SS Andrea Doria , was a luxury transatlantic ocean liner of the Italian Line (Società di navigazione Italia), put into service in 1953. She is widely known from the extensive media coverage of her sinking in 1956, which included the remarkably successful rescue of 1,660 of her 1,706 passengers and crew.

Named after the 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the ship had a gross register tonnage of 29,100 and a capacity of about 1200 passengers and 500 crew. Of all Italy's ships at the time, Andrea Doria was the largest, fastest and supposedly safest. Launched on 16 June 1951, she was home-ported in Genoa, and began her maiden voyage on 14 January 1953.

On 25 July 1956, the New York City–bound vessel was approaching the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States, when the eastbound passenger liner  of the Swedish American Line collided with her. Struck in her starboard side, the top-heavy Andrea Doria immediately started to list severely that way as she took on water, which left half of her lifeboats unusable. The consequent shortage of lifeboats could have resulted in significant loss of life, but the ship stayed afloat for over 11 hours after the collision. The calm, appropriate behavior of the crew, together with improvements in communications, and the rapid response of other ships, averted a disaster similar in scale to that of  in 1912. While 1,660 passengers and crew were rescued and survived, 46 people on the ship died as a direct consequence of the collision. The evacuated luxury liner capsized and sank the following morning. This accident remains the worst maritime disaster to occur in United States waters since the capsizing of the  in Chicago in 1915.

While the rescue efforts for both ships were successful, the cause of the collision, culpability, and the loss of Andrea Doria generated much continued interest in the media and many lawsuits. Largely because of an out-of-court settlement agreement between the two shipping companies during hearings immediately after the disaster, no determination of cause was ever formally published.

History

Features

Designed by the famous Italian architect , Andrea Doria had a length of , a beam of , and a gross register tonnage of 29,100. The propulsion system consisted of steam turbines attached to twin screws, enabling the ship to achieve a service speed of , with a top speed of . She was neither the largest vessel nor the fastest of her day – those distinctions went to the 83,673 GRT  and  ; instead, her forte was luxury.

When fully booked, the ship was capable of accommodating 1,241 passengers; 218 in first class, 320 in cabin class, and 703 in tourist class. As was the rule aboard transatlantic passenger liners, each passenger class was strictly segregated to specific parts of the ship. First class accommodations were located amidships on the upper decks, cabin class accommodations were located just abaft of first class, and tourist class accommodations were divided between the bow and aft ends and were connected by corridors that ran the full length of the ship. Each class had its own separate dining room, lounges, and social halls, designated areas of open deck space and enclosed promenades, and even their own swimming pools with verandas. A crew of 563 was aboard. Over $1 million was spent on artwork and the decor of the cabins and public rooms, including a life-sized statue of Admiral Doria.

Safety and seaworthiness
Andrea Doria was built with a double hull divided into 11 watertight compartments. Any two of these could be filled with water without endangering the ship's safety. She was equipped with the latest early-warning radar, and carried sixteen steel lifeboats, eight on each side, enough by regulation to accommodate all passengers and crew.  These came in three designs; two 58-person launches for emergency use, two 70-person motorboats with inboard radio transmitters, and 12 146-person hand-propelled rowboats.

However, despite its technological advantages, the ship had serious flaws relating to its seaworthiness and safety.  Model testing during the design phase predicted she would develop a huge list when hit by any significant force. This was proven during her maiden voyage, when the vessel listed 28° after being hit by a large rogue wave off Nantucket. Her tendency to list was aggravated when her fuel tanks were nearly empty, which was usually at the end of a voyage.

Construction

At the end of World War II, Italy was struggling with a collapsed economy.It had lost half its merchant fleet through wartime destruction and reparations awarded to various Allied forces. The losses included the scuttling/bombing of , a former Blue Riband holder for her record transatlantic crossing.  To show the world that the country had recovered from the war, and to reestablish the nation's pride, the Italian Line commissioned two new vessels of similar design in the early 1950s. The first was to be named Andrea Doria, after a famed 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the second  after explorer Christopher Columbus.

These ships were intended to deliver express service on the Italian Line's "Sunny Southern Route" between Genoa and New York, stopping only at Cannes, Naples and Gibraltar.  Three slower prewar vessels, Saturnia, Vulcania and Conte Biancamano, among the handful of dowagers to survive the conflict, would follow a meandering route that included additional stops at Azores, Lisbon, Barcelona and Palermo.

Construction of Andrea Doria started as Yard No. 918 at Ansaldo Shipyard in Genoa. On 9 February 1950, the ship's keel was laid on the No. 1 slipway, and on 16 June 1951, Andrea Doria was launched. During the ceremony, the ship's hull was blessed by Giuseppe Siri, Cardinal Archbishop of Genoa, and christened by Mrs. Giuseppina Saragat, wife of the former Minister of the Merchant Marine Giuseppe Saragat.

Maiden voyage
Initially, Andrea Doria had been scheduled to depart Genoa on her maiden voyage on 14 December 1952, but amid reports of machinery problems during sea trials, the departure was delayed to 14 January 1953. Following the Italian Line's advertised route, she collected 794 passengers (152 First Class, 157 Cabin Class, 485 Tourist Class) before heading into the open Atlantic for New York. During the voyage she encountered heavy storms on the final approach to New York, listing a full 28° after being hit by a particularly large wave. She arrived on 23 January and received a welcoming delegation that included New York Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri.

Final voyage

Outbound

The 51st westbound crossing of Andrea Doria to New York began as a typical run on the North Atlantic. Her most recent eastbound crossing from New York had concluded on 14 July 1956, and after a three-day turnaround, she was scheduled to be outbound from Genoa on Tuesday, 17 July. On this run, she was booked to roughly 90% of her total passenger capacity, with 1,134 passengers travelling aboard: 190 in first class, 267 in cabin class and 677 in tourist class.  Combined with a crew of 572, a total of 1,706 persons would sail aboard her to the U.S..

On the morning of 17 July, Andrea Doria began to take on her first passengers at 8 a.m. as. A total of 277 embarked there: 49 first class, 72 cabin class and 156 tourist class. Among those traveling in first class were Hungarian ballet dancers Istvan Rabovsky and Nora Kovach, who had defected from the Soviet bloc to the United States just three years earlier. The ship departed at 11 a.m. on the first leg of her journey.

She arrived at Cannes on the French Riviera mid-afternoon that same day. An additional 48 passengers boarded there: 30 first class, 15 cabin class, and 3 tourist class. Among them was a Hollywood actress who would become one of Andrea Dorias most famous passengers, Ruth Roman, travelling with her three-year-old son Richard. The famous songwriter, Mike Stoller, was aboard as well. From Cannes Andrea Doria sailed  southeast to Naples, arriving the following morning. A total of 744 came aboard there: 85 in first class, 161 in cabin class, and 498 in tourist class. Most of the latter were emigrants from impoverished regions of southern Italy on their way to new lives in America. She departed just after 6 p.m., arriving two days later off Gibraltar. A total of 65 passengers boarded: 26 first class, 19 cabin class, 20 tourist class, before she set out for New York.

On Wednesday, 25 July, just before noon, the passenger liner Stockholm of the Swedish American Line departed New York Harbor on her 103rd eastbound crossing across the Atlantic, headed to her home port of Gothenburg, Sweden. At 12,165 tons and  in length, roughly half the size of Andrea Doria, Stockholm was the smallest passenger liner on the North Atlantic run during the 1950s. Completed in 1948, she was of a much more practical design than Andrea Doria. Originally built to accommodate only 395 passengers in two classes, Stockholm was designed without the opulence of Andrea Doria because the Swedish-American Line was aware that the rapid growth of air travel would bring an end soon to the age of transatlantic passenger travel. However, they did not envision the massive surge in tourism fueled by the buoyant American economy that arose during the 1950s. As a result, the Swedish-American Line withdrew Stockholm from service in 1953 for an overhaul that included an addition to her superstructure to provide accommodations for an additional 153 passengers, increasing her capacity to 548. This proved successful, as by 1956 Stockholm had gained a worthy reputation on the North Atlantic. Also, because the Stockholm sailed close to the Arctic Ocean, it was designed with a strong, icebreaking bow, which turned out to be a major factor in her survival, and the fatal damage to Andrea Doria.

Stockholm left New York booked almost to capacity, with 534 passengers and a crew of 208. She was commanded by Captain Harry Gunnar Nordenson, though Third Officer Johan-Ernst Carstens-Johannsen was on duty on the bridge at the time of the accident. This was his first time alone on the bridge of a ship, and he had been up since 06:00 that morning supervising baggage-loading and passenger-boarding in New York.

A collision course
Stockholm was following her usual homeward course, which would take her south of the Nantucket Lightship. Though such a course was intended to save some time, it nonetheless set the Stockholm twenty miles north of the recommended eastbound course for ships leaving the U.S., putting it straight into incoming westward traffic. This was a clear violation of the 1953 North Atlantic Track Agreement to which the Swedish American Line was a signatory. Cruising under clear skies, she was making about  in visibility Carstens-Johannsen estimated at .

The waters of the North Atlantic south of Nantucket Island are frequently the site of intermittent fog, as the cold Labrador Current encounters the Gulf Stream. As Stockholm and Andrea Doria were approaching each other head-on in the heavily used shipping corridor, the westbound Italian liner had been traveling in a heavy bank for hours. The captain had reduced speed slightly from , activated the ship's fog-warning whistle, and had closed the watertight doors, all customary precautions while sailing in such conditions. However, the eastbound Stockholm had yet to enter the bank's western edge, and was seemingly unaware either of it or Andrea Doria's movement within it.

As the two ships approached each other in failing light at a combined speed of , each was aware of the presence of another ship only through radar.  Compounding this, they apparently misinterpreted each other's course, and made no initial radio communication.

