Diver conquers ‘Everest’

Friday, February 19, 2010

By JESSIE SALISBURY

Correspondent

BROOKLINE – For the scuba diver, the wreck of the Andrea Doria is “the Everest of diving,” resident Joe King told a room full of people on Wednesday, Feb. 10.

The ship is deteriorating, and since it lies on its side, the interior is disorienting – what was the floor and ceiling of the ocean liner are now the walls of the sunken ship.

It is considered one of the most dangerous wrecks in the word because of the depth, the cold and the strong currents. Several divers have died on the wreck, lost inside and unable to find a way out, or entangled in lost fishing nets. The Andrea Doria is 250 feet down off Nantucket.

King has been to the sunken ship about a dozen times, the last time in 2001. He talked about those trips and diving in general in a program sponsored by the Brookline Historical Society, held at the fire station.

The luxury Italian liner Andrea Doria and the Swedish ship Stockholm collided in July of 1956, with a loss of 46 people on the Andrea Doria and five on the Stockholm. The collision was the result of a “fundamental error” on the part of the Doria captain, King said. The captain apparently misread his radar, which was new at the time, and turned the wrong way. The ship was in thick fog.

Since it took 11 hours for the ship to sink, everyone was safely evacuated.

Divers were at the ship on the following day and have been going down ever since.

King’s collection of slides included views of the sinking ship and damage to the bow of the Stockholm. Pictures of the ship right after the sinking were contrasted with pictures taken in the last couple of years, showing the deterioration, the collapse of walls and the growth of sea anemones on the railings.

“The wreck is falling apart,” King said, which opens up new areas to explore and presents hazards to the diver.

“Pieces of metal reach out to grab you,” he said. “I was two decks down inside the wreck when a piece fell near me.”

Diving at that depth has hazards enough of its own, King said. A diver can stay on the ship for a maximum of a half hour, and then it takes another 90 minutes to decompress on the return to the surface. Failure to decompress properly, rid the body of collected nitrogen, can cause the bends, which can be fatal.

Totally outfitted to dive, he said, “I weigh about 400 pounds.”

Monitoring his air tanks for quantity remaining and oxygen content is vital, he said. “You have to watch it really, really closely.”

Asked if was dark down there, he said, “On a good day, you can see about 40 feet. But,” he added, “you have to take care. You can get lost.”

Pictures show the ship in a green glow, filtered light from above.

The darkest place he dived, he said, “is Lake Potanipo,” a Brookline pond where he was looking for remains of the old ice houses. “Because of the silt,” he said.

Diving to places like the Andrea Doria requires five qualities he said.

You need physical ability, because of the weight of gear and depth of the water; emotional control, because you can’t panic when things go wrong, as they will; academic ability to calculate air tanks, times and distances; dive ability, the necessary experience and training; and last, discipline.

“You can’t cut corners,” he said.

Asked how he felt on his return, he said, “Thank God I’m back!” then he added, “I’ve just expended at lot of energy and made a premiere dive.”

King started diving in 1974, when he and some friends bought some gear. He has since trained in several areas and is certified as a technical diver, which means he can go deeper than 130 feet, and is a certified SCUBA instructor. In addition to the training and certification, he has invested more than $10,000 in training and equipment.

He first visited the Doria 12 years ago and said he hopes to go back this summer.

King interspersed his lively talk with diving anecdotes, stories of his and other people’s adventures – both good and bad, including his attempt to retrieve a sink.

He had it detached and ready to bring it to the surface when he learned that another diver was missing and he joined the search. His sink has since disappeared in the collapsing walls of the ship.

He also included information about the Andrea Doria, it’s size, the ten decks, the luxury appointments and the artwork it contained.

His pictures included artifacts retrieved, both interior and exterior shots of how the ship looks now, and various divers in gear. He made his dives from the ship “Seeker,” a ship that no longer exists.

King had a collection of china and other items from the ship on display.

“The china is fantastic,” he said.

Jessie Salisbury can be reached at 654-9704 or jessies@tellink.net.