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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Chris B, post: 8177128, member: 87179&quot;]SS Andrea Doria, was an ocean liner for the Italian Line home-ported in Genoa, Italy, known for its sinking in 1956.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1429151[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Named after the 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the ship had a gross register tonnage of 29,100 and a capacity of about 1,200 passengers and 500 crew. For a country attempting to rebuild its shattered economy and reputation after World War II, Andrea Doria was an icon of Italian national pride. Of all Italy&#039;s ships at the time, Andrea Doria was the largest, fastest, and supposedly safest. Launched on 16 June 1951, the ship began her maiden voyage on 14 January 1953.</p><p><br /></p><p>On 25 July 1956, while Andrea Doria was approaching the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States, bound for New York City, the eastbound Stockholm of the Swedish American Line collided with her in one of history&#039;s most infamous maritime disasters. Struck in the side, the top-heavy Andrea Doria immediately started to list severely to starboard, which left half of her lifeboats unusable. The consequent shortage of lifeboats could have resulted in significant loss of life, but the ship stayed afloat for over 11 hours after the collision. The calm behavior of the crew, together with improvements in communications, and the rapid response of other ships, averted a disaster similar in scale to that of Titanic in 1912. While 1,660 passengers and crew were rescued and survived, 46 people on the ship died as a direct consequence of the collision. The evacuated luxury liner capsized and sank the following morning. This accident remains the worst maritime disaster to occur in United States waters since the capsizing of the Eastland in Chicago in 1915.</p><p><br /></p><p>A week after Andrea Doria sank, divers Peter Gimbel and Joseph Fox managed to locate the wreck of the ship, and published pictures of the wreck in Life magazine.</p><p><br /></p><p>Peter Gimbel later conducted several salvage operations on the ship, including salvaging the first-class bank safe in 1981. Despite speculation that passengers had deposited many valuables, the safe, opened on live television in 1984, yielded thousands of American silver certificates, Canadian bank notes, American Express traveler’s checks, and Italian bank notes, but no other valuables. This outcome confirmed other speculation that most Andrea Doria passengers, in anticipation of the ship&#039;s scheduled arrival in New York City the following morning, had already retrieved their valuables prior to the collision.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the years since its sinking at least 22 divers have perished while diving on the wreck.</p><p><br /></p><p>I’m not sure how long after the recovery I first started seeing salvaged notes for sale, but they caught my interest. Originally, if memory serves me right, they were just in a rigid plastic holder along with a COA. At some point PCGS started authenticating them. This one is between 2 pieces of clear acrylic that combined are over 1” thick. PCGS has sealed the edge with their tape. It also came with a COA.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you do an eBay search for “Andrea Doria Note” you currently get 11 results covering a wide variety of presentations and prices. Mine was picked up at a local club auction for well under these prices. It’s something I have wanted for a while just for its historical significance. Obviously, it is not an attractive or scarce note.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1429152[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Please share any Andrea Doria notes you own or anything you think is relevant.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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