The original inquiry established that in the critical minutes before the collision, Andrea Doria gradually steered south, to her left, attempting a starboard-to-starboard passing, while Stockholm also turned about 20° southward, to its right, an action intended to widen the clearance of a port-to-port passing, but instead put the two vessels on a direct collision course.  As a result of the extremely thick fog that enveloped Andrea Doria as the ships approached each other, the two were quite close by the time visual contact was established. By then, the crews realized that they were headed straight into one-another; in spite of their last-minute evasion maneuvers they could not avoid the ramming.

In the last moments before impact, Stockholm turned hard to starboard (right) and was in the process of reversing her propellers, attempting to stop. Andrea Doria, remaining at her cruising speed of almost  engaged in a hard turn to port (left), her captain hoping to outrun the collision. Around 11:10 p.m., the two ships collided, Stockholm T-boning the starboard side of Andrea Doria.

Impact and penetration

When Andrea Doria and Stockholm collided at almost a 90° angle, Stockholms sharply raked ice breaking bow pierced Andrea Dorias starboard side about one-third of her length from the bow, under the ship's bridge. It penetrated the hull to a depth of nearly , and the keel. Below the waterline, five fuel tanks on Andrea Dorias starboard side were torn open, and they filled with thousands of tons of seawater. Meanwhile, air was trapped in the five empty tanks on the port side, causing them to float more readily, contributing to a severe list. The ship's large fuel tanks were mostly empty at the time of the collision, since the ship was nearing the end of her voyage, worsening the list.

Andrea Doria was designed with her hull divided into 11 watertight compartments, separated by steel bulkheads that ran across the width of her hull, rising from the bottom of the ship's hull up to A Deck. The only openings in the bulkheads were on the bottom deck, where watertight doors were installed for use by the engine crew and could be easily closed in an emergency. Her design specified that if any two adjacent watertight compartments were breached, she could remain afloat. In addition, following the rules and guidelines set by the International Conference for Safety of Life at Sea of 1948, Andrea Doria was designed to handle a list, even under the worst imaginable circumstances, but not one greater than 15°. However, the combination of the five flooded tanks on one side and the five empty tanks on the other left her with a list that, within a few minutes of the collision, exceeded 20°. While the collision itself penetrated only one of Andrea Dorias watertight compartments, the severe list would gradually pull the tops of the bulkheads along the starboard side below the level of the water, allowing seawater to flow down corridors, down stairwells, and any other way it could find into the next compartment in line. The collision had also torn into an access tunnel running from the generator room, which was located in the compartment directly aft of where the collision had happened, to a small room at the forward end of the tank compartment containing the controls for the tank pumps. But a fatal flaw in Andrea Dorias design existed, as at the point where the tunnel went through the bulkhead separating the two compartments, no watertight door was present. This allowed the generator room to flood rapidly, contributing to not only an increase in flooding, but a loss of electricity.

Andrea Doria sent this SOS call: "SOS DE ICEH [this is Andrea Doria] SOS HERE AT 0320 GMT LAT. 40.30 N 69.53 W NEED IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE"

It was only through the initial radio distress calls sent out by each ship that they learned one-another's identity. Soon afterward, the messages were received by numerous radio and Coast Guard stations along the New England coast, and the world soon became aware that two large ocean liners had collided.

Assessing damage and imminent danger
Immediately after the collision, Andrea Doria began to take on water and started to list severely to starboard. Within minutes, the list was at least 18°. After the ships separated, Captain Calamai quickly brought the engine controls to "all stop". One of the watertight doors to the engine room may have been missing, though this issue was later determined to be moot. Much more importantly, however, crucial stability was lost by the earlier failure during routine operations to ballast the mostly empty fuel tanks with seawater as they were emptied, as the builders had specified (which, however, makes refueling more costly). Owing to the immediate rush of seawater flooding the starboard tanks, and because the port tanks had emptied during the crossing, the list was greater than would otherwise have been the case.

In the engine room, engineers attempted to pump water out of the flooding starboard tanks, but to no avail. Only a small amount of fuel remained, and the intakes to pump seawater into the port tanks were now high out of the water, making any attempt to level the ship futile. As the list increased over the next few minutes to 20° or more, Calamai realized that his ship was doomed.

Aboard Stockholm, roughly  of her bow had been crushed and torn away. Initially, the ship was dangerously down by the bow, but emptying the freshwater tanks soon raised the bow to within  of normal. A quick survey determined that the major damage did not extend aft beyond the bulkhead between the first and second watertight compartments. In spite of her condition, the ship was soon determined to be stable and in no imminent danger of sinking.

Rescue operations
On Andrea Doria, the decision to abandon ship was made within 30 minutes of impact. A sufficient number of lifeboats for all of the passengers and crew was split evenly on each side of the Boat Deck. Procedures called for lowering the lifeboats until they could be secured alongside the glass-enclosed Promenade Deck one level below, allowing evacuees to climb out of windows directly into the boats. However, it was soon determined that the port side lifeboats were unlaunchable due to the severe list, which left them high in the air: lowering them would cause them to collide with the exposed hull, and cause them to tip.  Compounding things, the list also complicated normal lifeboat procedures on the starboard side, making it necessary to lower the boats empty and somehow get evacuees to board them at water level. This was eventually accomplished through ropes and Jacob's ladders. In fear of causing a panic and stampeding of the starboard lifeboats, Captain Calamai decided against giving the order to abandon ship until help arrived. In the meantime, Second Officer Guido Badano made announcements over the loudspeaker system instructing passengers to put on their lifebelts and go to their designated muster stations.

Andrea Dorias radios had limited range, so her distress message making it clear that additional lifeboats were urgently needed was relayed to other ships that could receive it.  The United States Coast Guard from New York City also coordinated on land.

In this case being in a busy shipping lane proved helpful to Andrea Doria. The first ship to respond to her distress call was the  freighter Cape Ann of the United Fruit Company, which was returning to the United States after a trip to Bremerhaven, Germany. Upon receiving the message from the stricken Andrea Doria, Captain Joseph Boyd immediately set a course for her. With a crew of 44 aboard and only two 40-person lifeboats, the assistance Cape Ann could offer was limited, but within minutes, she was joined by other ships heeding the distress call. The US Navy transport , en route to New York from Livorno, Italy, with 214 troops and dependents also responded to the signal and made immediate progress towards the site. Her captain, John Shea, was placed in charge of the rescue operation by the US Navy and readily ordered his crew to prepare their eight usable lifeboats. Also joining the rescue was the US Navy destroyer escort .

 east of the collision site, the French Line's  was eastbound from New York en route to her home port of Le Havre, with 940 passengers and a crew of 826 aboard. At 44,500 tons and  in length, the 30-year-old luxury liner was among the largest and fastest passenger liners on the North Atlantic run. On that voyage, having left New York the same day as Stockholm, she was under the command of Captain Raoul de Beaudéan, a well-respected veteran of the seas who had served the French Line for 35 years. Upon hearing of the collision and the distress call, de Beaudéan was at first skeptical of the thought of a modern ship like Andrea Doria actually foundering, and knew that if he did steer back to the collision site only to find that Île de France was not needed, it would mean having to return to New York to refuel and delay her passengers, which could have been a financial blow to the French Line. At the least he needed to contact the Andrea Doria to size up the situation.  His attempt was unsuccessful, but after communicating with Stockholm, Cape Ann, and Thomas, he grasped that the lives of over 1,600 people were at risk, turned Île de France around, and set a direct course for the Andrea Doria.

Indeed, help was direly needed, as in spite of the efforts made aboard Andrea Doria to launch her starboard lifeboats many left only partially loaded, carrying in all only 200 panicked crewmen and very few passengers.

While other ships nearby were en route, Captain Nordenson of Stockholm determined that his ship was not in any imminent danger of sinking, and, after assuring his mostly sleeping passengers of their safety, sent some of his lifeboats to aid in the rescue. In the first hours many survivors transported by lifeboats from both ships were taken aboard Stockholm.

As he approached the accident scene less than three hours after the collision, Captain de Beaudéan of the Île de France became concerned about navigating his huge ship safely among the two damaged liners, other responding vessels, lifeboats, and possibly even people in the water. Then, just as she arrived, the fog lifted, and he was able to position his ship in such a way that the starboard side of Andrea Doria was somewhat sheltered from wind and waves. He ordered all exterior lights of Île de France to be turned on. The sight of the illuminated Île de France was a great emotional relief to everyone involved.

Île de France managed to rescue the bulk of the remaining passengers by shuttling its 10 lifeboats back and forth to Andrea Doria, receiving lifeboat loads from those of the other ships already at the scene, and any of Andrea Doria's starboard boats left. Some passengers on Île de France gave up their cabins to grateful survivors. Many other acts of kindness were reported.

In all, 1,663 passengers and crew had been rescued from Andrea Doria. The badly damaged Stockholm, through the use of both her own lifeboats and those from the stricken Andrea Doria, took on a total of 545 survivors, of whom 234 were crew members from Andrea Doria who had left the vessel ahead of the passengers; 129 survivors had been rescued by Cape Ann, 159 by Pvt. William H. Thomas, 77 by Edward H. Allen, including Captain Calamai and his officers. One American sailor, who slept through the entire collision and evacuation, was rescued from the abandoned, sinking liner by the tanker Robert E. Hopkins. Île de France played the largest role in the rescue, taking on 753 survivors.

Shortly after daybreak, a four-year-old Italian girl with head trauma and four seriously injured Stockholm crewmen were airlifted from that ship at the scene by helicopters sent by the Coast Guard and U.S. Air Force. A number of passengers and some crew from both vessels were hospitalized upon arrival in New York.

Andrea Doria capsizes and sinks

Once the evacuation was complete, Captain Calamai of Andrea Doria shifted his attention to the possibility of towing the ship to shallow water. However, it was clear that it was doomed.

After all the survivors had been transferred onto various rescue ships bound for New York, Andrea Dorias remaining crew began to disembark – forced to abandon the ship. By 6:00 am, even Captain Calamai was in a rescue boat. The sinking began at 9:45 am and by 10:00 that morning the Andrea Doria's starboard side dipped into the ocean and the three swimming pools were seen refilling with water. As the bow slid under, the stern rose slightly, and the port propeller and shaft became visible. As the port side slipped below the waves, some of the unused lifeboats snapped free of their davits and floated upside-down in a row. It was recorded that Andrea Doria finally sank bow first 10 hours after the collision, at 10:09 am on 26 July 1956. The ship had drifted  from the point of the collision. Aerial photography of the stricken ocean liner capsizing and sinking won a Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for Harry A. Trask of the Boston Traveler newspaper.

