. BOOK REVIEW: Pauline Druschel, Librarian, Novi Public Library, Novi, Michigan
                              May 12, 2008

     Alive on the Andrea Doria by Pierette Domencia Simpson tells of the ramming
     of the luxury liner SS Andrea Doria by the MS Stockholm on July 25, 1956 in a      gripping and highly readable account. 

     With Captain Piero Calamai at the helm, the Andrea Doria was traveling
     westbound in an area of blinding fog, only one day from New York City.
     Leaving from New York City the MS Stockholm, in inexperienced hands,
     was traveling eastbound in the same fog when it rammed the Doria.
     Though the Stockholm was traveling in the wrong shipping lane, much
     of the blame for the accident was placed on Captain Calamai of the Doria
     and his was career was ruined.  With the advantage of time and scientific
     evidence from nautical scientists, Pierette Simpson has been able to provide
     compelling evidence that refutes previous accusations as the true causes of
     this tragedy. Ms. Simpson, in her book, has finally cleared Captain Calamai’s
     name and brought to light the previously unpublished truth.

     Through personal narratives, readers feel the frightening hours, harrowing
     experiences and heroic actions of those who were aboard the Andrea Doria.
     For many hours under perilous conditions 1,644 passengers and crew were
     safely transferred to 5 other vessels, large enough to carry passengers that
     came to the Andrea Doria’s aid. Tremendous courage was demonstrated by
     those manning the lifeboats of more than a dozen other vessels that were
     used to transfer the endangered ship’s passengers in one of the greatest
     rescue missions of all time.

     With the current interest in survival stories, this fascinating non-technical
     survival story could easily be used either for school reports, general interest
     reading collections, and for history and marine enthusiasts. Part I of the book
     very effectively draws one into the personal narrative of Pierette, and others
     who survived. Part 2 provides accurate information on the sequence of events
     leading up to the collision, the rescue mission and the subsequent mishandling
     of the accident investigation. Photos, drawings, charts, a recreated manifest,
     notes and a bibliography give visual meaning and support to the text.

      I found this book to be a fascinating read with new insights into a disaster of
      horrendous proportions, which could have been another Titanic.

 .  BOOK REVIEW: William H. Garzke, Jr. Chairman, Marine Forensics Panel (SD-7)
                               October, 2007

      TITLE OF BOOK - Alive on the Andrea Doria
      AUTHOR - Pierette Domenica Simpson
      PUBLISHER – Morgan James Publishing: www.morganjamespublishing.com

      The collision of the Andrea Doria and Stockholm on the night of 25-26 July 1956       has been the subject of a number of books and film documentaries. However,       there has never been a detailed explanation of this tragedy that brings forth
      the navigational, naval architectural, and human elements in one publication.
      Mrs. Simpson has done this eloquently in her 2006 book. She has described
      in detail the greatest sea rescue event during the twentieth century in a very
      concise and poignant style.

      Up until now, Alvin Moscow’s Collision Course was one of the principle sources
      of information on this tragedy. However, Mr. Moscow was a journalist, who
      did not seek out expert opinion or assistance from such individuals as Robert
      Young, a former President of this Society and the American Bureau of
      Shipping, who was aboard with his family at the time and survived the sinking.
      In fact, Bob Young was one of the last persons to leave the sinking ship. In
      his book Mr. Moscow was very critical of the Italian crew who he claimed
      sought refuge in lifeboats shortly after the collision.


      Mrs. Simpson, being a survivor, has finally told the real story of the pandemo-
      nium that occurred after the collision and why. The bow of Stockholm
      penetrated quite deeply into Andrea Doria and one of the early casualties was
      the announcing system. Unable to hear the announcement about wearing
      a life jacket, some passengers left their orange- colored ones in their
      staterooms or cabins. Many of the crew handling the evacuation gave their
      grey colored jackets to those passengers without one. Therefore, some of
      the lifeboats reaching rescue ships had a great preponderance of grey
      rather than orange. 

      The author, who is not a naval architect or licensed mariner, also explains
      in a concise, but authoritative manner the technical reasons of why the
      vessel sank. To do this she consulted with experienced technical personnel.
      She even visited the CAORF facility at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy to
      seek answers on why the two ships collided. Unfortunately Andrea Doria
      was doomed to sink. The vessel was in a very tight port turn exposing her
      starboard side, double bottom, and keel to the ice-strengthened bow of
      Stockholm, moving at a speedof 18 knots. With the resulting heel of that
      turn the center vertical keel was also damaged. This has been verified by
      divers who have explored the wreck.

      Furthermore, the Italian liner was doing 21.85 knots in an effort to turn away
      from the oncoming Swedish liner. Her forward speed carried the Stockholm
      some 2.6 nautical miles within Andrea Doria before being released. The
      resulting twisting and turning caused the rupture of some watertight
      bulkheads allowing three compartments to flood instead two. This flooding
      also may have been enhanced by failed rivets as the ship was built during a
      period where there was a mixture of welding and riveting in ship construction.
      To make matters worse, the vessel was hit near her forward quarter point,
      an area of concern for naval architects in the stability analysis of ships.

      The author unfortunately was not aware of recent research on Titanic.
      Reference is made to the infamous 300-foot gash, instead of intermittent
      rivet failure over six compartments.

      The reviewer was truly impressed with the accounts of some survivors and
      the effects this tragedy had in their lives after the event. Ms. Simpson brought
      forth some very interesting points about the stigma of experiencing a ship
      sinking. It is a traumatic event that will affect persons in different ways. The
      other point is how she described the emotional trauma that some of the
      people she has written about have experienced since.

