Key to Cabin 52
When the Stockholm's bow sliced into the Andrea Doria, Linda Morgan was sleeping in Cabin 52. Although the bow crushed everything in its path, it managed to pick Linda up and she remained on the Stockholm deck as the ship withdrew back into the fog. The key to Upper Deck (Ponte Superiore) Cabin 52 also remained on the Stockholm. It was buried in the wreckage.
When the Stockholm was being towed to the shipyard, one of the tugboat longshoreman, Howard Dryden, found the key amidst the wreckage. Upon retirement in the mid 1980's, Howard gave the key to his friend and coworker Randy Tuten. Randy began a search for the occupant of the cabin. His search was successful and he found Linda Morgan and offered her the key. Linda had no interest in the key and declined the offer due to her traumatic experience and the loss of her step father and step sister.
Today Randy lives in Florida and was kind enough to send me photos of the key that opened the door of the "Miracle Girl's" cabin.
The Shirt
Survivor Jerome Reinert framed and hung the unwashed shirt that he wore during the rescue from the Andrea Doria. There is an orange stain around the collar from the dye that is in the orange passenger life jackets.
Lira From The Deep
Peter Gimbel launched the "Doria
Project" in 1981 in an attempt to recover the First Class Safe from the Andrea
Doria. He was unable to locate the safe he wanted but he did find the First
Class bank safe and recovered it. On August 16th, 1984 the safe was opened on live
TV to a worldwide audience. The safe contained travelers checks, dollars and
liras. After restoration many of the bills were encased in Lucite and sold as souvenirs
to help finance the "Doria Project".
Peter Gimbel and his wife Elga Andersen have passed away. Elga was 59 years old
when she died on December 7th 1994. Their ashes were placed on the Andrea Doria
during one of the diving expeditions.
Werner Grabner was kind enough to send us a picture of the 1,000 Lira bill he owns.
Statue of Admiral Andrea Doria
(Excerpts from Gary Gentile's Dive to an Era)