Return to New York; families

Because of the scattering of Andrea Doria passengers and crew among the various rescue vessels, some families were separated during the collision and rescue. It was not clear who was where, and just who had survived, until after all the ships with survivors arrived in New York. In all, six different ships participated in the rescue of the passengers and crew of Andrea Doria, including the heavily damaged Stockholm, which steamed back to New York under its own power with a United States Coast Guard escort after the others.

During the wait, New York City-based ABC Radio Network news commentator Edward P. Morgan broadcast a stirring account of the collision, not telling listeners that his 14-year-old daughter Linda Morgan had been aboard Andrea Doria and was feared dead. It was later revealed that she had been thrown from her bed when the two ships collided only to land on Stockholm'''s deck, suffering moderate but not life-threatening injuries and earning the epithet "miracle girl". The following night, after learning the good news, Edward P. Morgan's emotional broadcast became one of the more memorable in radio news history.

Among Andrea Dorias passengers were Hollywood actress Ruth Roman and her three-year-old son, Richard. In the 1950 film Three Secrets, Roman had portrayed a distraught mother waiting to learn whether or not her child had survived a plane crash. She and her son were separated from each other during the collision and evacuation. Rescued, Roman had to wait to learn her child's fate, which resulted in a media frenzy for photos as she waited at the pier in New York City for her child's safe arrival aboard one of the rescue ships. Actress Betsy Drake, who was married to movie star Cary Grant at the time, also escaped from the sinking liner, as did Philadelphia mayor Richardson Dilworth and songwriter Mike Stoller (of the team Leiber and Stoller).

Assisted by the American Red Cross and news photographers, the frantic parents of four-year-old Norma Di Sandro learned that their injured daughter had been airlifted from Stockholm to a hospital in Boston, where the previously unidentified little girl had undergone surgery for a fractured skull. They drove all night from New York to Boston, with police escorts provided to their convoy in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. When they arrived, the child was still unconscious and the doctors said all that could be done was wait to see if she woke up. The little girl never regained consciousness, and succumbed to her injuries.

Other families also had their hopes of seeing loved ones again dashed, especially those who were meeting members of several young families immigrating to the United States in hope of new lives.

The pier in New York where Stockholm was heading was packed with newsreel photographers and television crews. All the major department stores and shoe stores had booths set up to give the arriving survivors clothing and shoes. Not many of the newspeople spoke Italian, so confusion occurred when the survivors were asked to take off the clothing they were just given, to be photographed putting the clothes on. But after just a few minutes, everyone was clothed and had shoes to wear.

The sinking produced a footnote in automotive history, as it resulted in the loss of the Chrysler Norseman, an advanced "one-off" prototype car that had been built for Chrysler by Ghia in Italy. The Norseman had been announced as a major attraction of the 1957 auto show circuit. However, it had not been shown to the public prior to the disaster, and was lost, along with other cars in Andrea Dorias 50-car garage.

Casualties
In all, a total of 51 lives were lost in the collision and sinking, consisting of 46 passengers from the Andrea Doria and five members of the crew of the Stockholm. Of the 46 passengers lost aboard the Doria, 43 died as a result of the collision. No remains were ever recovered of these casualties, and they are believed to remain entombed within the wreck.

The area of Andrea Dorias hull where Stockholms bow penetrated encompassed five passenger decks. On the uppermost of these decks, the Upper Deck, at least eight first-class cabins were destroyed. In all, six first-class passengers lost their lives. In cabin 46, Colonel Walter Carlin had been in the bathroom brushing his teeth at the time of the collision and miraculously survived, while his wife Jeanette was killed. Later aboard Stockholm, crewmen searching the wreckage of the mangled bow sighted the remains of a woman matching Mrs. Carlin's description lodged in the wreckage, but before they could recover it, debris became dislodged and the body fell into the sea. In direct line of Stockholms bow on the upper deck were cabins 52 and 54, which were occupied by Camille Cianfarra, a longtime foreign correspondent for The New York Times, his wife Jane, their 8-year-old daughter Joan and 14-year-old Linda Morgan, Jane's daughter from her previous marriage to American journalist Edward P. Morgan. Joan was killed instantly, while Camille died from severe injuries moments after the collision. Jane was seriously injured, but was rescued by some other passengers, among them Dr. Thure Peterson, who had been next door in cabin 56. He sustained only minor injuries, while his wife Martha was gravely wounded and was trapped along with Jane Cianfarra. After a long struggle to free her, largely on the part of her husband, Martha succumbed to her injuries a few hours after the collision. One deck below on the Foyer Deck, near the first-class entrance, Ferdinand Melly Thieriot, circulation director of The San Francisco Chronicle, along with his wife Frances (whose grandson is the actor Max Thieriot) were killed, as their suite was in direct line of Stockholms bow. Their 13-year-old son Peter, who occupied a cabin further down the corridor, survived.

On the decks below, titled A, B and C Decks, the loss of life was greater, as it was the location of several sections of tourist-class cabins. On A Deck, eleven passengers, consisting of ten women and one elderly clergyman, were all killed. In Cabin 230, three women, Margaret Carola, Christina Covino and Amelia Iazzetta, were killed instantly. Carola had been on board with her elderly mother Rosa Carola, who had also been assigned a berth in the cabin but because she suffered from a variety of health problems, she had been in the ship's infirmary at the time of the collision and survived. Covino and Iazzetta were both sisters from New York who were returning from a visit to Italy. They were accompanied by Iazzetta's husband Benvenuto, who had been berthed in another cabin and survived.

In the next cabin forward, Cabin 228, four more women lost their lives. Among them was Laura Bremermann, a young mother of two who was returning home to Fort Worth, Texas after visiting her native Italy. Two days before the disaster Bremermann sent a telegram to her husband Floyd asking him to meet her in New York. When he arrived to find her missing he inquired with the Italian line, who initially reported she was not on the passenger list, which Bremermann refuted using the telegram from his wife as proof. On B Deck, Andrea Dorias 50-car garage was staved in by the bow of Stockholm, but on C Deck, the worst loss of life occurred. A total of 26 people were killed in the collision section there, mostly Italian immigrant families.

Among those killed in the collision on C Deck was opera singer Agnes Baratta, who at the time was a leading soprano of Milan's La Scala Opera House. She and her elderly mother Margherita Baratta had been en route to Redwood City, California, to visit her sister, after which Agnes had intended to audition for the San Francisco Opera House. Maria Theresina Imberlone, like the Barattas, was also bound for the San Francisco Bay Area, and was also killed in the collision. Imberlone's husband Giacomo and their 13-year-old son Giovanni, who shared another cabin, both survived.

Among the losses was that of Maria Sergio and her four children, 13-year-old Giuseppe, 10-year-old Anna Maria, 7-year-old Domenica, and 4-year-old Rocco, who occupied a cabin on the starboard side of C Deck that was in direct line of the collision. She was traveling aboard Andrea Doria with her children on her way to South Bend, Indiana, where her husband, Ross Sergio, and their 17-year-old son Anthony, were waiting for them. Anthony Sergio had in fact sailed to the United States from Italy aboard Andrea Doria the previous April. Also traveling with them were Maria's sister Margaret and her husband Paul Sergio, who also happened to be Ross Sergio's brother. Paul and Margaret had emigrated to the U.S. prior to the voyage and had returned to Italy for a visit and to accompany Maria and the children back to Indiana. Both Paul and Margaret survived the sinking, and for years after the disaster, Paul was haunted by the memory of his four-year-old nephew Rocco, the youngest of his brother's children, who just hours prior to the collision had asked if he could spend the night with his uncle.

Also lost in the collision section of C deck were Angelina Diana and her two youngest children, eight-year-old Biaggio and six-year-old Victoria. They had been en route to Hartford, Connecticut, where Angelina's husband Antonio and three of their older children were waiting. In a 2003 episode of the History Channel series Deep Sea Detectives featuring the story of Andrea Doria, show host and wreck diver John Chatterton met with Angelina Diana's son Gennaro and his daughter, whom he'd named Angelina, after her grandmother, and heard the story of how the disaster came to impact their family so profoundly. In speaking with Chatterton, Gennaro recalled excitedly waking up that morning and driving to New York with his father and two older sisters to meet the rest of their family, but as the survivors from Andrea Doria came ashore, they waited for five or six days until it was confirmed that Angelina, Biaggio and Victoria were among the 51 people who lost their lives in the disaster. Meanwhile, the younger Angelina explained how she grew up with a sense of great pride having been named after her grandmother, which was in turn mirrored with sadness in never having gotten to know her, or her aunt and uncle. She then gives Chatterton a green bottle containing a family jewel, asking him to place it on the wreck to honor their loved ones' memory, which Chatterton does later in the episode during a dive to the wrecksite.

In addition to the lives lost in the collision, three more of Andrea Dorias passengers died from injuries and ailments that occurred during and after the evacuation. Norma Di Sandro, a four-year-old Italian girl traveling in tourist class with her parents, Tullio and Filomena Di Sandro, was dropped on her head into a lifeboat by her panicked father. She was taken to Stockholm and subsequently airlifted to Brighton Marine Hospital in Boston, where she died from a fractured cranium without ever regaining consciousness. Carl Watres, a businessman from Manasquan, New Jersey, who was traveling in cabin class aboard Andrea Doria with his wife Lillian, died from a sudden heart attack while en route to New York aboard Stockholm. Angelina Grego, a 48-year-old, broke her back after falling into one of Ile de France lifeboats. She was taken to St. Claire's Hospital in New York City, where she lingered in intense pain until her death six months later.

