Collision Course: The Classic Story of the Collision of the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm by Alvin Moscow

Author:Alvin Moscow [Moscow, Alvin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, pdf
ISBN: 9781504031509
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2016-02-29T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“TELL THEM I DID EVERYTHING I COULD”

The arrival of the Ile de France turned the emotional tide of the night. Word of the arrival spread throughout the Andrea Doria and changed despair to hope and hope to certainty: rescue was at hand. The Ile de France was the single, stanch reinforcement which in battle changes chaotic retreat into advance and victory.

For the Ile de France, it was a night of glory. So many things could have gone wrong and all of them worried Captain de Beaudéan, for this was his first sea rescue. But all went right for the French ship. Everything was ready before arrival: the lifeboats, food, blankets, spare rooms, hospital beds. At 1:15 A.M., Captain de Beaudéan saw in his radar scope the cluster of ships at the scene fifteen miles away. Twenty-two minutes later and eight miles away, he reduced his 22-knots speed for a safe approach and he prayed silently and fervently for the fog to lift. And eight minutes later, at 1:45 A.M., the weather complied. The fog broke into patches and disappeared, unveiling a summer night resplendent with a million stars, full moon and a calm sea. Two miles away, Captain de Beaudéan left his radar scope and with his own eyes picked out the Andrea Doria among the four ships ahead of him. Her list was unmistakable.

“Turn on the lights, all the lights, and let them know we are here,” he told Pettre, his chief mate, as he maneuvered the Ile toward the listing ship. Floodlights on the Sun Deck spotlighted the vivid orange and black colors of the ship’s two funnels. Stretching between the funnels in ten-foot-high block letters the name Ile de France was lighted like a white marquee against a black background, proclaiming the arrival of the ship that symbolizes France on the high seas.

Despite his many years at sea, the sight of the Andrea Doria caught Captain de Beaudéan emotionally unprepared. The Italian ship appeared still so beautiful, her modern, rounded lines unimpaired as far as the eye could see. She was lustrous in the night, her many deck lights glittering along the length of the ship and the two powerful spotlights on her angled mast casting a bright shimmering reflection on the oily water.

Captain de Beaudéan had an impulse to do something histrionic. He wanted to comfort those waiting on the Andrea Doria, to call out into the night, “Patience! I am here … the Ile de France is here,” but, of course, he remained silent, gazing through his binoculars at the listing ship. The starboard decks seemed empty and the Doria appeared deserted although he could hear occasional cries from the direction of the ship. Beyond the dying ship, Captain de Beaudéan saw the reflected whiteness of a ship gleaming in the moonlight and he knew it to be the Stockholm.

Captain de Beaudéan, a shipmaster whose experience had taught him courage as well as caution, maneuvered his 44,500-ton ship closer to the starboard side of the listing ship.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.