I was a crew messman onboard the T2 tanker Robert E. Hopkins of the Tidewater Associated Oil Co. of Delaware City, Delaware. I had just gone to bed around 9:30pm. I had to get up at 6:15am at the latest to set my tables and make the coffee for breakfast, so going to bed early was a routine.

On this particular night of 25th July 1956, I was really tired as we had just departed Fall River, Massachusetts after delivering about 125,000 barrels of gasoline. I had walked around Fall River for a couple of hours after dinner because it was quite warm with a nice breeze, but this walk really tired me out so I was glad to get to bed.

Around 11:30pm I heard a lot of loud footsteps outside my cabin. I jumped up to see why so many men were running up the stairs across from my room. Were we sinking? Did I miss the alarm? I ran up to the mess hall in my underwear 12 steps above, and saw the entire deck gang dressed in work clothes listening to Chief Officer, Eugene Swift. I heard them talking about launching our forward port side lifeboat #2 in 30 minutes.

I dashed below, put on my clothes, grabbed my wallet and gloves, and then woke up my drunk roommate. I then ran forward along the Main Deck passageway, out onto the Well Deck, up the steps to our fore and aft walkway, and forward to the forward deckhouse. Our 2nd Mate was just taking the cover off #2 lifeboat, a 36 passenger self-propelled boat. I told the 2nd Mate that I heard the boat was going to a rescue and told him, “I have a lifeboatman endorsement on my Z card (US Coast Guard Seaman’s Document) so I can join the boat crew”, and I showed him my Z card. He told me it was up to the Chief Officer, Eugene Swift. In minutes the deck guys were running up the stairs to the boat. The Chief Officer looked at me as if to say, “What is a 17 year old messman doing here?”. The 2nd Officer explained to him that I had a lifeboatman endorsement and asked if it was okay for me to go along (usually a lifeboatman endorsement trumps a crewmember without it). The Chief Officer said, “Fine”, and the deck guys just nodded their heads, probably because they knew how difficult it was to row that boat!

The deck gang finished removing the cover and began to check the boat to see if the oars were under the seats etc. Just then our captain, Renė Blanc, a man about 65 years old, appeared and said we needed to standby until the orders came. We were still underway all along but I felt we were slowing down. I could see bright lights in the distance looking like something on land, a common sight for coastal tankers. But within minutes I could see that one source of the bright lights was a ship all lit up like at night in port! The other lights were clear but I just couldn’t understand what they were as we had a slight fog or mist, fairly common in early mornings in the North Atlantic.

I ran back to my room to get my Nikon binoculars and hurried back, my drunk roommate was still sleeping. Now I could see and boy was I totally shocked! My heart started pounding as I studied the ships. I immediately recognized the unique funnel of the Swedish America Line (yellow, blue circle, and 3 crowns within the circle) and the Italian Line stripes. Was the Italian ship the Andrea Doria or the Cristoforo Columbo? Was the Swedish ship the Stockholm or Gripsholm? Then I realized it had to be the smaller Stockholm. I had visited both of these ships many times at dock on sailing day in New York.

Then the shock of my life. Out of the dark (about 2:00am) just to starboard was a magnificent sight lit up as I’ve never before seen, the 44,356 ton Ile de France of the French line. This 793 foot ship looked twice as large with all of its lights ablaze, especially the probably 100 foot by ten foot high, lighted sign on the boat deck with the name “Ile de France” in light bulbs. What a sight! The ship was black and looked like a projection on the water, a movie! It passed us and stopped very close to the sinking Andrea Doria, maybe only 1,500 feet away. All of its lifeboats were near the water level. Just amazing to me.

I kept thinking, “When are we going”. We were ship #4 to arrive at the disaster.

As I scanned the Andrea Doria I saw a very strange sight. All five of the starboard boats had been lowered except for #1 boat which was still in the davit. But because of the degree of the Andrea Doria’s list, maybe 35 degrees, the passengers couldn’t jump into the boats from the boat deck because the boats were too far away from the hull. All along the side of the Andrea Doria were hawsers, nets, fire hoses, and rope ladders. Believe it or not, passengers were climbing down these ladders, nets, etc. into the lifeboats while being helped by crew members. Nearly all of the stewards department had fled the sinking ship in the first trip over to the Stockholm. Stockholm crew didn’t want them onboard, but Capt. Nordensen told the crew to bring them onboard. Shockingly, I could see a few crew piggybacking a passenger. I assumed these were elderly people.

The Ile de France lifeboats were alongside the Andrea Doria in just minutes. Then I saw the Stockholm lower 3 lifeboats into the water, 6 altogether,at about 0230.