After the ships had separated, Stockholm crew members began to survey the damage. On the top deck of Stockholm, one of the crew came across Linda Morgan, who had been thrown from her bed on Andrea Doria as the two ships collided, and landed on Stockholms deck, suffering moderate but not life-threatening injuries. Others were not as fortunate, as five of Stockholms crew perished in the collision.

Aftermath
Litigation and determination of fault: 1956–1957

Several months of hearings were held in New York City in the aftermath of the collision. Prominent maritime attorneys represented both the ships' owners. Dozens of attorneys represented victims and families of victims. Officers of both ship lines had testified, including the officers in charge of each ship at the time of the collision, with more scheduled to appear later until an out-of-court settlement was reached, and the hearings ended abruptly.

Both shipping lines contributed to a settlement fund for the victims. Each line absorbed its own damages. For the Swedish-American Line, damages were estimated at $2 million, half for repairs to Stockholms bow, and half for lost business during repairs. The Italian Line sustained the loss of Andrea Dorias full value, estimated to be $30 million.

A U.S. Congressional hearing was also held, and provided some determinations, notably about the lack of ballasting specified by the builders during the fatal voyage and the resulting lack of seaworthiness of Andrea Doria after the collision. The Italian Line's chief lawyer was Morgan J. Burke Jr., who was awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his efforts.

While heavy fog was given as the primary cause of the accident, and it is not disputed that intermittent and heavy fog are both frequent and challenging conditions for mariners in that part of the ocean, these other factors have been cited:

 Andrea Dorias officers had not followed proper radar procedures or used the plotting equipment available in the chartroom adjacent to the bridge of their ship to plot and then calculate the course, position and speed of the other (approaching) ship. Thus, they failed to realize Stockholms speed and course.
 Andrea Doria had not followed the long-established rule that vessels approaching head-to-head both turn towards the right (to starboard). As Stockholm turned to starboard, Andrea Doria turned to port, closing the circle instead of opening it. Beyond a certain point, it became impossible to avoid a collision.
 Captain Calamai of Andrea Doria was deliberately speeding in heavy fog, an admittedly common practice on passenger liners. The navigation rules required speed to be reduced during periods of limited visibility to a stopping distance within half the distance of visibility. As a practical matter, this would have meant reducing the speed of the ship to virtually zero in the dense fog.
 Stockholm and Andrea Doria were experiencing different weather conditions immediately prior to the collision. The collision occurred in an area of the northern Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Massachusetts, where heavy and intermittent fog is common. Although Andrea Doria had been engulfed in the fog for several hours, Stockholm had only recently entered the bank and was still acclimating to atmospheric conditions. The officer in charge of Stockholm incorrectly assumed that his inability to see the other vessel was due to conditions other than fog, such as the other ship being a very small fishing vessel or a 'blacked-out' warship on maneuvers. He testified that he had no idea it was another passenger liner speeding through fog.
 Andrea Dorias fuel tanks were half empty and not pumped with seawater ballast to stabilize the ship, in accordance with the Italian Line's procedures. This contributed to the pronounced list following the collision, the inability of the crew to pump water into the port fuel tanks to right the ship, and the inability to use the port lifeboats for the evacuation.
 Also, a watertight door may have been missing between bulkheads near the engine room, which was thought to have contributed to Andrea Dorias problems.
 Stockholms navigating officer misread his radar thinking he was on a  setting when in reality the radar was set for . Thus, he thought he was farther from Andrea Doria than he actually was. He also failed to consult his captain as was required by regulation.

Both lines had an incentive to limit the public discussion of Andrea Dorias structural and stability problems. Stockholms owners had another new ship, Gripsholm, under construction at Ansaldo Shipyard in Italy, the same yard that had built Andrea Doria. Andrea Dorias designers and engineers had been scheduled to testify, but the hearings were abruptly concluded before their testimony could be heard due to the settlement agreement.

Resulting reforms
The Andrea Doria–Stockholm collision led to several rule changes in the immediate years following the incident to avoid a recurrence. Since this was essentially a radar-assisted collision event, in which over-use was made of poorly handled technology, shipping lines were required to improve training on the use of radar equipment. Also, approaching ships were required to make radio contact with one another. Both ships saw each other on their radar systems and attempted to turn. Unfortunately, one of the radar systems was poorly designed, resulting in the collision. Marine craft today are required to turn to starboard (right) in a head-on situation.

Later investigations and study
Unanswered questions about the tragedy, and questions of cause and blame, have intrigued observers and haunted survivors for over 50 years. The fact that Andrea Doria and Stockholm were speeding in heavy fog (21.8 knots and 18.5 knots, respectively, at the collision) and questions about their seaworthiness arose at the time. Captain Calamai never assumed another command because the Italian Line feared bad publicity. However, largely because the out-of-court settlement agreement between the two shipping companies ended the fact-finding that was taking place in the hearings immediately after the disaster, no resolution of the cause(s) was ever formally accomplished. This has led to continued development of information and a search for greater understanding, aided by newer technologies in over half a century since the disaster.

Recent discoveries using computer animation and newer undersea diving technology have shed additional light on some aspects.
 Many years later, scientific study of the actions of the two crews indicated a probability that the third mate on Stockholm misinterpreted his radar in the minutes prior to the impact. Recent studies and computer simulations carried out by Captain Robert J. Meurn of the United States Merchant Marine Academy and based on the findings of John C. Carrothers suggest Stockholm Third Officer Carstens-Johannsen misinterpreted radar data and badly overestimated the distance between the two ships. The poor design of the radar settings, coupled with unlighted range settings and a darkened bridge, makes this scenario possible. Some critics have suggested that a simple and available technology, a small light bulb on the radar set aboard Stockholm, might have averted the entire disaster. Instead, he may have unintentionally steered the Swedish ship into a collision with the Italian liner.RaiNews - RAI
 Exploration of Andrea Dorias impact area revealed that Stockholms bow had ripped a much larger gash in the critical area of the large fuel tanks and watertight compartments of the Italian liner than had been thought in 1956. The question of the "missing" watertight door, although still unanswered, was probably moot: Andrea Doria was doomed immediately after the collision.
 "...In maritime navigation, all collision avoidance manoeuvres are made based on the Collision Regulations COLREG. Although these rules have helped in managing the maritime traffic and also advised every vessel about the collision avoidance manoeuvres that need to be taken in every situation, they have not stopped accidents from happening (Demirel and Bayer, 2015; Lušić and Erceg, 2008). After a deep study of the COLREG a number of issues that can cause a hassle and confusion for the OOW (Officer On Watch) were identified (Belcher, 2002; Demirel and Bayer, 2015; Szlapczynski and Szlapczynska, 2015; Wylie, 1962)..." Extracted from Distance Comparative Review of Collision Avoidance Systems in Maritime and Aviation - Hesham Abdushkour, Osman Turan, Evangelos Boulougouris, Rafet Emek Kurt (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom), a paper addressed to the transfer of TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) aerospace technology to maritime navigation.

Wreck site

Due to the luxurious appointments and initially good condition of the wreck, with the top of the wreck lying initially in 160 feet (50 m) of water, Andrea Doria has been a frequent target of treasure divers. It is commonly referred to as the "Mount Everest of scuba diving." The comparison to Mt. Everest originated after a July 1983 dive on Andrea Doria by Capt. Alvin Golden during a CBS News-televised interview of the divers following their return from a dive expedition to the wreck aboard the R/V Wahoo. The depth, water temperature, and currents combine to put the wreck beyond the scope of recreational diving. The skills and equipment required to successfully execute this dive, such as use of mixed gases and staged decompression, put it in the realm of only the most experienced technical divers. The wreck is located near .

A week after Andrea Doria sank, divers Peter Gimbel and Joseph Fox managed to locate the wreck of the ship, and published pictures of the wreck in Life.

In 1968, film director Bruno Vailati, together with Stefano Carletti, Mimi Dies, Arnaldo Mattei, and Al Giddings (an experienced American diver), organized and directed the first Italian expedition to the wreck, producing the documentary titled Andrea Doria -74. The wreck was marked with a bronze plaque with the inscription: "We came here to work to make the dream come true and return the Andrea Doria to the light".

Peter Gimbel later conducted a number of salvage operations on the ship, including salvaging the first-class bank safe in 1981. Despite speculation that passengers had deposited many valuables, the safe, opened on live television in 1984, yielded thousands of American silver certificates, Canadian bank notes, American Express travellers checks, and Italian bank notes, but no other valuables. This outcome apparently confirmed other speculation that most Andrea Doria passengers, in anticipation of the ship's scheduled arrival in New York City the following morning, had already retrieved their valuables prior to the collision.

Evelyn Bartram Dudas (22) was the first woman to successfully dive onto Andrea Doria. Dudas reached the wreck in June 1967; she and her future husband, John Dudas, retrieved the ship's compass. Other well-known divers to explore the Andrea Doria are Steve Belinda, John Chatterton, Gary Gentile, Gary Gilligan, Richie Kohler and John Mattera.

As of 2010, years of ocean submersion have taken their toll. The wreck has aged and deteriorated extensively, with the hull now fractured and collapsed. The upper decks have slowly slid off the wreck to the seabed below. As a result of this transformation, a large debris field flows out from the hull of the liner. Once-popular access points frequented by divers, such as Gimbel's hole, no longer exist. Divers call Andrea Doria a "noisy" wreck, as it emits various noises due to continual deterioration and from the ocean currents moving broken metal around inside the hull. However, due to this decay, new access areas are constantly opening up for future divers on the ever-changing wreck.

A 2016 expedition to the wreck by OceanGate revealed that Andrea Doria was decaying rapidly. "When you look at the shape of the hull, it appears a lot has come off," Stockton Rush, OceanGate's CEO, said. One of the pieces now broken off the wreck is the ship's bow.

