Medford mail tribune., August 03, 1958, Image 35

The Italian vessel sank July 26, 1956, abnut 1 1 hours after colliding Meyers and Armando Conti, industrialist who is financ
with the Swedish liner Stockholm. Fifty persons died in the disaster. ing venture, demonstrate how slings may lift the ship.
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Horatio Alger Immigrant, may salvage the ill-fated pride of the Italian passenger fleet.
Whatever the outcome, Conti is going
"full steam ahead."
What is it that drives him on? prof
it, perhaps, although Conti already
is a solid success in money matters.
More likely, the satisfaction of doing
something the "experts" say can't be
done, and restoring the Andrea Doria
to the sea lanes as the romantic sym
bol of Italy's post-war renaissance.
"I know what the so-called experts
are saying about my scheme to re
float the Doria." says Conti, "and
frankly, I just don't care. My engi
neers have studied our proposed op
eration from all sides. They say that
the Doria can be raised, and that's
good enough for me!"
Coming here as an immigrant boy of
16 with only three years of
schooling, Conti worked first in
the coal mines of West Virginia. With
the savings of seven years earning
15c a ton he moved to Trenton, N. J.,
and turned to selling automobiles.
But his business interests kept
growing: real estate, liquor, banking,
salvage, building. During World War
II, he and his employees sold over $5
million worth of Government bonds,
and in 1956 he won a Horatio Alger
Award, a recognition shared by such
notables as Herbert Hoover, Bernard
Baruch, and Dr. Norman Vincent
Peale. Though white-haired, short,
and heavy-set, the "Trenton tycoon"
has been compared with Howard
Hughes and the late Mike Todd for his
impulsive charm and aggressiveness.
Conti's engineers, Richard Meyers
of Wyandotte, Mich., and Max Gene
Nohl of Milwaukee, Wis., hope to raise
the Doria in 1959 after probing the
wreckage late this Summer. They first
will test their salvage techniques on
the $2-million Print Willem V, sunk
in Lake Michigan off Milwaukee. Wa
ter, wind, and weather probably will
alter their theories somewhat, but
basically here's how they expect to
raise both the Willem and the much
larger Doria:
Divers will take down dozens of de
flated rubber buoys and attach them
to various parts of the ship. These
cylindrical buoys are made of single
sheets of corded rubber three-eighths
of an inch thick. Inflated with air,
they resemble floating tin cans only
they will measure about 500 feet long
and 15 feet in diameter.
Meyers, Conti's chief engineer, says
that when these buoys are hooked to
the ship and pumped full of air, they
will have a lift of some 18,000 tons
and raise the Doria slightly off the
ocean bottom. By placing the buoys
properly, she can be lifted evenly.
The next step involves two ships
that normally carry ore. Their sea
cocks will be opened and their holds
flooded until they are riding low in
the water.
Steel cables will be run from these
ships down and around the wreck.
Then, by pumping the water out of
the ore ships, they will rise and lift
the Doria still farther from her grave.
The vessel lies on a hard sandy bot
tom about 18 miles south of a shal
lower area called Davis South Shoal.
The plan calls for letting the ship re
main underwater, resting in the sling
of cables, while the ore boats pull her
toward the shoal, 120 feet deep.
"This portion of our blueprint is
the most hazardous," Meyers says.
"The success or failure of our opera
tion will depend entirely on whether
we can get the Andrea Doria onto the
shoal." If and when the plan succeeds,
divers would be able to work with
comparative ease, seal the hole in the
Doria's starboard side, compress air
into her hull, and resurface her.
lAf hat happens then? One possibil
" ity is that after being towed
to a dry dock, it will be found
that the Doria'n wounds are mortal
and not worth healing. As scrap, the
30,000-ton vessel may bring $4 million.
Pieces of it probably would be in
brisk demand as souvenir items. One
manufacturer already has proposed
chopping her up into cuff links!
That part of the cargo undamaged
by water might be worth another $1
million. The purser's safe on C Deck is
said to contain $250,000 in currency,
and the ship's safety deposit boxes,
more than $750,000 in cash and jewels.
The hold has some 200,000 pieces of
mail said to be worth $1 million.
If the ship is made whole again,
there's a possibility she will embark
on a national tour, stopping at 50 At
lantic and Pacific seaports for public
exhibit. It's been estimated that all in
all, the raising of the Andrea Doria
could conceivably ring up a profit of
$16 million.
On the other hand, the salvage at
tempt may cost $3 million, and the
imponderables of the Atlantic could
wipe out in a day the investment of
many months. There still is some
question, too, as to what property
rights are held by those who built the
ship and insured her, to say nothing
of the passengers on her last voyage,
nor of who owns the wreck to start
with. Bringing the. Doria to the sur
face again might well start a long and
infinitely complicated series of ad
miralty law cases that could exhaust
the patience of all parties.
But right now, Conti and Meyers
are hopeful and determined. "The
Andrea Doria will be raised," Conti
asserts. "And with luck, she will trav
el the sea lanes again, as bright and
seaworthy as ever."
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