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Deep Dark and Dangerous (Andrea
Doria)
ISBN 1-883056-16-0 hardcover with color dust jacket 216
pages, 69 color photos, 6 black & white photos, 4 deck plans
$25.00
In 1989, Gary Gentile published the classic book on the Grand Dame
of the Sea. Andrea Doria: Dive to an Era has been in print
continuously ever since, and has sold thousands of copies worldwide
to wreck-divers, armchair explorers, ocean liner memorabilia buffs,
and the public at large. The book continues to be one of his
best-selling titles.
Dive to an Era is still available. In that profusely illustrated
volume, the author chronicled the complete story of the Italian
ocean liner after she sank, from Harry Trask’s Pulitzer Prize
winning photograph of the vessel sinking, through the numerous
salvage schemes, commercial diving operations, and photographic
expeditions, to the author’s personal exploits in the recovery of
china, glassware, jewelry, works of art, and the ship’s bell -
exploits that spanned fifteen years, from the author’s first dive on
the wreck in 1974.
Deep, Dark, and Dangerous picks up where Dive to an Era ended. This
volume covers another fifteen years of personal exploration of the
wreck, from 1989 to 2004.
In these action-packed pages the reader will explore vicariously the
deep compartments and dark passageways where danger abounds, anxiety
is commonplace, fear is palpable, and death is literally a breath
away.
In addition to the historic recovery of great works of art, the
author recounts in exacting detail the slow but inevitable collapse
of the hull, and examines the flood of fatalities that occurred in
recent years.
For those who cannot or will not dive on the Andrea Doria, reading
Deep, Dark, and Dangerous is the next best thing to being there.
The author also recounts the highlights of his own expeditions to
the famous wreck (now numbering more than fifty). Over the years he
has photographed and recovered china, glassware, unique pieces of
jewelry from two of the ship's gift shops, and works of art which
once decorated the walls. The latter are ceramic panels which were
specially commissioned for the Andrea Doria, and which were created
by the famous Italian artist, Romano Rui. These panels represent the
best in Italian renaissance art.
The Andrea Doria is a ship that did not die upon sinking, but
instead found new meaning. She is a time tunnel to an era of
transportation now extinct, a remnant of bygone years of
transatlantic service. She is a ship that will never be forgotten.
The book is amply illustrated with black and white historical
photographs, as well as color photographs of the wreck as it appears
on the bottom. |