After years of removal of artifacts by divers, little of value was thought to remain. Significant artifacts recovered include the statue of Genoese Admiral Andrea Doria, for whom the ship was named. It was removed from the first-class lounge, having been cut off at the ankles to accomplish this. Examples of the ship's china have long been considered valuable mementos of diving the wreck. The ship's bell is normally considered to be the prize of a wreck. This ship carried three bells: one bell located on the bridge, and two much larger ceremonial bells located on the fore and aft decks. The ship's stern bell was retrieved in the late 1980s by a team of divers led by Bill Nagle. On 26 June 2010, a diver from New Jersey, Carl Bayer, diving from the Narragansett, Rhode Island-based dive boat EXPLORER, owned by Capt. Dave Sutton, discovered the bridge bell lying on the bottom at . He recovered it with assistance from Ernie Rookey, also from New Jersey. The bell,  tall and weighing , was possibly used to signal fog on the night of the collision. The forward bell remains undiscovered. It has for years been thought to be in the ship's paint locker where it was stored during ocean crossings, but recent reports indicate that this part of the ship has collapsed in on itself and the forward bell may never be found.

In 2017 a salvage team recovered one of the ship's two foghorns.  In July 2021 the restored foghorn was sounded  at the New Jersey Maritime Museum to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the sinking.

Deaths
Artifact recovery on Andrea Doria has resulted in additional loss of life. At least 22 scuba divers have lost their lives diving on the wreck, and diving conditions at the wreck site are considered very treacherous. Strong currents and heavy sediment that can reduce visibility to zero pose serious hazards to diving this site. Dr. Robert Ballard (who found the wrecks of the ocean liner , the , and the American aircraft carrier  and torpedo boat ) who visited the site in a US Navy submersible in 1995, reported that thick fishing nets draped the hull. An invisible web of thin fishing lines, which can snag scuba gear, increases danger. The wreck is slowly collapsing; the top of the wreck is now at , and many of the passageways have begun to collapse.

The wreck site is nicknamed "The Everest of Wreck Diving" because of the number of deaths exploring the site.

 1956: William Edgerton, 23, part of an effort to photograph the recently sunk Andrea Doria, died shortly after one of the valves on his breathing apparatus became partially closed.
 1981: John Barnett drowned while diving on Andrea Doria.
 1984: Frank Kennedy surfaced unconscious after a dive on Andrea Doria and died on board RV Wahoo before help arrived.
 1985: John Ormsby drowned after being caught in wires.A fairly detailed account of Ormsby's death is recounted in Chapter 1 of Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria by Kevin McMurray,
 1988: Joe Drozd died during a dive on Andrea Doria.
 1992: Mathew Lawrence and Mike Scofield drowned while diving on Andrea Doria.
 1993: Robert Santuli died from oxygen poisoning while diving on Andrea Doria.
 1998: Craig Sicola, Richard Roost, and Vincent Napoliello all died diving on Andrea Doria.
 1999: Christopher Murley and Charles J. McGurr both died of apparent heart attacks preparing for a second dive.
 2002: William Schmoldt died from decompression sickness.
 2006: Researcher David Bright died from decompression sickness.
 2008: Terry DeWolf of Houston, Texas, died during a dive on the wreck site; the cause of death was not determined.
 2011: Michael LaPrade of Los Angeles died during a dive on the wreck.
 2015: Tom Pritchard, 64, is presumed dead after diving on the wreck.
 2017: Steven Slater, 46, of Gateshead, England, was pulled from the water unconscious and could not be revived.

Legacy

MS StockholmStockholms bow was replaced in New York at a cost of $1 million. Today, the former Stockholm sails as  and is registered in Portugal. She is the oldest ocean liner still in service.

Survivors
Survivors went on with their lives with a wide range of experiences. Captain Calamai never accepted another command, and lived the rest of his life in sadness "as a man who has lost a son", according to his daughter. Most of the other officers returned to the sea. Some survivors had mental problems for years after the incident, while others felt their experience had helped them value their lives more preciously.

In culture
Artwork
 Two bronze medallions, commissioned by survivors Pierette Domenica Simpson and Jerome Reinert and survivor's daughter Angela Addario, are in the South Street Seaport Museum of New York, and in the Museo del Mare of Genova, Italy.
 California sculptor Daniel Oberti created the two works called The Greatest Sea Rescue in History.
 A large-scale painting, The Andrea Doria Crosses the World Trade Center by Ronald Mallory, was commissioned by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for Windows on the World at the World Trade Center. The painting hung on the 107th floor since 1982, and was lost with the destruction of the towers on 11 September 2001.
 An oil painting, The Andrea Doria in Genoa Harbor by Michael E. Von Drak, commissioned June 1986 by Bruno P. Pella for his Ristorante Grifone, San Francisco, California.

Music
In 1969 Polish rock band Niebiesko-Czarni with singer Wojciech Korda recorded the song "Andrea Doria"

In 1973, German singer Udo Lindenberg published an album titled Alles klar auf der Andrea Doria (All's Well on the Andrea Doria), containing a song of the same name.

The liner is also referenced in the Steely Dan song "Things I Miss The Most" from their 2003 album Everything Must Go.

In 1986 Brazilian rock band Legião Urbana recorded the song "Andrea Doria" in their second album Dois.

Books
The liner is mentioned in more than 500 of the many written biographies of Elvis Presley, because one of the survivors was Mike Stoller of the songwriting team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. As Stoller reached the port of New York, Leiber informed him at the main dock that their 1952 composition "Hound Dog", a number one R&B record for  Big Mama Thornton, was once more and right there and then, the number one record in the nation in all three charts: R&B, Pop and C&W, albeit this time "by a young Mississippian by the name of Elvis Presley". Stoller, who had been in Europe for over 10 months, did not know who Presley was, so he asked Leiber the now famous "Elvis who?". They would go on to write several more number one hits, including two written exclusively for Presley, "Don't", a number one in early 1958, as well as the title song and most of the soundtrack for Presley's third movie, the 1957 MGM production of the mega hit "Jailhouse Rock".

The liner is also mentioned often in the book Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. This true story talks about many of the divers that dove on the Andrea Doria and about some of their dives.
Fiction
In the 1969 adventure novel The Poseidon Adventure, the Andrea Dorias collision with Stockholm and resulting sinking are briefly mentioned by Hubert Miller, who compares the capsizing of SS Poseidon to that of Andrea Doria.

In Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, a  stakes out a New York-to-Europe convoy intended to reinforce NATO against a Soviet attack by sitting next to the wreck of Andrea Doria – hoping to confuse magnetic anomaly detector readings.  and , working in conjunction, use their helicopters to find and destroy the submarine.

In Clive Cussler's Serpent (1999), the Andrea Doria was purposely sunk by the secret organization called the "Brotherhood" to hide the fact of pre-Columbian contact of Mayans and Europe made by Phoenicians. The liner was carrying a large stone tablet that was essential to find out the long lost Phoenician treasure.I Was Shipwrecked on the Andrea Doria! The Titanic of the 1950s was written by survivor Pierette Domenica Simpson.

Non-fiction
Several books have been written about the Andrea Doria. Each presented information not contained in the others, thereby providing varying perspectives.
 The story of the accident was retold by Alvin Moscow in his book Collision Course: The Story of the Collision Between the 'Andrea Doria' and the 'Stockholm, published in 1959.
 Ile de Frances Captain Raoul de Beaudéan's memoirs were translated and published in the US in 1960, under the title Captain of the Ile by McGraw Hill Book Company; its Chapter 12, titled "A Tragic Night", covers the rescue of the passengers of the Andrea Doria.
 Author William Hoffer's Saved: the Story of the Andrea Doria – The Greatest Sea Rescue in History was published in 1979.
 The 2002 book Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria , by Kevin F. McMurray recounts diving the wreck and some of the incidents that have led to divers' deaths.
 In 2003, Richard Goldstein wrote Desperate Hours: The Epic Rescue of the Andrea Doria.
 In 2004, Shadow Divers, by Robert Kurson, provides accounts of wreckage divers at the site as a precursor to the book's main story.
 The 2005 book "The Lost Ships of Robert Ballard" by Robert Ballard, and Rick Archbold (with paintings by Ken Marschall) has a chapter about the liner and its sinking.
 The most recent, Alive on the Andrea Doria: The Greatest Sea Rescue in History, is by survivor Pierette Domenica Simpson in 2006.

Onscreen and online
Films and videos
 Several documentaries have been produced. These include works by National Geographic Channel, PBS Secrets of the Dead, Discovery Channel, History Channel, and others.
 A seminarian from the Archdiocese of Chicago interviewed two priests and a retired bishop, survivors of the Andrea Doria, and subsequently produced an oral history presentation titled Voices from the Andrea Doria, which can be accessed online.
 On the Waterfront (1954, by Elia Kazan) is the only film in which Andrea Doria is visible; in a scene, Terry Malloy (played by Marlon Brando) watches the ship as she descends the Hudson River.
 The 144th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld featured Andrea Doria as a plot device when the character George goes up against an Andrea Doria survivor to become the lessee of an apartment, and it is revealed that the character Kramer owns a book detailing oceanic wrecks and has extensive knowledge of the Andrea Doria.
 In the episode "Spanakopita" of the animated series The Venture Bros., a safe from Andrea Doria is shown housed within a ship, owned by the villain, Augustus St. Cloud, among other various movie memorabilia such as the golden idol and stone pedestal from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
 In the Night Gallery episode "Lone Survivor", the crew of the  picks up a lifeboat from the  on 7 May 1915, three years after Titanic sank. A man in the lifeboat claims to have supernaturally survived the wreck as a kind of human Flying Dutchman and tries, without success, to convince Lusitanias captain to alter course to avoid the torpedo attack he foresees. On 26 July 1956, the man is found again in a Lusitania lifeboat, this time by the crew of the Andrea Doria.
 The 2002 horror film Ghost Ship features the fictional Italian luxury liner Antonia Graza, whose design was based on that of Andrea Doria. This was mentioned in the special feature clips on the film's DVD release.
 Luca Guardabascio directed the 2016 docufilm Andrea Doria: Are the Passengers Saved? based on Pierette Domenica Simpson's non-fiction book, Alive on the Andrea Doria! The Greatest Sea Rescue in History.
The action-adventure video game, Tomb Raider II, features a cluster of levels set in the wreck of an Italian cruiser named The Maria Doria, supposedly based on the Andrea Doria.

