The prow of the Stockholm penetrated the starboard side of the Andrea Doria from Upper Deck to the bottom of the hull. Shock waves of destruction vibrated outward from the point of impact, collapsing walls and hurling debris. Passengers were knocked off their feet and out of beds. Furniture and other loose items flew across rooms, windows shattered sending flying bits of glass projectiles to maim and injure. This is the moment that determined who would live and who would die.
In Upper Deck Cabin 46, Colonel Walter Carlin, his toothbrush in hand, was knocked off his feet in the bathroom. Bruised and dazed he staggered back to the bedroom for his wife Jeanette. Amidst the smoke and swirling dust he saw her bed was gone and all that was left was wreckage and a hole in the wall. Beyond that, the night air, the fog and the sea. Jeanette was gone.
Two doors aft, Cabin 52 was gone. The beds of Linda Morgan and Joan Cianfarra had disappeared into the void along with the two sleeping girls. Their parents in Cabin 54 were pushed further aft by the Stockholm. Camille Cianfarra was hurled through the wall into Cabin 56 and came to rest in the bathroom hall. His wife Jane was also thrown into Cabin 56 and became entangled in the wreckage. Her leg was broken and she was covered in blood. Her husband was mangled and his head was smashed, she could hear him groan but could not see him. She strained to locate him, but then he was silent. Now in severe shock she realized she heard her husband die.
One of the occupants of Cabin 56, Mrs. Thure Peterson, awoke to find herself pinned in the wreckage, unable to move, her legs were shattered and her spine broken. All she could see was wreckage and became aware that she was not alone. Jane Cianfarra was above her legs, within arms reach. Dr. Thure Peterson woke for an agonizing instant to see the white prow of the Stockholm enter his cabin. He was then thrown under the wall into Cabin 58 and lost consciousness. The occupant of Cabin 58, Father Wojick, was playing scrabble in the Card Room on Boat Deck.
One deck down on Foyer Deck, deluxe Cabin 180 was flattened from the hull to the hallway, somewhere in the wreckage were the bodies of Ferdinand and Frances Thieriot. The prow of the Stockholm stopped just short of the Chapel across the hall.
On A Deck in Cabin 230, Amelia Iazzetta, Christina
Covino and
Margaret Carola were killed as they were in the direct line of the collision. Margaret's
mother, Rosa Carola, was in the ship's hospital and did not perish with her daughter.
Seven other women in adjacent cabins were also killed including Laura Bremermann
in cabin 228.
On A Deck Cabin 236, three year old Rose Marie Wells cried out for help. Her left hand was
pinned to her bed by an upper bunk fallen from its mooring.
Below these cabins on B Deck was the Andrea Doria's famous fifty-car air-conditioned garage. The sea quickly flooded the nine cars in the garage including the "Norseman", a $100,000.00 prototype car built by Ghia for the Chrysler Corporation and a Rolls Royce belonging to Edward Parker of Miami Beach, Florida.
The cruelest blow was on C Deck, where the smallest and cheapest cabins of the Andrea Doria were crowded together. The families were mostly immigrants and they never had a chance. The death toll on this deck was confined to the area of penetration, between watertight bulkheads. Thirteen cabins from 642 to 670 were in this area. Death must have been swift for the twenty six people that were in eleven of the cabins. Those not immediately killed by the Stockholm prow drowned seconds later as the Andrea Doria heeled on her side never to rise again. C Deck, normally at the ship's waterline level sank beneath the waves.
In Cabin 656, Maria Sergio drowned quickly, along with her children,
Giuseppe, Anna Maria, Domenica, and little Rocco. Only minutes before, Rocco, pleaded with
his Uncle Paul to let him sleep in his room farther down the hall.
Michael Moscatiello and his mother were asleep, when they heard a noise
and were thrown from the bed to the floor. Scared and still in their nightclothes, they
left the cabin as water began to flow in. Michelina
Suozzi and her traveling companions Michele and Maria Russo along with their
children Giovanna and Vincenzina were in this area and died instantly.
Assistant cook, Salvatore Castellano rushed out of his cabin without his pants on. His duty in an emergency was to man a life boat.