Collision Course: The Classic Story of the Collision of the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm

I was 10 when this tragedy happened, so of course I don't remember it. But the name has been floating around for years in my mind and I knew it was some kind of sinking. It is a well-written account of the events before, during and after the sinking and was so interesting I had to force myself to quit reading and go to bed at 2-3 am several nights.It's such a sad story on so many levels, ending lives, careers, and the death of a beautiful ship from a bygone era. I don't understand why the Italian captain turned the ship left instead of right according to the rules of the sea. Plus the fact the men on duty in the Andrea Doria bridge didn't plot the position/distance of the approaching Stockholm from their radar..The trial was abruptly called off after the shipbuilding company supplied evidence that the Andrea Doria was designed barely within the legal limits for stability. When the ship listed after the collision, they were unable to flood the left tanks because the input valve was above the waterline. Otherwise, its likely she could have been saved.The last chapters that tell of various dives on the wreck were also fascinating. Imagine having a piece of history from the Andrea Doria! Overall a wonderful book and well worth the read!

I am an AvGeek (airplane lover) and do have quite an interest in ships. I always thought that the Andria Doria was a beautiful ship and I knew that she collided with the Stockholm in fog and that was about the extent of my knowledge. Until I read this very detailed and interesting book. Mr. Moscow goes into fascinating detail on both ships technical side as well as the crew and passengers and their personalities and quirks. I had no idea that this would become such as engrossing story. Regardless of your "level" of ship interest, I think anyone from the casual "likes a good true story " to in-depth ocean going expert would enjoy this. I very good pace and Mr. Moscow is able to describe scenes so well that I didnt have any trouble envisioning what he was writing about.

One finishes this detailed yet interesting account of the 1956 collision of the Italian luxury liner, the Andrea Doria, with the sizeable Swedish liner, the Stockholm, in awe of the writer's indepth research and his ability (in most cases) to produce an intelligible, interesting account of a complex, far reaching historical incident.Before the collision off the coast of Nantucket on a foffy July night, the author paints detailed pictures of the lives of the experienced captains of each ship with similar attention to the key members of their crews. He describes their actions and perceptions before, during and after the collision in a non-judgmental manner. The ships' passengers come to life in their various behaviors during and after the collisions. Numerous boats rush to rescue them, adding another level of human activity. It is noteworthy that of the 51 passanger deaths and 5 Stockholm crewmember deaths, most occurred at impact or shortly following, a testimony to the rescuers.Afterthe slow, dramatic next-day sinking of the Italian luxury ship , captured in prize- winning photos displayed at book's end, the narrative turns to the trial to determine which ship was at fault (never resolved in part due to the sinking of the Doria 's trip records and the determination that lack of proper ballast doomed the post-collision descent of the Doria to a watery grave.) The case was then settled out of court and both shipping companiex paid a host of insurance claims.The book concludes with a lengthy, interesting account of failed attempts to raise the huge ship and more successful scuba diving explorations of the Doria and the retrieval of her treasure. For years it was considered the Mt. Everest of scuba diving and, like the mountain, claimed many victims.Aside from some lengthy sections on radar, especially during the post-collision hearing, the book created an indelible picture of human error and heroism on the high seas. Additionally, it provides a glimpse into the delights of ocean liner travel, an era now gone, thus enhancing its fascination.

A detailed account of what happened and why. And the follow up information was interesting also. Including more recent updates.

Very insightful. Getting both sides of the story is quite important in such circumstances. Truly enjoyed this book. I recommend it.

Packendes Thema, akribisch recherchiert. Aber leider über weite Passagen redundant, schlecht geschrieben, unterm Strich enttäuschend langweilig.

