SIXTEEN MEDrORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE
Monday, -July 22. 1937
Lawyers Still Working To Settle Claims Arising From Andrea Doria Tragedy
By FREDERICK M. WINSHIP
United Press Correspondent
New York OPi One year
after the jinking of the Andrea
Doria fix lawyers are working
full time to settle claims arising
from the tragedy, engineers and
adventurers are pondering sal
vage methods, and a movie pro
ducer is preparing to film the
wreck of the luxury liner.
On July 26, 1956, the pride of
the Uilian Line plunged 250
feet to the ocean floor a little
less than 11 hours after she and
the Swedish-American liner
Stockholm collided with a loss
of 50 lives. An additional Doria
passenger died of injuries last
April, and several are still unjer
medical care. One of the 1,663
survivors recently drowned on
an outing.
Fifteen-year-oid Linda Mor
iSh, the girl who was lifted from
her Doria berth and borne to
safety in the crumpled bow of
the Stockholm, has recovered
from her injuries and will be a
sophomore at a Quaker school
in Bucks county. Pa., next fali.
"They've been calling me a
'miracle' survivor for a long
time," said Linda in Snohomish,
Wash., where she is visiting rela
tives for the summer. "I guess
that'i the only way to describe
it. It was a miracle:"
Safe Mode of Travel
The loss of the 29,000-ton
three-year-old Doria ironically
pointed up the fact that North
Atlantic liner travel is one of
the safest modes of transporta
tion. From 1918 to the time of
the unprecedented Doria-Stock-holm
collision, not one liner pas
senger lost his life due to sink
ing, shipwreck or accident on
Atlantic and Mediterranean
runs.
The headline publicity, pro
longed for months by dramatic
pre-trial testimony by officers of
both ships, had no ill effect on
liner bookings, according to sta
tistics provided by major pas
senger lines. The Swedish-American
Line reports this season's
tourist volume is up 10 per cent
over last year's, and the Italian
Line has a slight increase in
Europe-bound bookings. The
Stockholm has capacity book
ings through September.
Capt. Gunnar Nordenson, 63-year-old
master of the Stockholm
at the time of the collision, now
is in command of the new Swe
d i s h-American flagship, the
Gripsholm. Ernst Carstens-Jo-hannsen,
officer in charge of the
the bridge when the Stockholm's
prow gouged a 70-foot hole in
the Doria's side, still serves Nor
denson as third mate.
Capt. Piero Calamai of the Do
ria, whose health was broken by
the experience of losing his ship,
was recently retired on pension
by the Italian Line and is living
in Genoa. He originally had been
scheduled for retirement on his
60th birthday next December.
His second and third mates, who
were with him on the bridge at
the collision hour, are still in
service.
Building New Hull
In a Genoan shipyard, the hull
of the 31,500-ton replacement for
the Doria the Leonardi da
Vinci is taking shape. The Da
Vinci's keel was laid June 23
and the ship will be ready for
launching in 1960. The Italian
Line is building her with $19
million paid by Hull Insurance
Underwriters toward the Dona's
S30 million loss plus a multi
million dollar grant from the
Italian government.
The Leonardo da Vinci will
be equipped with one of the new
types of "true motion" radar
plotting screens perfected since
the sinking of the Doria. Radar
bliDs indicating the position. of
ships used to fade out in three
! seconds. Now they can be re
tained on the screen for as long
as a half hour, giving a clear
picture of the heading and rela
tive speed of approaching
vessels.
Experts say new radar sys
tems, such as the one in use on
the Gripsholm, should virtually
eliminate the chance-in-a-million
accident like the Doria-Stock-holm
collision, if deck officers
are thoroughly trained to use
the equipment intelligently.
Another aid to safety at sea
would be the development of a
standard short range radio phone
circuit so that ships of different
countries could communicate by
phone. The various AM and FM
systems now in use are incom
patible. Home Holdouts
Progress in equipment stand
ardization, agreement on sailing
routes, and adoption of maxi
mum safety standards in ship
construction has been hampered
by failure of the United Nations
to obtain ratification of its In
tergovernmental Maritime Con
sulative Organization (INCO).
Seventeen countries have rati
fied it since it was organized on
paper nine years ago .and the
backing of only four more na
tions is necessary. Norway, Swe
den, Denmark and Russia are
the major maritime holdouts.
The legal aftermath of the
Doria tragedy remains a head
ache for two New York law
firms who have three lawyers
each and a score of assistants
assigned exclusively to the out-of-court
settlement of third party
claims for injuries and loss of
life, baggage and cargo. The
Italian and Swedish-American
lines agreed last January to end
attempts to fix blame for the col
lision on each other and estab
lish instead a joint liability fund
of S5 million to S6 million.
