National Affairs 1956: Rosa Parks, Wreck of the Andrea Doria

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Passengers in nightgowns and pajamas joined others in evening dress on a deck slanting first at 25°, then at a steep 35°. Andrea Doria got away eight boats and radioed a plea for more.

Out of the fog came the purr of motors and the slap of oars. Lifeboats arrived from Stockholm, where Captain Gunnar Nordenson had sealed his crumpled bow, found his vessel seaworthy, and turned to rescue. Andrea Doria's radio crackled as other ships reported positions.

By 5 a.m. only Captain Calamai and a score of his crew were still aboard Andrea Doria, still trying to level her with auxiliary pumps. At 7 a.m. they admitted defeat, were taken off. Three hours later, while silent seafarers watched transfixed, Andrea Doria poised a polished fantail and motionless screws in the air, then slid down to the ocean's dark bottom. Behind her the sea bubbled and quivered a hundred hues of green. The surface shuddered, the bobbing rubble tossed on the swell until the liner was well down.

Overseas, Italians and Swedes bitterly blamed one another for the loss. Meanwhile, grimmer figures were being figured. The weekend total: 25 dead, 17 missing. But to balance their loss was the eleven-hour high-seas saga in which some 1,670 had been snatched back from death.