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| Ray Maurstad: With the rescue operation complete, family notification is a priority. Radiogram to Robert Hudson's wife, the last passenger off the Andrea Doria. |
Wives, husbands, parents, sons gathered in anguished apprehension that morning at the pier the Andrea Doria was due to dock. Some didn't know until they got there that there had been a collision.
 | Audio interview by Italian Radio (RAI) with families waiting on the pier for the Andrea Doria. The interview is in Italian and requires Real Player to hear it. |
One of the pre-dawn arrivals was William Gibson, 23, of Elign Illinois, who came to meet his wife Anna Maria, 25 yrs, whom he married in Italy in 1954 when he was in the Army and had to leave behind until they could save enough for her passage. When word reached him that the casualities were few he smiled and said:
Alphonse Marra, 22, of Port Washington LI, paced the pier, awaiting word of his father, Riziere, 57, who went to Naples for a visit in 1939 and was only now returning.
Mrs. Mary Wojcik came from Chicago with her daughter, Norma, 20, for reunion with her son, the Rev. Richard Wojcik, returning after three years of .study in Rome. "How can boats crash Into each other when there's so much water?" she moaned.
Angelo
Prata, Newark NJ, waited for his wife, Marguerite, 42, and their eleven year old
son. With him were three of Mrs. Prata's eleven sisters. Prata came to the US in
1954 and had just saved enough money to bring his wife and boy.
Mrs. Florence Collani kept vigil until she received reassuring word of her husband Joseph, 60, who had been on a six week visit with his family in Salerno, Italy. When she was satisfied he was safe she walked a block to the restaurant she operates and opened for the day.
In Wichita, Kansas; Julianne McLean's mother had a very bad dream about the Andrea Doria, she dreamt of a collision and that many people were lost and that her daughter was ok. When she woke up she headed to Church and on her way there, heard about the collision and the sinking. Arriving at the Church she dissolved in tears and a priest asked her what had happened. When she told him, the entire Church began to pray for those involved in the collision.
Captain Boyd's wife, Betty was in the shower when she heard a radio report. She made out only the words "sea disaster and "Cape Ann". Mrs. Boyd phoned the ship company offices. Details were hazy and it was 7 am when a reporter from the Long Island Press phoned her and she learned that the Cape Ann was a rescue vessel.
In Genoa Italy, the home port of the Andrea
Doria, hundreds of wives, children and other relatives of crew members
crowded around the office of the Italian Line for news of the ship and rescue
operations.
A Boston nun prayed a worried brother waits
and an aunt hopes.
That's was the picture as the approximately 200 relatives of Andrea Doria
survivors waiting behind a white fence on New York's Pier 84 for the United
Fruit Company's Cape Ann to bring back dear ones.
Mother Maria Paul of Boston, leaned over the railing and explained her parents,
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph La Porte were among the disaster survivors. "I've
been up all night," she said, "getting everyone we know to pray.
The sisters in Boston all went to chapel, lit vigil lights and prayed the
night through.
Merill
Fisher of East Orange, N.J., went to a restaurant for breakfast that morning
before going down to meet his brother Arthur.
He glanced at a newspaper headline and changed his plans. “He’s
all right, I guess” Fisher said. I haven’t heard anything from him. I just
came over to the pier and checked the list of survivors downstairs.
Angelina De Sane had a premonition last night aboard the Andrea Doria so
she called her cousin, Michael Zillani, of New York. "Before the disaster
she called home," Zillani said with a trace of an Italian accent. "It
was Just half an hour before the crash. She
said she had a funny feeling, it was so foggy. We've
had no sleep. We've just watched
and listened to every news program we could find.