Alive on the Andrea Doria!: The Greatest Sea Rescue in History

by Pierette Domenica Simpson

Book Overview

One half-century later, the catastrophic ramming of the MS Stockholm into the Italian luxury liner the SS Andrea Doria in 1956 is relived in this candid, heartrending account. Author Pierette Domenica... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 193009874X
• ISBN13: 9781930098749
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Harbor Hill Books
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Alive on the Andrea Doria

Alive on the Andrea Doria is a excellent book on the tragedy that sent the Andrea Doria to the depths of the Atlantic. The author does a good job of having different passengers from both ships share their experiences on that fateful night. With each story told, the reader can visualize the fear and urgency the passengers must have felt while trying to escape the listing ship. It was a shame that Captain Calamai of the Andrea Doria was the scapegoat due to the media and the non-support from his own country. The pictures of the sinking Doria along with a DVD of this tragedy that I have just brings chills to your spine. I would like to thank the author, Pierette D. Simpson for sharing her story as well and the stories of all of the courageous passengers who had to live through the nightmare of July 15, 1956.

Great survival story

In Alive on the Andrea Doria Pierette Simpson has personalized this horrible naval disater by giving the inspirational stories of a cross section of people aboard the ship. One discovers how people conducted themselves during the disaster and what happened to them after being rescued. She tells about the various ships and personnel who helped take 1,661 people off the Doria. By also telling the story of the ship, Pierette has blended personal narrative and factual information to define what truly happened. Her passion for getting to the truth about the accident has enabled her to vindicate the honor of Captain Piero Calami of the Andrea Doria, unjustly blamed for the accident. Living through the disaster hereself has enabled Pierette to make this a much more personal narrative and to create a story of interest for a wide audience

AMAZING!

What an amazing book! This story is written by an Andrea Doria survivor and what an amazing job. I could not put this book down. Details are amazing, survival stories are amazing, history of the incident is amazing, the book...just AMAZING. Pierette - thank you so much for this wonderful book. As a granddaughter of an Andrea Doria survivor, I can't wait for my children to be old enough to read this book and learn what their great-grandfather survived. Even though their great-grandfather's personal story is not in this book, through this book, my children will be able to learn of this amazing historic event that is rarely mentioned in school!

Students of shipwrecks should be grateful.

There are few people in the world I regret never having met. This author is, in many ways, a kindred spirit and one I would like to meet. Perhaps one day! Although well qualified to write such an account - after all she did survive the sinking of the Andrea Doria, no one person could possibly write the complete story of the loss of this ship from personal experience - if only because that person would have to have been present at every single event on both ships, as they took place. The only way, therefore, for any author to produce such a definitive account is, as I have said so many times, through research, research and yet more research. There are some accounts of this particular tragedy which are confined to a collection of photographs and others which seek to change facts by portraying the guilty as innocent. Elsewhere, there are versions which add nothing to the boiling pot of knowledge except to rewrite what is already known after a research confined to a limited amount of previously published information. In this work, however, the author was drawn inextricably to the subject through numerous conversations about the ship. She was surprised to learn that so many people either knew another survivor or of someone who had missed the sailing and was, therefore, spared the tragedy. Over time she became more involved and eventually wrote this account to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the ship's loss. Rarely, if ever, have I read such a complete account of the loss of any single ship and we students of shipwreck should be grateful that such a complete and honest account was finally published. NM

A story of hope, courage and pride for Italian descendants to read

What a wonderful book (and story). I read it straight through and couldn't put it down. The author, Pierette Domenica Simpson, did a marvelous job especially in recanting so many details (sights, sounds, smells) - and I know how hard that is because an author has it all in their mind and memory but putting in the "reader's" mind, well, that's a different story. As a retired Navy pilot and haven't spent most of my life at sea (and in the air) I really enjoyed reading Chapter 10 and Part II in general for it was extremely detailed and complete about the circumstances surrounding the collision. Moreover, as a story teller, Part I was terrific and moving as well. I was especially enamored with the author's experience as an Italian-American and how we share the stories of our families and their courage in coming to a new land to live the American dream. I write of this as well in my latest book, My Father's Compass: Leadership Lessons of an Immigrant Son, found here on [...]. Again, wonderful story with a happy ending and a must read! Perry Martini, My Father's Compass.