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Andrea Doria Live: July 27th, 1956, 2:00 PM - Twenty-eight hours after Andrea Doria had come to rest on the bottom of the Atlantic, the liner is visited for the first time in her grave. Divers Peter Gimbel and Joseph Fox had located the site easily, following a long trail of broken debris and oil out to the area above the sunken liner, where they found the yellow drum left by USCGC Evergreen yesterday afternoon surrounded by a frothing sea of escaping bubbles. Nearby, blue sharks circle among scattered pillows and splintered wood, and the occasional breach of a whale is seen as the men suit up and prepare for the 140’ (42.6m) descent to the exposed port side of the hull.
Following a drop along the guide line placed from their boat, the divers crawl along the side of the liner, which has come to rest with her starboard side lying flat on the sandy ocean bottom. Though some blown-out portholes and other damage are visible, the ship appears remarkably intact, gleaming even in the dark gloom near the sea floor. All around her and throughout her interior, the delicate everyday items of life aboard Andrea Doria now drift aimlessly in the current, where “drowned curtains and mattresses and elegant furniture float in strange suspension.” Shoes lie scattered throughout the wreck, while luggage stacked upon the liner’s Promenade Deck on Wednesday afternoon now floats against the ceilings of the enclosed space, some of the suitcases hanging open and spilling their contents into the swift currents. Clothing, blankets, sheets, and still-legible scraps of paper drift through the darkness, creating ghostly shadows in the narrow beams of the divers’ flashlights. As the men search, continuous crashing sounds echo throughout the vessel as yet another china cabinet, piece of furniture, or trapped pocket of air violently gives way somewhere in the darkness beyond the reach of their beams.
Their time on the bottom during this first-ever dive to the wreck site is short. Breathing compressed air, the nitrogen in their air supply can create an intoxicating effect under the immense pressure experienced at such depths, a phenomenon known as nitrogen narcosis - or the “Rapture of the Depths.” Fellow diver Bob Dill, who will make another early descent to the wreck only days later, vividly described the disturbing effects experienced by those exploring Andrea Doria in the confusing darkness of the deep: “You get to thinking about things that could happen. Practical things, such as a door closing or an air hose ripping - or fantastic things, like white hands reaching out through a porthole to grab you.”
Before returning to the surface, Gimbel points his camera at Fox just as he swims alongside the upright Lifeboat No. 2, its home port still clearly designated as “GENOVA” in the dim light. Suspended in this position by its buoyancy tanks, the boat seen here will remain beside the wreck for nearly twenty-five years, until its rotting lashings finally break free and allow it to rise to the surface in early 1981. Later that year, it will be discovered washed ashore on Staten Island.
Photograph by Peter Gimbel/Life Magazine - July 27th, 1956