      The author has made the point that Captain Calamai was victimized as a
      cause of  the collision. It is now known from televised documentaries that
      Third Officer Carstens-Johannsen aboard Stockholm was a prime individual
      responsible for this tragedy. His inability to correctly read a radar scope
      resulted in a collision course with the Italian ship. Captain Calamai tried his
      best to avoid a collision by turning to port rather than starboard. Radar was
      a new technology at the time and neither the Italian or Swedish crew were
      experienced in its use for navigation.

      Everyone involved in the investigation of ship tragedies should read this book.
      As a person interested and somewhat involved in the development of marine
      forensics analyses, what can be gained from interviews of survivors can be
      very important in reaching the proper conclusions of a ship casualty.

 .  BOOK REVIEW: SHIPS MONTHLY, United Kingdom
    
      ALIVE ON THE ANDREA DORIA! The Greatest Sea Rescue in History

      Those of us old enough to remember the Andrea Doria-Stockholm almost
      head-on collision, will recall that all reports afterwards inferred the Italian
      liner was to blame, causing the innocent Swedish ship to ram and sink her
      on July 25 and 26th 1956 in dense fog. Although in New York's approaches,
      between the Nantucket and Ambrose light ships, the collision occurred in
      international waters, and because it involved two foreign ships there was no
      official inquiry, even though it cost 51 lives, 46 from the Andrea Doria, five
      from the Stockholm.

      Financial claims were settled in New York “out of court” with minimal
      compensation allowed to those who lost all their belongings, but no official
      inquiry sorted out the lies and wherefores of who was to blame, thus leaving
      accusations of the Italian “inefficiency and cowardice” uncontested.

      After wide-reaching the research into the real facts of the case, authoress
      Simpson, herself a surviving Andrea Doria passenger, has written this
      compelling book, which proves beyond all doubt that had the Italian engineers
      not work so hard down below and under appallingly difficult conditions, with
      the ship's list increasing dramatically as the Atlantic poured in, the beautiful
      liner would not have remained afloat for the 11 hours she did, thus enabling
      Captain Calamai and his gallant men to organize the rescue of all those
      passengers not killed in the collision.

      Pretrial statements from both ships conflicted, but it was allowed that the
      Stockholm's captain had, to save time, deliberately taken his ship along the
      westbound lane instead of the designated eastbound and that he was not on
      the bridge at the time.  After all, his sole watch keeping officer was a young
      third mate who stated that the night was clear--so no worries! The fog was
      apparently patchy--dense here, but not so dense elsewhere perhaps--and
      the Italian liner’s bridge was fully manned by the captain, his officers,
      helmsman and lookouts, sounding the appropriate fog signal for a power-
      driven vessel of making way through the water...

      But why did the Andrea Doria make the last-minute turn to port, giving the
      event the much-bandied tally at the time of one of the first “radar assisted
      collisions”?

      Who was really to blame?  Read this fascinating, well-illustrated book and
      find out!

       --Captain Sandy Kinghorn, 9/20/06

 .  ONLINE REVIEW: Journalist Chris Gerrib, October 27, 2006
        
        Surviving The Andrea Doria

        I recently finished reading Alive on the Andrea Doria, written by Pierette
        Domenica Simpson. Her story is similar to many  first-generation Americans.
        Her mother immigrated to America when she was 18 months old, leaving
        her in the small town of Pranzalito, Italy under the care of her grandparents.
        It wasn’t until Pierette was nine that her mother, now re-married, was able
        to send for her. This is where her story diverges from the norm. Pierette and
        her grandparents sailed to America on the last voyage of the Andrea Doria.

        The first chapter of Ms. Simpson’s book is the riveting first-person account
        of her voyage, culminating with her arrival in New York City on the liner
        Ile De France. One of the more heartwarming features of this lovely and
        well-illustrated book is a picture of the telegram Pierette’s grandparents
        sent to America. “Tutti Salvi,” it says. “All Saved.”

        This well-researched book, published in Italian and English, is divided into
        two parts. Part One, which is two-thirds of the total book, is the story of
        some of the various people of all walks of life onboard the Andrea Doria
        that night. It recounts their efforts to survive and rescue loved ones. In
        one case, that of Doctor Thure Peterson, trying to free his trapped wife,
        the efforts were in vain. Ms. Simpson does a masterful job of making you
        feel like you are there, and also refutes one of the sinking's myths, that
        of cowardly or incompetent crew members.

        The second part, called “Stories of the Ship,” attempts to analyze why the
        collision happened, why the ship sank and its lure to scuba divers today.
        Here Ms. Simpson is on less sure ground, but her extensive research
        generally rescues her. The chapter spent analyzing that the collision
        between Andrea Doria and the liner Stockholm is more like a legal case
        then an explanation of what happened. She arrives at the same conclusion
        that most other mariners did – the collision was largely the fault of the
        Stockholm – but downplays two contributing factors.

        As a former naval officer, the Andrea Doria was explained to me as an object
        lesson of being “dead right.” Captain Calamai (on the Doria) didn’t have to
        maneuver. He did – but his four degree course change was imperceptible
        either visually or by radar. Also, both ships were placing an unwarranted
        faith in radar bearings. Even with modern equipment, radar bearings can
        be two or three degrees off. This can result in ships being hundreds of
        meters from where they think they are, which can change a close passage
        into disaster.

        Despite this quibble, which is difficult to make understandable to a non-
        mariner, I am a big fan of this book. Ms. Simpson has delivered a well-
        researched, entertaining and exciting book. Fans of nautical history or
        just people looking for a good read should go out and find a copy of Alive
        on the Andrea Doria.