Andrea Doria Wreck Still Claiming Lives

More than 40 years after the Andrea Doria went down, the ship is still claiming lives.

Twelve divers have perished since 1981 while exploring the rusty wreck in the waters off Nantucket--two of them in the past two weeks. Three divers died last year.

Some ran out of air. Some had problems with scuba gear. Others got lost or tangled in the wreck.

“It’s like walking through someone’s house laying on its side--stairwells that would be up and down now go sideways,” said Dave Kangarl, 37, who has made nine dives to the 697-foot wreck. “But there’s dust and dirt and it’s pitch black in the house. It’s very disorienting.”

The Andrea Doria, a floating palace that once crossed the ocean in style, was headed from Genoa, Italy, to New York when it collided with a Swedish ship on a foggy night in 1956, killing 51 people. The Italian luxury liner lies at the bottom of the Atlantic in about 200 feet of water, about 50 miles southeast of Nantucket.

Part of its allure for divers is that the ship lies on its side relatively intact, and it’s full of souvenirs--especially pieces of china.

“You get to about 130, 140 feet, and the whole bottom opens up. You see a partial profile of the wreck. It’s an awesome scene,” said Steve Bielenda, owner of the Wahoo, a boat from New York’s Long Island that takes divers to the Andrea Doria.

All five of the most recent victims had been diving from the same boat, the Seeker, which also sails out of Long Island.

The latest victim was 52-year-old Charles McGurr, an auto mechanic from Brick, N.J., who worked summers as a crewman on the Seeker. He failed to emerge from a dive with two companions Wednesday.

“When he arrived down at the wreck, he indicated that he was not feeling well” and swam to the surface, said Lt. Bill McGintee of the East Hampton, N.Y., police. Results of the autopsy were not available Thursday.

In recent years, technological improvements in divers’ breathing equipment have made the Andrea Doria more accessible to recreational divers. Bielenda said he suspects the wreck has become too popular.

“If you’re a certified diver, it doesn’t make you qualified to dive the Andrea Doria,” he said. “It’s like using Mount Everest for a training ground.”

Last week, Christopher Murley, 44, of Cincinnati, died as he swam along the surface in preparation for a dive. An autopsy determined he had heart trouble and drowned.

Although all five of the most recent victims had been diving off the Seeker, diving consultant Robert Wass said the accidents could have happened from any boat.