I was 10 years old when I read the morning paper and learned of this collision and the loss of Andrea Doria. My father who was a former Marine Engineer, and was now a Superintendent Marine Engineer in 1956 saw my interest in this accident. Though a youngster, I followed the subsequent enquiry into the collision with a passion; after all; my grandma who was only 6 years old when Titanic sank, got me interested in that ship as well from a very young age. Dad gave me a birthday present of Alvin Moscow's book COLLISION COURSE for my 13th Birthday, and I found it impossible to put the book down. I was enraptured by the saga, and read that book numerous times. In 1964, I loaned the book to a very dear family friend who never returned it. By this time, my dad gave me a present of a book Titled: THE TRIPLE SCREW WHITE STAR LINERS OLYMPIC, TITANIC AND BRITANNIC which kept me busy, and by that time; my old friend had passed away, and I never thought I would recover my book on the Andrea Doria. Fast forward to 2015; I did a heap of research on Andrea Doria and the Stockholm, and wondered whatever became of Stockholm.My research showed that Stockholm was still "ALIVE" and sailing under various names.Between 1960 and 1985, Stockholm served as a cruise ship for the German Communist party under the name Volkerfreundschaft.In 1970, the ship made the headlines again when a machinist jumped overboard to defect, followed by three medical researchers who wanted to escape Communism. Astoria had been sailing past Key West on the way to Cuba. All four were picked up by a small boat, which had come out in rough seas to the Communist ship to meet the machinist.After a change in ownership, the ship was renamed Fridtjof Nansen and was chartered by the Norwegian government as a shelter for asylum seekers in Oslo.The End of the Line for the AstoriaIn 1989, Italy’s Starlauro took ownership to convert it into the cruise ship Sorrento. However, before renovations, the company Nina di Navigazione acquired the liner and transported it to a shipyard for a complete overhaul. The result was the Italia Prima, which could accommodate up to 580 passengers.Over the next few years, the Italia Prima changed hands and names several times, becoming the Athena, the Azores, and finally the Astoria when it joined the Cruise and Maritime Voyages fleet in 2015.Astoria’s journey ended when Cruise & Maritime Voyages went bankrupt in 2020 due to the global pause in operations. While there was some hope that a cryptocurrency billionaire would restore Astoria in mid-2021 with the intention of using it as a cruise ship, these plans have since been put on hold.When I found her listed, she was named the Athena and inter alia, she was also sailing on cruises out of Australian Ports. I begged my wife to join me on a cruise on her as this was a ship that held my interest since I was a boy. initially, my wife was extremely reluctant and wanted to know why I wanted to cruise on a death ship. After convincing her we should travel on what I considered to be a historical vessel, I eventually convinced her however; fate was cruel. the ship's name was now changed to the "ASTORIA", and the Chinese virus hit Australia with a vengeance, and we were locked down until July 2022. Looks like the poor Old Stockholm has reached her final end. Now I have no way to fulfill my dream and no book to read. Along came Amazon and advertised a copy of COLLISION COURSE. I made the purchase and it was delivered with lightning speed. Bravo Amazon! As of today which is some three days since I received the new copy of my book, I have read 176 pages. I highly recommend this book.

All through the buildup to the collision, told in a way that draws you in and slowly ratchets up the tension, you are almost shouting at the protagonists to make the minor changes that you know will avert disaster. To no avail of course, they can't hear you and the events so far removed are set in stone. But the great work that Alvin Moscow does to put you on the bridges of the participants almost convinces you that things can change and tragedy can be averted. This is the first half of the book.The second half, in equally evocative prose, details what happened after the collision when one of the ships, mortally hurt, drifts away from the other. It discusses how a minor and almost unnoticeable architectural design fault, the lack of a door, basically doomed the Andrea Dorea. That with the seeming inevitability always experienced when, especially, a ship goes down with loss of life, this weakness was ruthlessly exposed by the sea. You have heroism, even when that heroism and the sacrifices that it demanded were cruelly capped not with success but with failure. You have, if not cowardice, then a focus more on the saving of the self than the saving of others. An exposition of society as a whole no doubt.

Despite a couple of recent additions to the book - e.g. a lengthy final chapter detailing the current state of the wreck and who’s visited it (yawn) - I was incredulous that nowhere in this very long, tediously detailed, rambling book does the author (a journalist, who researched it with complete adherence to fact rather than conjecture) make any attempt to explain why the ships crashed.I read it all the very long way through from intro to appendices, waiting patiently for the explanation, but there was simply a vague hint towards dodgy radar and the author then asserted that the boats’ insurers agreed to keep it quiet, and left it there. As such, I had to find the answers in a lengthy report available on Google. All the information as to why the ships crashed is in the public domain, but the author didn’t think to include any of it - or even to speculate on what caused the crash. Why are people still reading this book sixty years later when it doesn’t tell us anything? It’s crazy. The book only tells half the story about the collision. Also, the language is really dated - English has changed a lot since the fifties and it’s quite a laborious writing style to read, and it’s sometimes unclear what meaning is intended.What happened to the two ships is a really interesting story, but only half of that story is told in this book. It’s frustrating and I expected more.