On 25 July 1956, the Italian luxury liner, Andrea Doria, was traveling to New York City when it encountered thick fog near Nantucket and was struck by Stockholm (a Swedish American passenger ship).
The two ships had been aware of each other's presence via radar, but both captains seemingly misinterpreted their courses, when at the last moments, the Stockholm reversed engines and turned hard to the (starboard) right, while the Andrea Doria sped up and turned to the (port) left, hoping to outrun the impending collision. Instead, at around 11 pm, the Stockholm hit the Andrea Doria at an almost ninety-degree angle, about a third of the way (from the bow) along the Andrea Doria's side, directly under the ship's bridge.
While the Stockholm lost about 30 feet of its bow, it was stable and in no sign of sinking. The Andrea Doria, however, with 1,706 passengers and crew, was taking on water and listing so badly that half its lifeboats were unusable. Within 30 minutes the decision was made to abandon ship.
The rescue efforts were assisted by the Stockholm, as well as nearby ships responding to distress calls - a commercial freighter (with only 2 lifeboats), a US Navy transport (8 lifeboats) and a destroyer escort. The French luxury liner, ÃŽle de France, was about 40 nautical miles away (returning to France from New York), and used its 10 lifeboats to rescue 753 passengers (the Stockholm rescued 545). In all, 1,660 passenger and crew were rescued. There were 51 dead, with 46 from the Andrea Doria and 5 from the Stockholm, all killed from the collision.
Survivors included Philadelphia mayor Richard Dilworth, songwriter Mike Stoller (Elvis Presley would release his version of Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog" in July 1956), actress/writer Betsy Drake (who was married to Cary Grant at the time), and actress Ruth Roman, who had been separated from her 3-year-old son during the shipwreck and her wait for news became a media sensation (Roman had starred in the 1950 film Three Secrets, playing a mother waiting on the news of her son's fate in a plane crash).
Andrea Doria sank 10 hours after the collision and has been a frequent site for divers. Called "the Mount Everest of scuba diving," the site has led to the deaths of more than 20 divers.
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