The lawyers are trying to
pare down 1.200 claims totaling
more than S100 million to the
size of this liability fund.
Spokesmen estimate that '10 per
cent of the total claims and 25
per cent of the passenger claims
already have been settled, al
though no money has yet been
paid the claimants.
Claims To Be Paid -
All claims may well be paid
oif in two or three years, or less
than half the time originally
estimated.
The Italian Line is making no
plans to salvage the Doria,
which is fair game for anyone
according to maritime law, and
no serious consideration is being
given the project by any of the
big salvage firms here or abroad.
Most shipping experts rule out
lifting the liner or dismembering
her with underwater cutting
equipment due to the depths in
volved and the storm hazards of
open sea salvage. But an official
of the nation's biggest salvage
firm, Merritt-Chapman & Scott
Corp., said the project should
not be pigeonholed as "impos
sible," although it might not be
economically feasible.
U. S. Rubber Company scien
tists have disclosed they are
working on a method of salvag
ing ships by the use of huge air
inflated rubber tubes that would
be atttached to the sides of
sunken vessels like water wings.
They say it may eventually pro
vide a way to raise the Doria.
An engineer, Robert K. Bedell,
has offered the U.S. Maritime
Administration a plan to float
the Doria by filling its holds,
staterooms and corridors with
inflated bags.
To Film Hull
Since department store heir
Peter Gimbel's daring skin-diving
visit to the Doria's port side,
some 160 feet below the surface,
filming of the sunken sea queen
has been a matter of speculation
in movie circles. Next month,
French diver Dmitri Rebikoff
will try to get enough film foot
age for an 85-minute color docu
mentary by riding around the
wreck on film torpedos equipped
with 90,000 candlepower light
ing and 16 mm. Beaulieu cam
eras. Independent film producer
Dick Flower of New York has
raised 5100,000 from American
and foreign interests for the
project.
None of the Doria .survivors
interviewed by this correspond
ent expressed a desire to see a
film of the ship where they spent
some of the most horrible hours
of their lives and where 43
bodies still are trapped. Mrs.
Marion Woyer of Greenwich,
Conn., whose shipboard suite
was sheered away by the Stock
holm minutes before she had
planned to go to bed, summed it
up by saying:
"It was like a bad dream
the kind you don't want to
dwell on. I am just so happy to
have gotton out alive. There are
too many new, wonderful ex
periences ahead in life to look
back now."
S
amovar
VODKA
Made from grain. 80 proof. J
Schenley Dist. Co., N. Y. C.
Quotes From the News
By UNITED PRESS
Cleveland, Ohio W. Kenneth Davis, director of the Atomic
Energy Commission's Reactor Development division, on Russia's
"grandiose" nuclear plans:
"It would be silly indeed to let unsupported and irrational
claims as to Soviet capabilities distort and warp sound U.S. poli
cies and programs."
Newark, N.J. Gov. Robert B. Meyner. pooh-poohing the pos
sibility of running in 1960 as vice president on a Democratic presi
dential ticket headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, a Republican:
"My concern light now is to be reelected governor of New
Jersey."'
Long Beach Lovely, young Gladys Zender of Peru, reigning
supreme as Miss Universe after nearly being disqualified on a
technicality: j
"I am very, very grateful for the understanding shown by the !
other contestants and my other friends in Long Beach."
London The Rer. Canon H. G. Rorison. chaplain at Glamis :
Castle, on why he refused to marry a cousin of Queen Elisabeth ;
to a commoner:
"I considered it unsuitable to marry them. I could not do It
without the consent of the rest of the family."
Peiping Radio Has
Quiz Show Program
Tokyo IW Communist
China's Peiping radio has fallen
victim to the capitalistic quiz
show programs.
The show started recently,
with master of ceremonies,
tricky questions and prizes
none of them worth $64,000.
Questions included such things
as who was the famous Italian
traveler who journeyed to China
in the 13th century (Marco
Polo), and name an important
product used all over the world
that was first invented in China
(gunpowder).
"Remember, the announcer
said after posing this week's
question, "Your correct answer
must be posted within thiree
days to qualify for a prize."
He did not say what the prize
would be.
Pure silver is softer than
pure copper.
Oregon Archers Win
Robin Hood Festival j
Sherwood (IP) Oregon archers !
Saturday won the Robin Hood ',
festival archery competition for j
the second successive year over
bowmen at Nottingham, Eng
land. Total score for Oregon arch-
ers Friday was 10,418. Results!
of a similar archery shoot in .
Nottingham were cabled to Sher-
wood and showed a total score of j
9,721. Winning team each year
is awarded a silver trophy.
cash:
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