Andrea Doria Reborn
One of the most widely known shipwrecks off the American eastern seaboard is the Andrea Doria. I write “most widely known” because the wreck is not known only to divers, but to many non-divers as well. The sinking of the vessel was broadcast on television when she sank, in 1956. Later, Peter Gimbel kept the wreck in the public eye with broadcasts of his salvage exploits. A number of books have been published about the collision that resulted in the vessel’s demise. And I have written two books about diving on the wreck.
Despite this past prominence, the Doria has managed to lie fallow in recent years. In some ways, this has been a good thing. Newspapers were notorious for publishing reports of the wreck whenever a diver fatality occurred: a misplaced notoriety that the wreck-diving world can do without, especially as those reports often exaggerated the dangers of diving.
The lack of recent news has less to do with death than with the downturn of dive trips to the site. Within the wreck-diving community, word has spread about how much the Doria has collapsed in recent years. This has led many divers to assume that collapse equals fewer opportunities to rescue souvenirs from destruction. This assumption is wrong.
It is more correct to state that “collapse” has allowed divers to reach interior parts of the wreck that were not reachable before; or perhaps I should state “that were not safe to reach before.” Now a whole new world of the Doria’s interior has become more accessible than it ever was before, without having to penetrate as far into the wreck as was required a couple of decades ago.
Much of yesteryear’s interior is now visible from outside. This is especially true of the debris field.
Here are three items that I rescued on my last Doria dive: two bottles from the wine cellar (one still corked with the wine inside), and a spoon with the Italia name and logo.
Interested in buying a copy of this book or related books?
The collision between the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm has been the subject of unending debate ever since that fateful night of July 25, 1956, when the two liners met so irrevocably. Fifty-two people lost their lives, the Italian Line lost its finest ship, and one of the greatest sea rescues in history made banner headlines that turned the name Andrea Doria into a household word.
hardcover with color dust jacket, 6 x 9 vertical, 160 pages, 162 color photos, 23 black & white photos
ISBN 0-9621453-0-0
Adventures and Reflections on the Andrea Doria
In 1989, Gary Gentile published the classic book on the Grand Dame of the Sea. Andrea Doria: Dive to an Era has been in print continuously ever since, and has sold thousands of copies worldwide to wreck-divers, armchair explorers, ocean liner memorabilia buffs, and the public at large. The book continues to be one of his best-selling titles.
hardcover with color dust jacket 216 pages, 69 color photos, 6 black & white photos, 4 deck plans
ISBN 1-883056-16-0
This book is more than a collection of tales depicting the exploration of unknown or little known shipwrecks, of colorful images of breathtaking underwater vistas, of vignettes of man’s historic past or nature’s magnificent wonders, of incredible sagas dealing with thorny legal issues and bureaucratic legerdemain.
Softcover with color photo covers, 6 x 9 vertical
144 pages, 166 color photos, 25 black & white photos
ISBN: 1-883056-00-4