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Dr. Martin Sejda, his wife Mary and daughter Dolores were seated at a table in the ballroom. The crash took place five feet from them. They heard what sounded like an explosion with flying glass and smoke pouring in. Drinks on the tables spilled and then the tables themselves toppled over. David and Louise Hollyer were in their cabin at the instant of
impact. David was in his pajamas in the upper berth in the cabin-class
stateroom, waiting for Louise to turn out the light and retire. They were rocked by a
violent lurch accompanied by a horrendous scraping, noise. The lights blinked briefly.
Within seconds The cabin had tipped steeply. David scrambled out of his tilting bunk and cried, "Let's get up on deck fast."
Louise was only in a nightgown and snatched David's suit from a hook on the wall.
They grabbed Their lifejackets and tugged at the door, which had been racked out of line. It finally
burst open on a scene of utter confusion in the corridor: screaming, the smell of oil,
fumes of some sort. They knew instinctively that to survive they must get up above
quickly. Ruth Roman was sitting in the Belvedere room with friends while her son was sleeping in their cabin being watched over by the nanny, Grace Els. As the ship began to list, Ruth kicked off her high heels and ran down two decks to get her son Dickie. She knew something had happened, but she didn't know what. On her way down a sailor tried to hold her back and she pushed him aside stating, "I have to get my son." In the Card Room, Robert Coleman was knocked off his chair and his wife bowled over like a tenpin. Five seconds later the ship began to tilt. People, tables and glasses went sliding from one side of the room to the other. A wild rush for the deck ensued and a woman was thrown against the wall and was knocked unconscious. In Tourist Class there were about 100 Italian immigrants watching a movie, panic broke out. Elderly men and women began running wildly, screaming hysterically and knocking over women and children in an effort to escape. With cool efficiency of her profession, unmindful of her own safety, registered nurse Theresa LaFlamme walked from man to woman to child urging them quietly to remain calm and assuring them that everything would be all right. Her companion, Helen Edwards, also a nurse, began helping the older people and young children towards the exit. Amadio Minicucci left the theatre and tried to get to his cabin below to get his passport and other papers but he found his cabin already flooded. In the forward section where the cabins crashing in like matchboxes, Dr. Eva Odenhal witnessed men and women completely nude or in nightgowns floating about with blood coming from their wounds. Angela Moscatiello and her son, Michael, are thrown from their beds and they race out of the cabin and down the hallway. Angela meets her other son, Luigi, and they head for the upper decks. Mothers whose children were in bed came up from the deck below, clinging to their young ones. Their faces looked weird, all splashed with all from broken oil lines. The Orchestra in the Cabin Class Ballroom dropped their instruments and dashed out on deck. Julianne McLean and two friends were in the lounge listening to the music. As the ship began to list Julianne kicked off her shoes and with her two friends began to climb to the high side of the ship. Mrs. Margurite Anponaco was getting into bed when she was thrown across it. When she heard someone shouting "Upstairs, Upstairs" in Italian she left her cabin and headed up. With the stairs and hallways crowded with people struggling she was knocked down a few times and began crying and praying. Fifteen minutes later she reached the open deck. The seven members of the Pacchiano family were asleep in their multiple cabins, as they gathered in the hall amidst the confusion Mrs. Pacchiano and her three daughters (Grazia, Lucia and Francesca) returned to their cabin to retrieve a small bag. Separated from Mr. Pacchiano and her two other children (Antonio and Guseppina) and dressed only in a slip she took the three girls, who were in their underwear, and began the climb to the top deck. Santino Porporino left his cabin on C Deck wearing only his boxer shorts and went to get his wife and children. They were berthed in another cabin on C Deck and by the time he reached them water was entering the cabin. Antonietta dressed only in her nightgown made her way with Santino and their two children topside. The Holt family was sleeping and the crash woke them up, realizing that something was wrong they decided to go upstairs. While going up to the main deck, Mrs. Holt slipped down the stairs and fell on top of her 7 year old son Steven. Steven cried out "Please don't die, Mama". As Dr. Sejda waited on deck with his lifejacket, a terrified man came up to him and ripped it off. With his lifejacket gone, Dr. Sejda found another man holding on to an extra lifejacket and shamed him into giving it up. Mrs. Lozzi was thrown out of bed by the collision. The cabin was tilted and she tried to open the door, it was stuck. In the passageway she could hear people yelling and screaming and with all her might she pounded on the door. Finally a man stopped to help her, the door was bent and the man promised to go and get help. Mrs. Lozzi didn't know what to do so she sat down and prayed. Meanwhile her husband was fighting his way to her, working his way through the crowds of milling passengers. With the help of a crewman the door was forced open and they headed up to the open deck. First Class Assistant Purser, Fabio Chiussi, was asleep in his cabin at the aft end of the ship. He felt the shock of the collision but he didn't pay much attention to it. It was the same type of shock that occurred during a change in course or in rough seas. When the lights went off and the emergency lights went on, Fabio left his cabin to go on deck and investigate. When Ruth Roman reached her cabin she grabbed some blankets, pulled out three life preservers, picked up her son and lead the nanny up to the upper deck, they were to wait by the Grand Staircase. Her son, Dickie, wasn't crying and he thought it was terribly exciting. Ruth kept telling him it was a picnic and found a balloon for him to blow up. There they sat waiting for help. Julianne McLean sat on the high side of the ship while her friend went down below to get three life jackets, one for himself, his wife and Julianne. As the lifeboats swung in their davits with no possibility of using them, a priest came by and gave everyone general absolution. With the lifeboats useless Julianne decided to head for the low side of the ship. Because of the list it was impossible to walk, Julianne has to sit and scoot down the deck to the low side of the ship. Here she saw the luggage piled up everywhere and the crew bringing people up from below, some of them in terrible shape. It was about midnight. The Andrea Doria was
listing badly, confusion was at its height and the fog shrouded the night. On the
decks people were crying, praying and tumbling in heaps on the decks. Children cried and
were scolded by their mothers, who broke down and cried themselves. Women rushed across the slanted deck screaming for their children. Men's
anguished calls cut through the blackness as they searched for their loved ones. Then, a
slim, 13-year-old boy with black, curly hair stepped out of the dark. He held rosary beads
in his trembling hands. Tears ran down his cheeks. He had been looking for his parents and
couldn't find them. The boy knelt down and gripped the slippery wooden boards with
slender hands. He raised the rosary. |
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