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A Tribute to the Swedish American Line | ||||||||
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A Tribute to the Swedish American Line | ||||||||
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The Collision between MS Stockholm and Andrea Doria
Leif Vickberg, Officer's Apprentice
Page 3
There is an extensive recount of the accident on Henrik Ljungström's and
Daniel Othfors'
excellent
website The Great Ocean Liners. Look up the Andrea Doria,
and don't miss the appendix at the end of the page.
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| Also see : Andrea Doria - Tragedy at sea | http://www.andreadoria.org/ |
| The collision from the viewpoint of a crew member on the Stockholm |
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| Radio News | |
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| Leif Vickberg was an officer's apprentice on the Stockholm in 1956. He is now a retired Sea Captain and retired Captain in the Swedish Naval Reserve. This photo shows Leif at a lifeboat drill on the westbound voyage prior to the eastbound voyage of the collision. Leif Vickberg is listed on the crew manifest below. |
 The crew manifest from Stockholm's voyage from Gothenburg, prior to the accident. A manifest for the departure from New York had not yet been produced when the collision occured. From the Dawe collection |
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| On December 22, 2006, the local newspaper Lidingö Tidning, featured an interview with Leif Vickberg by Ragnar Nordqvist. The headline was: "Leif saw the gigantic ship sink". Here are some highlights from the article: |
A terrible crash, a gnawing noise, then more crashes. Sirens. Leif falls out of his bed. There is a fog, and it is dark. He can see the lights from another ship. Leif is ordered to go to an open gate below deck, 2 to 3 meters above the sea. A lifeboat approaches, full of crew. Their hats said "Andrea Doria". The last man left the lifeboat, pushing the empty boat out to sea. "I thought it was very poor seamanship. The first lifeboat was filled with crew. The second and third as well." "Instead of steering starbord, as you always should do at sea, Andrea Doria had steered port. A deadly sin at sea." Back on deck, Leif saw the night was lit up by the blue sparks from welders cutting openings in the hulls to rescue more people. "Among the wrecked parts, we found the miracle girl, 14 year old Linda Morgan. She had been thrown on to Stockholm from the bed in her cabin on board the Andrea Doria." Three hours after the collision the French liner Ile de France appeared. The rescue efforts proceeded much faster when the ship had arrived. The Andrea Doria sank, with the aft and the propellers disappearing into a whirlpool. There was only silence. Nobody made a sound. No wind, no sound from the sea. Leif Vickberg stayed in New York six months after the accident, to be a witness at the trial. There was no verdict. The trial ended abruptly when the lawyers and executives of both shipping companies realized that they were insured by the same company. |
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