Collision Course: the Classic Story of Andrea Doria and Stockholm

One of the largest, fastest, and most beautiful ships in the world, the was on her way to New York from her home port in Genoa. Departing from the United States was the much smaller . On the foggy night of July 25, 1956, fifty-three miles southeast of Nantucket in the North Atlantic, the sliced through the ’s steel hull. Within minutes, water was pouring into the Italian liner. Eleven hours later, she capsized and sank into the ocean.   In this “electrifying book,” Associated Press journalist Alvin Moscow, who covered the court hearings that sought to explain the causes of the tragedy and interviewed all the principals, re-creates with compelling accuracy the actions of the ships’ officers and crews, and the terrifying experiences of the ’s passengers as they struggled to evacuate a craft listing so severely that only half of its lifeboats could be launched ( ). Recounting the heroic, rapid response of other ships—which averted a catastrophe of the same scale as that of the and the official inquest, Moscow delivers a fact-filled, fascinating drama of this infamous maritime disaster, and explains how a supposedly unsinkable ship ended up at the bottom of the sea.   In the , Walter Lord, author of , said of : “More than a magnificent analysis of the accident and sinking; it is a warmly compassionate document, full of understanding for the people on each side.”