All the Andrea Doria lifeboats rowed/motored over to the Stockholm but just then they turned around and headed to other ships including the banana ship Cape Ann, which took on over 100 survivors. The Ile de France boats all returned to their ship with about 750 passengers all together.

I frankly felt that we were being left out of the rescue because we were an oil tanker in ballast, a very dangerous ship for non-professionals to be on.

By about 4:00am most lifeboat activity had stopped. Many Andrea Doria lifeboats were tied alongside the Stockholm. A few floated loose and I saw two half-full boats about 2,000 feet away from the Andrea Doria just idle.

Suddenly from the bridge one deck above came the word, “Launch lifeboat”. We lowered away just after 4:00am. Chief Officer Swift was in the bow, six of us rowed and the 3rd officer was on the tiller and I was on the starboard side, last seat. The water appeared to be calm from the deck but, boy, it was rough! We pitched and rolled all the way until we saw someone right at the stern on a rope ladder waving. We pulled under him. He seemed either afraid or stuck. We yelled to him to jump but he continued down the ladder until Chief Officer Swift could grab him by his feet and guided him into the boat.

It turned out that this man, the very last passenger to leave the Andrea Doria, was an American Merchant Seaman, Robert Lee Hudson, being repatriated from Naples after injuring himself onboard the American Victory ship SS Ocean Victory.

He was wearing pyjamas, as I remember, but his top was missing. The press said he was naked but I don’t think he was. I think I would have remembered that! He appeared to be a little drunk but he said he had been given sleeping pills and was in bed in the infirmary sleeping when he woke up to the 40 degree list.

We then rowed away from the sinking ship maybe 100 feet to avoid all the ropes, nets, etc. hanging down from the railings and headed to the bow. The ship was deserted but was really well lit. Below the wing of the bridge we yelled out, “Hello up there”, thinking officers might still be onboard. No one answered although there were actually about 12 men on the bridge including the ship’s Catholic priest. Our Chief Officer said, “Okay, guys, that’s it. Back to the boat”, and we turned toward the Hopkins. The two Andrea Doria boats we had seen were nearly gone! It seemed longer returning, perhaps because my gloved hands were totally sore. My oarlock was broken and it took a lot of work to keep my oar straight up in the water.

Back at the Hopkins the accommodation ladder was down so all except the Chief Officer walked up the ladder. The boat was walked forward with a line and stopped beneath the davit and the Chief Officer hooked it up to the falls.

Our passenger was escorted to the bridge and Capt. Blanc guided him to a sofa in the chart room and offered him a drink. Apparently that suited Mr. Hudson because he never left the chart room until we arrived in New York City later that day.

Most of the crew were standing by the railings watching the disaster unfold except for my drunk roommate who refused to believe me when I woke him up for work! The sun was barely coming up and we could see many ships in the area, cargo ships, two troop transports, several USCG vessels, and a banana boat, who rescued many passengers. The Stockholm hadn’t moved. Later I read that her anchors were caught on something and welders had to cut the anchor chains. By now the Andrea Doria was on her side and you could actually see inside the funnel.

At about 5:30am we saw the Ile de France get underway and it slowly steamed around the dying Andrea Doria, lowering it’s flag three times while it’s horn blew a tremendous 3 long blast salute as it steamed off. What an amazing sight to behold!

Just minutes after the Ile de France steamed off we got underway for the 180 mile trip to New York City. It was just about time for me to start work and I was exhausted. We didn’t even slow down as we reached Ambrose Lightship (the pilot station) as Capt. Blanc had pilotage for New York Harbour on his Master’s license.

I paid off the Robert E. Hopkins in November 1956 for a week vacation, then went on to another Tidewater tanker, the “supertanker” SS Flying “A” Delaware (26,000 tons, Newport News Shipbuilding) for one 2 week trip, then back to the Hopkins.

I haven’t talked about the Andrea Doria sinking to many for 65 years because it was such an emotional experience for me. Since I had been 12 years old my mother would take me on sailing days to either Hoboken (Holland-America Line), Jersey City (APL and American Export Lines “ Aces”), or to New York City’s “Luxury Liner Row” and to piers along the Hudson. I lived in Jersey City, so it was only 30 minutes by bus to Times Square, 20 minutes to Harbourside Terminals in Jersey City, or 25 minutes on the trolley to Hoboken. We donated 50 cents and went onboard countless ships! I loved these ships and dreamed that someday I could sail on one. I had my favorite ships but the Andrea Doria and her sister Cristoforo Columbo were favorites because of their beautiful interiors. I loved the old Grace and Moore-McCormick liners but the Italians sure knew luxury! So, to see the Andrea Doria sinking was a huge shock to me, almost like a personal loss.