Photography
Photographer Robert F. McCrystal, from the Providence Journal, was the first to photograph the fatally struck Andrea Doria from an airplane. One of his photographs ran on the cover of LIFE Magazine.

Boston newspaper photographer Harry A. Trask, who arrived at the scene in a small airplane after many media people had left, took a series of photographs of Andrea Dorias final moments above water, which won a Pulitzer Prize.

Online and film
 Andrea Doria – Tragedy and Rescue at Sea (23 July 2005). AndreaDoria.org.
 Alive on the Andrea Doria! The Greatest Sea Rescue in History and
 Andrea Doria – The Sinking of the Unsinkable Gare Maritime Andrea Doria. Lost Liners: PBS Online.
 Secrets of the Dead: The Sinking of the Andrea Doria on PBS Online and also shown on The History Channel – see Secrets of the Dead The Sinking of the Andrea Doria (TV episode 2006) – IMDb
 Night Gallery Kurson, Robert (2015). Pirate Hunters. Random House. . Season 1, Episode 5, "Lone Survivor" (TV episode 1971) – IMDb
 "What Happened to the Andrea Doria" Casual Navigation, 2019 (YouTube Video)
 Catastrophe (1977), hosted by William Conrad
  The Story of The Andra Doria (YouTube Video) ]

See also
 Quester I

References

Further reading

  Noted updated version published in 1981.

 The New York Times'', "Doria Skin Diver Dies, Was In Group Set to Film Ship-Oxygen Supply Cut Off", 2 August 1956, Page 13.

External links

 Andrea Doria Crew and Passenger List
 A reconstruction of the Andrea Doria/Stockholm collision
 Yellow Submarine: a failed attempt to raise Andrea Doria

1951 ships
1956 in Massachusetts
History of Nantucket, Massachusetts
Maritime accidents involving fog
Maritime incidents in 1956
Ocean liners
Passenger ships of Italy
Ships built by Gio. Ansaldo & C.
Ships built in Genoa
Ships sunk in collisions
Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
Shipwrecks of the Massachusetts coast
Steamships of Italy
Wreck diving sites

SS Andrea Doria


Ferguson v. McKiernan is a 3-2 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling from 2007 which reversed a lower court's ruling. The lower court ruled that sperm donor Joel McKiernan had to pay child support. In its ruling, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that sperm donors would be less likely to donate their sperm if they were at risk of being forced to pay child support. The two dissenting Justices said that there was no basis in existing Pennsylvania law for the court's ruling.

References

2000s in Pennsylvania

Ferguson v. McKiernan


Germantown is an unincorporated community in Hyde County, North Carolina, United States.

The community is at the intersection of Swindell and German Town Roads. Germantown is approximately 52.66 miles east-southeast of Greenville, 44 miles southeast of Williamston and 240.4 miles south-southeast of Washington, D.C., at an elevation of approximately four feet above mean sea level. German Town Road was renamed by the USPS with the advent of 911 addresses.  Germantown was the Hyde County seat in the late 1700s into the early 1800s.  Originally named for English colonist Bernard Germain, it was called Germain Town until the name was conscripted by the timber industry from Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, which is also when Scranton NC was renamed, to make the German Americans and the Mennonites more comfortable being transported south to cut down the Cypress Trees and clear the swamps.  As of 9 January 2021, there is only one permanent resident of what can at best be described as the remnants of a neighborhood, not a village, and it is a mere coincidence that she happens to be of German American descent.

References

German-American culture in North Carolina
Unincorporated communities in North Carolina
Unincorporated communities in Hyde County, North Carolina
Populated coastal places in North Carolina

Germantown, North Carolina


The Dearing Report, formally known as the reports of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, is a series of major reports into the future of Higher Education in the United Kingdom, published in 1997. The report was commissioned by the UK government and was the largest review of higher education in the UK since the Robbins Committee in the early 1960s. The principal author was Sir Ronald Dearing, the Chancellor of the University of Nottingham. It made 93 recommendations concerning the funding, expansion, and maintenance of academic standards.

The most significant change in funding recommended by the report is a shift from undergraduate tuition being funded entirely by grants from the government to a mixed system in which tuition fees, supported by low interest government loans, are raised.

The report recommended expansion of sub-degree courses, and degree level courses at university, proposing that there was sufficient demand from employers for applicants with higher qualifications for natural growth of higher education.

To the maintenance of standards the report recommended that the teaching staff receive some amount of training in teaching during their probationary period. It further proposes a system in which credit earned at one institution could be transferred to another.

The title "The Dearing Report" is also often given to the 2001 report "The Way Ahead: Church of England schools in the new millennium" which was chaired by Lord Dearing.

Committee members
1997 report
Sir John Arbuthnott
Brenda Dean
Sir Ronald Dearing (Chairman)
Sir Geoffrey Holland
Sir Ronald Oxburgh
David E. Potter
Sir George Quigley
Sir William Stubbs
Sir Richard Sykes
Sir David Watson
Sir David Weatherall

2001 report
Lord Dearing
The Rev John Hall

See also
Browne Review

References

External links
The Dearing Report
BBC article about Dearing
Dearing Report The Way Ahead

History of higher education in the United Kingdom
Reports of the United Kingdom government
1997 in the United Kingdom

Dearing Report


Ameesha Patel (; born 9 June 1975) is an Indian actress who primarily appears in Hindi and Telugu films. Patel is a recipient of several awards such as a Filmfare Award and a Zee Cine Award.

Patel made her acting debut in 2000 with the romantic thriller film Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, a major commercial success, which earned her the Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut. This success continued with the Telugu action film Badri (2000) and the top-grossing period film Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), which won her a Filmfare Special Performance Award. After starring in Humraaz and Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai (both 2002), Patel's career declined, and she took on supporting roles in Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007), Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) and Race 2 (2013).

After continued fluctuations, Patel made a career comeback by reprising her role in the sequel Gadar 2 (2023), which emerged as her highest grossing release. In addition to her acting career, Patel is a humanitarian and works for a number of causes.

Early life and background
Patel was born to a Gujarati father, Amit Patel, and a Sindhi and Punjabi NRI mother, Asha, on 9 June 1975. She is the sister of Ashmit Patel and the granddaughter of lawyer-politician Barrister Rajni Patel, who was the Congress Pradesh Committee President of Mumbai. She was born in the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai and has been a trained Bharatnatyam dancer since the age of five. Her birth-name is a blend of the first three letters of her father's name Amit and the last three letters of her mother's name Asha.

Patel studied at Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai and was head girl for the academic year 1992–93 before heading to Tufts University in Boston in the United States to study bio-genetic engineering, which she studied for two years, before eventually switching her major to economics.

Patel's career began as an economic analyst at Khandwala Securities Limited after graduation. Later on, she received an offer from Morgan Stanley but turned it down. After returning to India, she joined Satyadev Dubey's theatre group and acted in plays, including an Urdu language play titled Neelam (1999), that was written by Tanveer Khan, upon receiving permission from her conservative parents.
At the same time she plunged into modelling, appearing in several commercial campaigns. Patel has also modelled for well-known Indian brands such as Bajaj, Fair & Lovely, Cadburys, Fem, Lux and many more.

Her grandfather Rajni Patel was a lawyer and Indian national congress's politician. A street in Mumbai 'Barrisrer Rajani Patel Marge' was named after him in 1986.

Acting career

Debut and initial success (2000–2002)
Patel's first opportunity for acting came in the form of an offer from her father's schoolmate, Rakesh Roshan, to star opposite his son, Hrithik Roshan, in the romantic thriller Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000). The offer came immediately after she graduated from high school, but she refused the project because she wanted to continue her education in the US. Afterwards, Kareena Kapoor replaced her, but luckily, Kapoor dropped out a few days into the principal photography and Patel was given the opportunity once again during a family lunch. She readily agreed to do the project this time. The role of Sonia Saxena, an exuberant college girl in love, undergoing a tortuous time after losing her lover and rediscovering a more mature relationship, gave Patel scope to perform. The film was a major commercial success and established Patel as a rising star, earning her a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. In her second film, the Telugu language drama Badri, she starred opposite Pawan Kalyan. The film was a major success, earning more than ₹12 crore distributor share in India.

2001 saw her appearing in Anil Sharma's cross-border romance , alongside Sunny Deol. Patel signed on much before she shot into the limelight with Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai and was among 22 girls that were screen-tested from 500 girls who came to audition for the film. Patel had gone through a 12-hour audition before she got the part. The film went on to become the top-grossing film of the year, as well as the biggest hit of the 21st century, earning Rs 973 million in India. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, it featured Patel as Sakeena, a Muslim girl who finds refuge in Deol's house during the riots, and subsequently falls for him. Her performance was praised, and won her the Filmfare Special Performance Award, in addition to her first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress. Taran Adarsh of IndiaFM concluded: "Despite being one-film-old, Patel deserves full marks for handling the complex role with elegance. She looks the character she is portraying and impresses with a natural performance." The film was perceived as being excessively anti-Pakistani.

These successes were followed by a series of films that flopped at the box office. In the romantic drama Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar (2001) opposite Jimmy Sheirgill, she played a successful singer who was abandoned by her mother at the time of her birth.

