By Michelle Dumas
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
SS Andrea Doria (pronounced [anˈdrɛːa ˈdɔːrja]) was a luxury transatlantic ocean liner of the Italian Line (Società di navigazione Italia), put into service in 1953. She is widely known from the extensive media coverage of her sinking in 1956, which included the remarkably successful rescue of 1,660 of her 1,706 passengers and crew.
Named after the 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the ship had a gross register tonnage of 29,100 and a capacity of about 1200 passengers and 500 crew. Of all Italy’s ships at the time, Andrea Doria was the largest, fastest and supposedly safest. Launched on 16 June 1951, she was home-ported in Genoa, and began her maiden voyage on 14 January 1953.
On 25 July 1956, the New York City–bound vessel was approaching the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States, when the eastbound passenger liner Stockholm of the Swedish American Line collided with her. Struck in her starboard side, the top-heavy Andrea Doria immediately started to list severely that way as she took on water, which left half of her lifeboats unusable. The consequent shortage of lifeboats could have resulted in significant loss of life, but the ship stayed afloat for over 11 hours after the collision. The calm, appropriate behavior of the crew, together with improvements in communications, and the rapid response of other ships, averted a disaster similar in scale to that of Titanic in 1912. While 1,660 passengers and crew were rescued and survived, 46 people on the ship died as a direct consequence of the collision. The evacuated luxury liner capsized and sank the following morning. This accident remains the worst maritime disaster to occur in United States waters since the capsizing of the Eastland in Chicago in 1915.
While the rescue efforts for both ships were successful, the cause of the collision, culpability, and the loss of Andrea Doria generated much continued interest in the media and many lawsuits. Largely because of an out-of-court settlement agreement between the two shipping companies during hearings immediately after the disaster, no determination of cause was ever formally published.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison (U.S. First Lady) –
- Thomas Eakins (artist) –
- Walter Brennan (actor) –
- Eric Hoffer (philosopher) –
- Estelle Getty (American actress ) –
- Emitt Till –
- Matt LeBlanc (actor) –
- Gerard Warren (football player) –
Died
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet) –
- Harry Warner (one of the founders of Warner Bros.) –
- Louis Stephen Saint Laurent (12th Prime Minister of Canada) –
- Thomas Savage (novelist) –
- Jake (dog that searched for September 11th and Hurricane Katrina victims) –
Events
- Walter Hunt was granted a patent for a paper shirt collar–
- Ulysses S. Grant received the rank of General of the Army, the first American officer to be so designated–
- Seth Wheeler’s Improvement in Wrapping Papers was patented on this day, which led to perforated toilet paper.–
- Canadian income tax introduced–
- The Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collided with the SS Stockholm in heavy fog–
- The first documented test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in England–
- Soviet cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, became the first woman to walk in space–
- Germany’s Kuno the Killer catfish’s carcass washed up on shore. The 5-foot-long, 77 pound catfish sprang from the waters of Volksgarden Park Lake in 2001 to swallow a dachshund puppy whole–
- A magnitude-5.6 earthquake struck southwestern Montana–
Weather
- 24-hour (July 24 to 25), 43-inch rainfall, Alvin, Texas–
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