Who will survive the most catastrophic collision ever between two ocean liners?

On July 25, 1956, after nine days of blissful travel, passengers on the Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria are hurled into a struggle for survival. As the murky fog lifts on the black Atlantic, the sea becomes a mirror in which passengers stare at death in the face. Their destinies are literally suspended on a rope—and in the hands of their fellow passengers and crew.

“Don’t jump!” we heard the crewman beg from above. “Wait your turn for the rope! Everybody, wait your turn!”
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Written by a survivor of the catastrophic Andrea Doria-Stockholm collision, the novel is an up close and personal anatomy of a shipwreck on the Atlantic Ocean on July 25, 1956.

Life on board the safest and most beautiful passenger liner after World War II opens new portholes to the world for passengers of every age and background. We meet nine-year-old Piera (the author), shy and overly protected, immigrating to the New World with her grandparents—where she will finally “meet” her mother. The reader then “travels” First Class, where Daniel, a sixteen-year-old would-be naval architect is doing an internship with the help of his father. There is also a mysterious and fearful elderly passenger on board. Through him, all the characters intersect at the finale, in a most miraculous way.

The voyage itself sets the foundation for surviving insurmountable odds during the collision and rescue operations. Premonitions, excerpts from Moby Dick, discussions on the Titanic, and a terrible sea storm, prepare the reader for the inevitable.

Ultimately, the story is that of the “greatest sea rescue in history”.



Ms. Simpson became the first shipwreck survivor to give a complete human and scientific account of her own shipwreck with her book, Alive the Andrea Doria! The Greatest Sea Rescued in History. The author is a member of the national marine forensics committee of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. The chairman of marine forensics endorsed her first publication for shipwreck research.

Ms. Simpson frequently speaks about shipwreck survival to local and international groups and the media.

For more information on Pierette Simpson and Alive on the Andrea Doria! The Greatest Sea Rescue in History: www.pierettesimpson.com. For watching and reading the author’s media interviews: http://www.pierettesimpson.com/press/ and http://www.pierettesimpson.com/press/costa-concordia/

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