In 2002, Patel starred in three consecutive flops. In Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage, she played the role of Sapna, who is caged in protective custody of her own father. The film marked her second collaboration with Hrithik Roshan. Unlike their successful pairing in Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, the film proved to be a major disappointment and emerged as a critical and commercial failure. Patel's performance in the film was highly criticised by a section of the media, but during an interview she clarified that there was an "error" because the scene explaining that her character is supposed to be asthmatic in the film was edited out not knowing that one shot would make such a difference, thus creating confusion to the viewer about her appearing out of breath, as if she's overacting or crying. Patel's unsuccessful follow-up continued with Kranti opposite Bobby Deol and David Dhawan's comedy Yeh Hai Jalwa opposite Salman Khan. The same year, she tasted minor box office success with the romance Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai, in which she played a career-oriented young woman who rejects the advances of Aftab Shivdasani's character. She found major success when her final release of the year, the musical romantic thriller Humraaz alongside Bobby Deol and Akshaye Khanna. The Abbas–Mustan directorial saw her play a character with negative shades for the first time. She played the girlfriend of Akshaye Khanna, who marries Bobby Deol to grab his wealth – but, seeing Bobby's honesty, her character surrenders to him. Taran Adarsh commented: "Patel is just about okay as Akshaye's lover (first half), but splendid as Bobby's wife (second half). This performance should silence her detractors for sure. Also, she's looked her best with admirable outfits and perfect make-up." Humraaz emerged as the fifth highest-grossing film of the year at the box office, and her performance earned her a second nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

Struggle phase (2003–2006)
During 2003 to 2006, Patel's acting career entered a slump. After the success of Humraaz, her string of unsuccessful films followed, and continued until 2006. In 2003, her only releases were the Tamil language film Pudhiya Geethai and the Hindi film Deepak Bahry's Parwana. Pudhiya Geethai was the first and only Tamil film that she ever starred in. Her releases in 2004, Vimal Kumar's comedy Suno Sasurjee, a delayed production since 2000, and her second Telugu language film Naani, followed. The same year, she also appeared in the music videos for "O Meri Jaan" and "Hai Kasam Tu Na Ja" by Adnan Sami.

In 2005, she starred in Satish Kaushik's thriller Vaada, playing Arjun Rampal's unfaithful wife who is followed by her obsessive ex-lover. In her next release, Elaan, she played a TV reporter. She later appeared in Ketan Mehta's historical drama Mangal Pandey: The Rising alongside Aamir Khan, where she played the role of the soft-spoken Jwala, a Bengali widow who gets rescued from committing Sati by a British commanding officer. Patel was cast as a replacement for Aishwarya Rai under the recommendation of Khan, who was impressed by her IQ level when he saw her on BBC under the segment of Question Time India in 2003. The film, which saw her in a deglamorized role for the first time, emerged as an average grosser at the box office. Her other releases that year include Zameer: The Fire Within, a delayed production since 2001, and the Telugu film Narasimhudu, both which failed at the box office.

Patel featured in six films in 2006, all of which failed commercially. She first appeared alongside Akshay Kumar and Karisma Kapoor in Suneel Darshan's musical romance Mere Jeevan Saathi, a delayed production since 2003. Her second release, Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai, saw her playing a blind village girl who gets stuck in a love triangle after undergoing eye surgery. The production was halted since 2002 due to the passing of its director-producer, until Patel's boyfriend then, Vikram Bhatt, took it upon himself to complete the project. The film had a limited release and failed to perform at the box office with some critics terming it as "outdated". In Teesri Aankh: The Hidden Camera, Patel played the role of a mute girl who witnesses a murder. She learned sign language for the role. She was next cast alongside Sanjay Dutt in Tathastu, based on Denzel Washington's thriller John Q, (2002). Patel's fifth release in 2006, Ankahee, earned her critical praise, despite emerging as a commercial failure at the box office. The film centred around an extramarital affair with Patel playing a housewife whose husband cheats on her with a model. To understand the mentality of a wronged wife, Patel spoke to her own grandmother who had undergone a similar situation. Diganta Guha from Hindustan Times noted "...it's Patel's performance that remains in your mind. She is dignity personified in the film, playing a woman betrayed in marriage, going all out to save it and in the end choosing her own path." Later that year, she appeared alongside Akshaye Khanna and Priyanka Chopra in Dharmesh Darshan's romantic comedy Aap Ki Khatir.

2007–present

After appearing in a series of box office flops during 2003–2006, Patel's career prospects improved in 2007. Her first release that year was the ensemble comedy drama Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.. The low-budget film achieved moderate success at the box office. Patel played the role of Karan Khanna's talkative wife who tries to overcome her husband's gay leanings. Her comic timing in the film was well received. Later in 2007, she co-starred opposite Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan and Shiney Ahuja in Priyadarshan's horror comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa as a rejected adopted girl who is accused of trying to disrupt the marriage of her childhood crush.

In an attempt to renew her image, Patel appeared in a bikini item number, "Lazy Lamhe", in Kunal Kohli's fantasy comedy-drama Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic (2008). She learned scuba diving for the song that took 15 days to complete. Although the film flopped at the box office, Patel managed to garner attention for her appearance.

After the release of Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, Patel signed on to two comedies; Run Bhola Run and Chatur Singh Two Star. However, both films were continuously delayed despite being completed in 2009. She next attempted a comeback by signing on to Rajkumar Santoshi's Power.  Patel was set to alongside an ensemble cast which also included Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor, Ajay Devgn and Kangana Ranaut, but the film was shelved after eight days of principal photography. Despite repeated attempts to land a starring role, Patel dropped out of several projects due to various reasons.

Following a two-and-a-half-year sabbatical, she made a comeback to the Telugu film industry in a brief role with Parama Veera Chakra (2011) alongside Nandamuri Balakrishna; the film flopped. In the same year, the long-delayed Chatur Singh Two Star saw the light of day after three years and emerged as a critical and commercial disaster. Run Bhola Run remains unreleased following the shutting down of the production company Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision, despite the trailer and posters being unveiled in late 2010.

On 23 April 2011, Patel hosted an event launching her production company, Ameesha Patel Productions, in collaboration with her friend and business partner Kuunal Goomer. Their debut home production, Desi Magic, was launched at an event on 2 April 2013.

In 2013, Patel returned to Hindi cinema with a special appearance in Abbas–Mustan's Race 2, replacing Sameera Reddy as Anil Kapoor's ditzy assistant. Though the film was critically panned, it emerged a box office success. She followed it with a starring role alongside Neil Nitin Mukesh in Shortcut Romeo, a Hindi remake of the 2006 Tamil hit Thiruttu Payale. The film opened to mixed reviews and performed poorly at the box office.

The teaser trailer for Desi Magic was launched on 18 December 2014.

In 2018, she played a movie star in the ensemble action comedy Bhaiaji Superhit alongside Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta, a production in the making since 2012. The film was poorly received by critics.

On 19 January 2019, it was announced her debut home production Desi Magic has been complete after six years in the making. However, it remains unreleased due to a legal battle.

In the same year, she entered the reality show Bigg Boss 13 with a twist. She was seen as the maalkin of the house for the first week to give different interesting tasks to the housemates.

In 2023, Patel returned to acting after five years by reprising her role as Sakeena in Gadar 2, 22 years since its predecessor released. Despite a mixed critical response, the film was declared an all time blockbuster. "Ameesha Patel doesn't have much to do and is competent in her emotional scenes," noted Devesh Sharma of Filmfare. She followed it up with a special appearance in Mystery of the Tattoo.

Other work

Stage performances

Patel performed in a number of concerts and world tours during her career. Her first world tour; The Roshans: Hrithik Live in Concert (2001), along with Hrithik Roshan, was performed across India.
In 2004, Patel took part in a series of concerts in the world tour Craze 2004 alongside Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan and Lara Dutta. In 2005, Patel participated in Adnan Sami's world tour Kuch Dil Se… that was performed across the US and Canada from 15 April till 15 May.
In October 2008, she participated in Himesh Reshammiya's comeback concert Karzzzz Musical Curtain Raiser joined by Neha Dhupia, Riya Sen and Amrita Arora. In December 2008, she took part in Akshay Kumar's Christmas Eve show Chandni Chowk to Hong along with Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra, Riya Sen, Aarti Chhabria, Himesh Reshammiya and Punjabi rapper Bohemia as part of a promotional campaign for Kumar's film Chandni Chowk to China (2009). In response to 26/11, many New Year's Eve concerts for 2009 were cancelled, but Patel and Country Club India decided to go ahead with their show because they thought it would be against the terrorists' will.

Humanitarian work
In September 2004, Patel joined PETA, one of the organisations championing the cause of animals, as part of an advertising campaign which highlights the lives of captive animals in a zoo who are robbed of their natural surroundings for the amusement of others. Patel posed as a petrified prisoner in a jail cell to throw focus on the plight of animals in zoos. She said:

In February 2005, along with other Bollywood stars, Patel performed at the HELP! Telethon Concert raising money for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. She also took part in the Temptations 2005 charity function in New Delhi on 24 December 2005 at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in aid of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled Persons (NCPEDP), a leading disabled rights' group.

In November 2006, Patel joined an NGO called PlanetRead, which helps people in villages to learn reading through film songs. In October 2007, Patel along with John Abraham and Kirron Kher joined the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to curb human trafficking in India.

In the media

Between 2002 and 2005, Patel made an appearance in a number of talk shows such as Rendezvous with Simi Garewal and The Manish Malhotra Show. In 2006, Patel appeared as the guest judge on the special Valentine's Day episode of the singing talent contest Indian Idol 2.

Patel is frequently cited as one of the sexiest Bollywood actresses. Rediff featured Patel as one of Bollywood's sexiest actresses and top Bollywood actresses of 2001. She was ranked tenth on Rediff's list of 2008's Sexiest Actresses. Patel was also cited by Rediff as one of 2008's Sexiest Magazine Cover Girls. She has featured on the cover of Maxim India three times, as well as other men magazines such as The Man, FHM, and Man's World.

In 2023, she was criticised by social media users for her homophobic comments. She said OTT platform  is 'full of homosexuality, gay-lesbianism…', which she likened to material that forces parents to put child locks on their televisions or they have to cover their kids' eyes. However, she rectified her statements since and clarified that her comments were misunderstood.

