Desperate Hours (ebook)

Argumento de Desperate Hours (ebook)

On an extraordinary summer’s night in 1956, in a fog off Nantucket, the world-renowned ocean liner Andrea Doria collided with the Swedish liner Stockholm. Eleven hours later, the gorgeous ship that employed the finest maritime technology of her day, and was hailed as "a floating art gallery," tragically sank. But in that brief time the Doria became, after the Titanic, the most storied vessel of the century, as nearly 1,700 people were saved in an unforgettable rescue punctuated by countless acts of heroism, amid confusion, terror, and even cowardice.

Launched in 1951, the Andrea Doria proudly marked the resurgence of Italian maritime service. Her loss not only foreshadowed the end of the era of elegant liners, but reasserted the fragility of life for the millions still recovering from the war’s destruction. In this fascinating book, Richard Goldstein re-creates the ill-fated voyage, from the passengers’ parting waves at Genoa, to their last evening highball in the Doria’s lavish lounge, to the final, unbelievable realization that catastrophe was imminent.

Goldstein draws from dozens of interviews that relate never-before-told stories, as well as court documents, memoirs, and reports by psychiatrists who examined survivors. And he presents technical findings that shed light on the blame for this disaster at sea. The result is a definitive history of a fateful day, a legendary liner, and a deadly shipwreck now considered by scuba divers to be the Mount Everest of the deep.

RICHARD GOLDSTEIN is an editor and writer for the New York Times, where he has worked since 1980. He is the author of America at D-Day and Mine Eyes Have Seen: A First-Person History of the Events That Shaped America, which was an alternate selection of the Literary Guild.

"Stupendous...Goldstein has virtually put us into lifeboats and sent us into the North Atlantic..." --Ron Powers, Co-writer, FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS0Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

PART I: THE VOYAGE

1. "Brace Yourself".

2. "A Floating Art Gallery".

3. "Take the Doria, You'll Never Forget It".

4. "A Picture of Scandinavian Efficiency".

5. "The Times Square of the Atlantic".

6. "Each Shall Alter Her Course to Starboard".

PART II: THE COLLISION.

7. "Why Doesn't He Whistle?"

8. "I Think We Hit an Iceberg".

9. "Don't Worry, There's Nothing Wrong".

10. "Need Immediate Assistance".

PART III: THE RESCUE.

11. "This Is No Drill".

12. "How Many Lifeboats?"

13. "We Are Bending Too Much".

14. "Let's Pray to St. Ann".

15. "We Won't Leave You".

16. "Lady, You're Lucky to Be Alive".

17. "Light Up Everything, Quickly".

18. "You Have to Have Courage".

19. "Get Your Cameras".

20. "Bulletin . . . Bulletin . . . Bulletin".

21. "You May Go, I'm Staying".

22. "Seaworthiness Nil".

23. "That Thing's Going Down in Five Minutes".

24. "It Is Incomprehensible".

25. "How Good God Is to Me".

26. "Oh, What a Climax".

27. "It's My Baby".

28. "I Lost My Love for Italians".

29. "This Is a Jumbled Story".

PART IV: THE QUESTIONS.

30. "The Passengers Were Highly Excitable".

31. "It Could Have Been a Patch of Fog".

32. "The Stability of the Ship Was Low".

33. "I Could Have Changed Course".

PART V: THE MEMORIES.

34. "Why Did I Get Spared?"

35. "The Poor Man Was Destroyed".

PART VI: THE SHIPWRECK.

36. "It's Got the Mystique".

Appendix.

Sources.

Index.