adamina Campbell, my great-grandmother, was tiny, at under 5 feet tall and less than 100 pounds. It's a good thing she was so small, we like to say in my family, because it seems to have helped make her one of the 763 people who survived the infamous sinking.

"Here I am, all alive and kickin! You see I won't drown."

The British passenger ship Lusitania was completing a transatlantic crossing from New York harbor to Liverpool, England, when it was struck on May 7, 1915. The ship sank in just 18 minutes, hitting the ocean floor 8 miles from Ireland. The brazen attack against a civilian ship outraged Great Britain, already in the midst of fighting the Germans, and it shocked the United States, too-128 Americas were among the dead. It's widely believed that the sinking of the Lusitania paved the way for America's participation in the Great War, although that wouldn't come about for another two years.

Courtesy of Emily Walker

"I can scarcely realize yet that I was in the disaster at all," Minnie wrote in a letter to her brother on May 14, one week after she made it off the ship. That letter and another longer one that Minnie wrote days later are prized possessions in my family. The paper on which they are written is brittle and Minnie's cursive handwriting faded, but when I read them, I can picture my great-grandmother boarding the ornate and imposing Lusitania in New York City on May 1, 1915, returning home after visiting her brother David, who had immigrated to the states. It was to be a weeklong sail to Liverpool, and from there she'd make her way back home to Patna, Scotland.

Minnie was an unmarried 30-year-old schoolteacher when she traveled on her own to America to visit her brother David. Always exceptionally close with her brother-one of Minnie's nine siblings-she and David posed for a photo together during her visit, both with mischievous grins that fit the adventuresome spirits I imagine them possessing.

It was adventuresome, or maybe just foolish in retrospect, for Minnie to return to Scotland on the Lusitania while Great Britain was more than nine months into a war with Germany. David, a bricklayer in Ellettsville, Indiana, had just recently received a letter from his Scottish sweetheart, who urged her "dearest Dave" to keep his sister Minnie with him in Indiana for a bit longer, saying it wasn't safe to travel by sea to Europe. "Shipping is really at a standstill just now with so many ... submarines about."

The Germans even warned passengers of the danger of sailing in Great Britain's waters in a notice that, while written more than a week before the Lusitania 's return voyage, didn't appear in newspapers until the day the ship left New York City.

NOTICE!

Travellers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.

IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY
Washington, D.C. 22nd April 1915

But Minnie wasn't worried about German submarines, and if any of the nearly 2,000 people on board the Lusitania were concerned, they didn't show it. Most couldn't fathom that a ship loaded with innocent passengers would be a target, war or no war.

"Everybody most was joking about the submarines and calling them soup tureens," Minnie wrote to her brother in a letter dated 10 days after the sinking. A few passengers tried on their life preservers now and then, but Minnie's was still in its wrapper in her second-class stateroom.

"I had a dandy time on board up until the time of the accident," Minnie wrote to David. During those six days of travel, she'd made friends with the two girls in her cabin-one English, one Irish; the trio stayed up late turkey trotting on the Thursday prior to attack, returning to their room after midnight. None of the portholes were darkened, Minnie wrote. Surely if anyone thought Germans were searching for the ship to attack it, the ship would be sailing in complete darkness at night.

On Friday, May 7, Minnie awoke to the ship moving slowly through fog. It was thought that the Lusitania's greatest defense from a submarine attack was its speed-it was the fastest passenger liner in service at the time-but as part of an effort to save money on fuel during wartime, the Lusitania never sailed at full speed on its final journey.

Courtesy of Emily Walker

Minnie had her trunk all packed and ready to unload in Liverpool, which they were to reach later that day. The Lusitania had just sailed into the "danger zone" where German submarines could be lurking. Captain William Turner ordered the lifeboats to be swung out from their cranes so they'd be ready to go if something were to happen.

After lunch Minnie and her two friends went up one level to write letters. By then the fog had lifted, the day was bright, and the ship's speed was increased slightly for the final push to England.

At 2:15 p.m. a seaman spotted the telltale white fizz of a torpedo streaming through the clear water, heading toward the starboard side of the Lusitania. "We were right there when the awful ramming sound came and the steamer shook from bow to stern," Minnie wrote.

She ran to the top deck of the ship and was on the stairs when a second explosion rocked the ship, causing the glass on the roof of the ship to shatter.

"Everyone went pale to the lips, some women screamed and fainted. But Dave, I seemed to stay cool through it all," Minnie wrote to her brother.

All of the accounts I've read of those 18 minutes between the torpedo striking and the ship's bow hitting the ocean floor describe confusion giving way to rising panic and, then, gruesomeness. In Diana Preston's 2002 book Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy, she tells of babies being thrust into the arms of strangers and lifeboats spilling passengers in the water. One Lusitania employee called the chaos "a horrible and bizarre orchestra of death."

After the torpedo struck, it took Captain Turner 10 minutes to slow the ship down enough to where the lifeboats could be launched into the water. By then the Lusitania listed drastically to the starboard side, causing the lifeboats on the port side to swing inward toward the ship, making them impossible to launch.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress/the New York Herald and the London Sphere

Luckily for Minnie, she was on the starboard side of the ship and happened to be passing one of the six lifeboats that were successfully lowered when the seaman pushed her in.

"Oh it was awful," Minnie wrote to David. "[T]he lifeboats on both sides of us swamped as they were being lowered & we were being drawn further into the Lusitania's side until someone got a knife & cut the rope. It seemed like as if [the ship] would come on top of us every minute. However, we got clear before she made the final plunge."

Minnie's lifeboat was leaking badly and passengers tried to bail it out using a bucket and their hats. The men in the boat rowed, but they were still 8 miles from shore. Finally an Irish fishing trawler towed Minnie's lifeboat to a government ship, which eventually brought them to shore in Ireland.

She eventually reunited with her two roommates, and the survivors were all put up in hotels in Queenstown, Ireland, and bought dry clothes at Cunard's expense. She made it home to Scotland several days later, where she penned a letter to her brother that began with: "Here I am, all alive and kickin! You see I won't drown." Several days later she wrote a longer letter to David detailing the entire ordeal. "My dear boy, I know you felt bad but my time hadn't quite come yet," she wrote.

In 1922, Minnie married my great-grandfather, William Little, a mechanic from Patna who was 8 years her junior. She thus became Minnie Little, declaring in both her first and last names the very quality that may have saved her life when lifeboat space was dear. Their wedding ceremony was performed on board the Caronia, a Cunard Line ship that brought them to America for good.

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Reliving the Sinking of the Lusitania Through the Eyes of a Survivor-My Great-Grandmother

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A century ago, a 30-year-old passenger on the Lusitania named Minnie Campbell was minutes away from going down with the fast-sinking ocean liner, which had just been torpedoed by a German U-boat, when a Cunard Line employee pushed her into one of the last lifeboats launched into the Atlantic.