Personal life
In 1999, Patel met filmmaker Vikram Bhatt on the set of their first film together; Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage (2002), and they started dating since the film's release. Later, it caused a rift between the Patel and Bhatt families with Patel running through a financial crisis after her father used her hard-earned money to resurrect a family business, causing misunderstandings between Patel and her parents. In July 2004, Patel sent a legal notice to her father for mismanaging her accounts and assets amounting to Rs 120 million and demanding the money back. Patel's relationship with Bhatt was often reported to the media speculating on a possible marriage. In January 2008, the media reported that Patel and Bhatt broke their five-year relationship. Bhatt confirmed the break-up in a conversation with Mid-Day. Shortly afterwards, Patel's parents explained their willingness to reconcile with their daughter and that "everybody is happy about the break-up" but their relationship remained strained. On 12 March 2008, Patel was spotted with London-based businessman Kanav Puri at Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week. In June 2008, she confirmed their relationship in an interview with Mid-Day: "I did not admit to Kanav sooner because he's very special and I did not want to jinx it. It was too precious for me to talk about it to people. It's almost six months now and now I am feeling secure and now I know our relationship is too strong for anything or anyone to come between us." The media once reported that she married Puri but she denied these rumours.

In August 2009, Mumbai Mirror reported that Patel and her brother, Ashmit, had patched up on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan and were spotted together at PVR Cinemas in Juhu. Although the siblings agreed that the matter is sorted, they preferred not to speak about it publicly. In December 2009, Patel's mother Asha had revealed they have finally ended their five-year estrangement during an interview with The Times of India.

In September 2010, Mumbai Mirror reported that Patel broke off the relationship with her long-time boyfriend Kanav Puri, to focus on her career. She confirmed it via Twitter.

Controversies
In August 2006, an Air India employee had filed a police complaint, alleging that Patel had misbehaved with her after her companion was not upgraded to first class on the Mumbai-New York flight on 18 August. Patel was on her way to attend India's Independence Day parade in New York. Officers at the police station said Patel could be called in and warned about her behaviour, if charges against her are proved, and would be questioned once she returns from abroad. Later, CISF personnel have corroborated the Air India employees' version of the incident. Once Patel returned to India, she stated that the employees "are only trying to safeguard themselves by filing a false complaint against us." Incidentally, there was also a drunken passenger, who joined in this verbal fight. Afterwards, the organisers of the annual parade sent a written apology and a clarification to Patel and said it had booked two first class seats for Patel and her companion for the Mumbai-New York flight but the booking was automatically transferred from one flight to another, creating confusion.

Filmography

Television

Music videos

Awards and nominations

References

Further reading
 Trivedi, Hiten J. In the Pursuit of Happiness. Stardust. 6 September 2011.
 Udasi, Harshikaa. Reasons to smile. The Hindu. 1 June 2009.
 Bharadwaj, Praveena. Who Cares? Shrugs Amisha Patel. Indiatimes.com. June 2002.
 Dubey, Bharati. The Amisha Patel interview. Rediff.com. 17 April 2002.
 Shariff, Faisal. 'Gadar – my heartbeat, my passion, my life!'. Rediff.com. 3 July 2001.
 Verma, Sukanya. 'It's unfair to have just one goal in life'. Rediff.com. 22 November 1999.

External links

1975 births
Living people
20th-century Indian actresses
Indian film actresses
Female models from Mumbai
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Actresses in Tamil cinema
Actresses in Telugu cinema
Actresses from Mumbai
Gujarati people
Tufts University alumni
Sindhi people
Cathedral and John Connon School alumni
21st-century Indian actresses
Indian women engineers
Zee Cine Awards winners

Ameesha Patel


Ninel Aleksandrovna Kurgapkina (; 13 February 1929, Leningrad – 10 May 2009, Beloostrov) was a Soviet and Russian dance teacher and former prima ballerina for the Kirov Ballet with over 50 years stage experience. She was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1974.

Ninel Kurgapkina was one of the last pupils of Agrippina Vaganova. She graduated her ballet school and joined the Kirov Ballet in 1947, where she danced such roles as Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), Myrtha (Giselle), Odette-Odile (Swan Lake), Kitri (Don Quixote), Jeanne (Flames of Paris) and Parasha (The Bronze Horseman).

Despite their age difference, Ninel Kurgapkina was the first female ballet partner to Rudolf Nureyev, and later also to Mikhail Baryshnikov, both of whom were trained at the Kirov.

From 1969 she was a primary coach at the Kirov and also taught master classes at institutions including the New York City Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, and the La Scala Opera Ballet. She was appointed a director of the Vaganova Academy in 1972. She was an Associate Ballet Mistress at the Masterpiece Dance Theatre since 1994.

She died, aged 80, in a traffic collision in Beloostrov, on 10 May 2009.

See also
List of Russian ballet dancers

References

External links
Biodata (Ballerinagallery.com)
Biodata (Vaganova Ballet System Ltd.)

1929 births
2009 deaths
20th-century Russian ballet dancers
Dancers from Saint Petersburg
Honored Artists of the RSFSR
People's Artists of the RSFSR
People's Artists of the USSR
Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Ballet teachers
Mariinsky Ballet dancers
Prima ballerinas
Vaganova graduates
Russian ballerinas
Soviet ballerinas
Pedestrian road incident deaths
Road incident deaths in Russia

Ninel Kurgapkina


Sri Lankabhimanya Dingiri Banda Wijetunga (,; 15 February 1916 – 21 September 2008) was the fourth President of Sri Lanka from 7 May 1993 to 12 November 1994, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 3 March 1989 to 7 May 1993 and the Governor of North Western province, Sri Lanka from 1988 to 1989. He was awarded Sri Lanka's highest award to a civilian Sri Lankabhimanya in 1993 by President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

Early life and education
Wijetunga was born on 15 February 1916 to Wijethunga Mudiyanselage Delgahapitiya Arachchila and his wife Manamperi Mudiyanselage Palingumanike Manamperi, as the eldest in a middle-class Sinhala Buddhist family living on the outskirts of the then Udunuwara parliamentary seat in the Kandy District of the Central Province in Sri Lanka. He completed his primary education at Waligalla Central College and thereafter moved on to St Andrew's College in Gampola.

Early career
After completing his schooling, he joined Ceylon Police as a constable in 1939 and served in Borella, Fort and Maradana and left service in 1942. Subsequently, he joined the Co-operative Department as a Co-operative Inspector thereafter from 1947 to 1959.

Political career
He was closely associated with veteran politicians like George E. de Silva and A. Ratnayaka. A. Ratnayake who was then Minister of Food and Co-operatives in the D.S. Senanayake Cabinet took him as his Private Secretary.

He joined the United National Party in 1946 and unsuccessfully contested the Kadugannawa electorate in the 1956 general election, the Yatinuwara electorate in the March 1960 general election and the Udunuwara electorate in the July 1960 general election. He entered parliament for the first time when he successfully contested the Udunuwara electorate at the 1965 general election.

He lost the Udunuwara electorate in 1970, but was returned to Parliament in the 1977 UNP landslide, being appointed Cabinet Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the J.R. Jayewardene administration. During this regime, Wijetunga functioned in various ministerial capacities holding the portfolios of Posts and Telecommunication, Power, Highways and Agricultural Development.

He served briefly as the Governor of North Western province in 1988 before returning to Parliamentary politics a few months later. In the last general election he contested he secured the largest number of preferential votes in the Kandy District.

Prime minister
Wijetunga was surprisingly appointed Prime Minister in 1989 by President Ranasinghe Premadasa. He also held the Ministries of Finance and Labour and Vocational Training in addition to being the State Minister of Defence in the Premadasa administration.

Lalith Athulathmudali was shot dead in April 1993 while campaigning for the Provincial Council elections. The killing provoked widespread protests against the government and allegations were hurled at the President for complicity in the assassination. A week later President Premadasa was also murdered in Colombo on May Day 1993 in a suicide bombing widely considered to be an act of the Tamil Tigers. Wijetunga became acting president until parliament convened to elect a successor to the slain president under the terms of the Constitution.

Wijetunga was elected unanimously by Parliament to complete the remainder of Premadasa's term and was sworn in as the third executive President on 7 May 1993.

Presidency

His rule coincided with the rise of Chandrika Kumaratunga within the ranks of the SLFP.

He did not believe that peace could be achieved by negotiating with the LTTE. The Eastern Province was liberated from the LTTE during his tenure except for Thoppigala.

After a decisive defeat in the Southern Provincial Council Election in 1994, he dissolved parliament prematurely in June of that year.

However his party was defeated in the 1994 general election and Wijetunga appointed Kumaratunga as Prime Minister. Even though under the constitution, Wijetunga was bestowed with wide powers, he chose not to exercise much authority, letting the Prime Minister manage the affairs of the country.

He decided not to contest the presidential election and he appointed Lucky Jayawardena as the organizer for his electorate Udunuwara. He relinquished office in November 1994 after Kumaratunga was elected President by an unprecedented majority. His political career was succeeded by Jayawardena (MP).

Death
D.B. Wijetunga died after a prolonged illness around 9.30 am on 21 September 2008 at Kandy General Hospital. He was 92.

Further reading

References

2. Obituary Associated Press

External links
Dingiri Banda Wijetunga. India Today Group.
  Dingiri Banda Wijetunga – the journey to greatness  by  M.B. Dassanayake
  Sri Lankan Daily News Editorial on Sep 22, 2008
  A rare politician with exemplary qualities
    A president and gentleman
   President D.B. Wijetunga – An end of an era
   President D. B. Wijetunga The final journey
 Website of the Parliament of Sri Lanka
 Presidents of Sri Lanka
  Rivira Katu Satahana in Sinhala
 Biography Sri Lankan Daily News on the 23 of september

1916 births
2008 deaths
Members of the 6th Parliament of Ceylon
Members of the 8th Parliament of Sri Lanka
Members of the 9th Parliament of Sri Lanka
Finance ministers of Sri Lanka
Leaders of the United National Party
Presidents of Sri Lanka
Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka
Acting presidents of Sri Lanka
Governors of North Western Province, Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan Buddhists
People from British Ceylon
Labour ministers of Sri Lanka
Posts ministers of Sri Lanka
Ministers of state of Sri Lanka
Telecommunication ministers of Sri Lanka
Social affairs ministers of Sri Lanka
Power ministers of Sri Lanka
Sri Lankabhimanya

Dingiri Banda Wijetunga