[originaltext] On the foggy night of July 25, 1956, one of the great sea dis

On the foggy night of July 25, 1956, one of the great sea disasters of modem times occurred off Nantucket Island. The victim was the new 697-foot Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria, bound for New York. Her killer was the 510-foot Swedish liner Stockholm, outward bound for Europe, her massive bow specially sharpened and reinforced with steel to serve as an ice-breaker.
    Aboard the Andrea Doria were 1,706 persons, passengers and crew. In her strong room, deep in the hold, were cash, bonds and jewelry valued at several million dollars, deposited there by the passengers for safekeeping. According to persistent and authoritative rumor, there was also an unlisted cargo of gold bullion worth another million or more. Her elegant saloons and lounges were lavishly decorated with priceless sculptures and paintings valued at more than half a million dollars.
    The Swede was making a full 18 knots, the Italian some 22 knots or better, despite the fog and the darkness. Suddenly, at 11: 22 pm the Stockholm burst out of the mist and drove head on into the Andrea Doria’s starboard side, just aft of her flying bridge. So fierce was the impact, the ice-breaker prow drove 30 feet into the vitals of the stricken liner. When the ships wrenched apart, the sea roared in through a hole 40 feet wide and nearly 70 feet high.
    Luckily there were other ships in the immediate vicinity and the doomed vessel stayed afloat long enough for all but 52 persons on board to be rescued. At 10:09 in the morning, the Andrea Doria raised her stem high and slid to her grave, 240 feet below. With her, she carried the vast fortune that has haunted the dreams of salvage experts and treasure hunters ever since.