Deep Descent : Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria

by Kevin F. McMurray

• ISBN13: 9780743400626
• ISBN10: 0743400623
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-22
• Publisher: Atria

Summary

On a dense, foggy, late July evening in 1956, the Italian-flagged cruise liner Andrea Doria, bound for New York, was struck broadside by another cruise ship. After an agonizing eleven hours, the relentless sea would drag her down, settling the Doria uneasily into the murky Atlantic ocean floor nearly two hundred and fifty feet below. AmazingIy, due to a daring and fevered rescue operation byher oceangoing brethren, only fifty-one of the more than 1,700 people on board both ships were killed in the collision. Years have passed since that tragedy, yet the Andrea Doria is still taking lives. Deep Descent Drawn by the sirens call of adventure, a small but fanatical group of extreme scuba divers has long challenged the Andrea Doria, pushing themselves far beyond the limits of recreational divers, up to the very limits of human endurance. Not all of them have succeeded. In Deep Descent, an author and frequent Doria diver Kevin McMurray takes you inside this elite club, offering an unsparing and unsentimental exploration ofthose men and women who dare to go deeper, farther, and closer to the edge than prudence or common sense might allow. Considered the Mt. Everest of diving, the Andrea Doria is the ultimate deepwater wreck challenge -- lying in an area long known as the Bermuda Triangle of the Northeast, some fifty miles south of Nantucket Island and two hundred miles east of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. This region, no stranger to disaster, is fog-shrouded and prone to sudden changes of wind, weather, and tide. In addition to many shipping disasters, it has borne mute witness to such recent tragedies as the fatal crash of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s small plane and the mysterious downing of EgyptAir Flight 990. It is an area that guards its secrets well, only surrendering its treasures to the bravest ormost determined seekers. Told with a vivid and startling clarity, Deep Descent is a story of courage and bravado, of the human spirit overcoming human frailty, and of fearsome risks traded for a hardwired adrenaline rush. With each page, McMurray draws us deeper into the cold heart of the unforgiving sea, giving us a powerful vision of a place to which few will ever have the skills or the daring to go.

Author Biography

Kevin F. McMurray is an award-winning journalist and photographer whose work has appeared in such prestigious newspapers and magazines as The New York Times, New York magazine, Outside, Yankee, Men's Journal, The Sunday Times of London, Rock & Ice, Cigar Aficionado and many others. An avid outdoor adventurer, McMurray is a highly experienced scuba diver and former world record holder for swimming around Manhattan Island. He lives in Brewster, New York, with his wife and two daughters.

Table of Contents

Foreword On Wreck Diving	xi
Death on the Doria	1	(34)
The Wreck of the Andrea Doria	35	(26)
My First Descent	61	(30)
The Pioneers of Wreck Diving	91	(34)
Penetrating the Doria	125	(48)
The Dying Season, Summer 1998	173	(36)
Back to the Doria	209	(48)
Epilogue Where Are They Now?	257	(22)
Bibliography	279	(2)
Notes	281	(6)
Appendix A Wahoo Contract	287	(6)
Appendix B Seeker Contract	293	(4)
Appendix C Andrea Doria Fatalities	297	(2)
Acknowledgements	299