My first year on the Robert E. Hopkins was wild, sailing up the Hudson River in solid ice to deliver gas to Albany, causing us to damage our propeller and hull plates, then the Andrea Doria rescue. Then, on the Flying “A” Delaware my Chief Steward dropped dead, apparently of a heart attack, in the galley while I was preparing salads in the pantry! I never experienced any other unusual events as crew, but as a passenger on the States Lines SS Oregon on 8th July 1970 when we were ready to dock in Saigon we were fired on. All passengers had been ordered to stay in their cabins for the Song Sai Don river transit. No one was hurt as the bridge was sand bagged! I had been in Saigon in January 1967 as Purser on board the USNS Croatan (the ship had anchored out) and I travelled around Saigon and Da Nang without incident.

Now I’m old with poor health, so I can’t travel again. All I have are memories.

NOTES

I should mention at this point about the time these events occurred. Three time zones were in play here that caused some confusion amongst the press. We were on Eastern Daylight Savings Time. The Andrea Doria, I believe, was on Atlantic Daylight Savings Time. I’ve read about events occurring plus or minus from our time. There were messages in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). This was about 5 hours later than Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

Some official reports say the collision occurred at 11:15pm but our radio officer Toney Grillo received his first message at 10:20pm from the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm radio officer stated the collision was at 11:01pm. The Andrea Doria Radio officer sent a message saying “Collision at 03:20 GMT”. An Andrea Doria officer’s note that the collision was at “23:09”. The Ile de France said it’s first SOS from the Andria Doria was at 11:30pm and the USCG cutter Evergreen signalled “The Andrea Doria sank at 261409 Zulu”.

In a Swedish government report it noted that 3rd Officer Johan Ernst Carstens-Johannsen (the mate on watch on the Stockholm) said, “While the rescue was underway the cabins of all the officers were ransacked including the Captain’s cabin”. No one ever found out who did the crime. Was it Andrea Doria or Stockholm people?

Who caused the disaster? Each company blamed the other. But a U.S. House of Representatives Committee Report, the Bonner Committee, investigated and presented a report primarily based on a report done by the Ansaldo Shipyard, in December 1956. It said, “The Andrea Doria just barely met the specifications of the SOLAS convention (Safety of Life at Sea)”. It also said, “The ship could only meet the SOLAS requirement on condition that she was ballasted with rather large and specific amounts of liquid in its various tanks”. Why she sank is not known except that on that occasion she was not properly ballasted in accordance with SOLAS and that there were errors in the ship design and construction. It was the committee judgement that at the time of the collision the Andrea Doria was only one third as stable as she should have been.

The legal settlement on 14th January 1957, in an informal meeting between all parties, agreed that each company would share it’s own damage expenses but then there was a problem about who would compensate the passengers and crew for baggage and cargo losses.

It was finally agreed that Swedish America Lines was responsible for 13% of the accident’s miscellaneous expenses and that Italian Line was responsible for 87%. Insurance paid these losses. All other losses were paid for by each company. However, the underwriters agreed to pay Swedish America Lines $200,000 for “uninsured losses”. The insurance paid out $16 million for the loss of the Andrea Doria, although Italian Line said it was worth between $25 million and $35 million.

An Italian Newspaper, Italian Line Borghese stated, “The ship cost 16 billion Lira to build but was only insured for 10 billion Lira for loss”.

But the battle over blame raged on. The above settlement was signed on 24th January 1957, but did not assess blame. “As of today, no official report of the cause of the accident exists” (Italian Line Borghese, 17th February 1957)

One last interesting note, an Italian Special Board of Inquiry report of July 1957, stated that, “The Ansaldo Co. in Genoa who built the Andrea Doria allegedly declared itself unwilling to accept any liability into the shortcomings of the ship and threatened, in order to protect it’s international reputation, to raise a BIG scandal and publish the entire dossier in it’s possession along with drawings for the vessel drawn and checked by the inexperienced and corrupt technicians at the Italian yard, in the Shipping Registry of the Merchant Marine Ministry”.

The Italian Board’s final conclusion of the collision was, “By reason of excessive speed during foggy weather”.

One last strange fact, when the Italian Line drew up plans for a replacement ship for the Andrea Doria, which would become the Leonardo di Vinci, it contracted with a Swedish design firm in Stockholm to check over all the drawings!