Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs

The Andrea Doria: Pride of Italy

On the night of July 25, 1956, the ocean liner Andrea Doria was off the coast of Nantucket steaming towards New York. Converging on the same path but in the opposite direction was the Swedish passenger ship Stockholm. Nantucket. Thick fog blanketed the Atlantic that night. Radar showed each ship the other's blip, yet through a chain of misread signals and last-second turns, the Andrea Doria and Stockholm collided.

The Stockholm's reinforced bow tore into the Andrea Doria's starboard side, ripping open several decks and killing passengers instantly in their cabins. The Italian liner, already listing dangerously due to a design flaw in her fuel tanks, began taking on water and rolling further with every passing hour.

What followed was one of the great maritime rescues of the 20th century. Nearby ships, including the Ile de France, diverted course and worked through the night to pull survivors from lifeboats in the darkness. By morning on July 26, with more than 1,600 people safely evacuated, the Andrea Doria finally rolled onto her side and slipped beneath the waves, watched by cameras and a stunned public.

This episode traces the final hours of the Andrea Doria: the decisions on the bridge, the scramble to save lives, and the questions that still surround how two ships equipped with modern radar ever found themselves on a collision course.

My guest for this episode is wreck diver Andrea Murdoch Alpini. You can find him at https://www.phidiving.com/ and https://www.wreckdiving.it/.

This episode was originally published as Episode 4 of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs on October 4, 2022.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano.

All episodes, images, and sources can be found at [⁠shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠](https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com).

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried. [⁠⁠⁠](⁠⁠https://www.seansigfried.com)https://www.seansigfried.com⁠⁠⁠

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👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs is part of the Into History podcast channel. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠https://www.intohistory.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠

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** No AI was used to create this episode.

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The SS Eastland Disaster — Chicago, 1915

On the morning of July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland was moored in the Chicago River, preparing to carry passengers to a company picnic across Lake Michigan. It never got underway. As passengers boarded, the ship began to list, then rolled onto its side while still tied to the dock, in water barely twenty feet deep.

The disaster killed 844 people. Most victims were workers at the Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works, many of them young, many of them immigrants, dressed for a day off.

My guest for this episode is Paul Durica from the Chicago History Museum.

This is a replay of Episode 10 of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs from December 13, 2022.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, images, and sources can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried. ⁠⁠seansigfried.com⁠⁠

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👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs is part of the Into History podcast channel. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.intohistory.com/shipwreckspod

** No AI was used to create this episode.

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In May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck, one of the most powerful warships ever built, sank the British battlecruiser HMS Hood in a matter of minutes at the Battle of the Denmark Strait. What followed was one of the largest hunts in naval history. After three days of desperate pursuit across the North Atlantic, a crippling torpedo strike from a lone Swordfish biplane, and a final, brutal showdown that sent the pride of the German fleet to the bottom of the ocean. This episode traces the full story of the Bismarck's fateful voyage, from the loss of the Hood to the ship's last stand against the Royal Navy, in one of World War II's most dramatic naval battles.

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👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs is part of the Into History podcast channel. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠https://www.intohistory.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠

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** No AI was used to create this episode.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, images, and sources can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried.
⁠⁠https://www.seansigfried.com⁠⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Sinking and Discovery of the USCGC Tampa

On September 26, 1918, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tampa vanished into the Bristol Channel after a German U-boat torpedo struck her hull, killing all 131 sailors and personnel aboard in what remains the largest single loss of American life in combat during World War I. For over a century, the ship's final resting place stayed a mystery until April 2026, when a British volunteer dive team called Gasperados located her wreckage roughly 50 miles off Newquay, Cornwall, more than 300 feet beneath the Atlantic.

In this video, we cover the full story of the Tampa: her origins as the Revenue Cutter Miami in 1912, her service on international ice patrols, her wartime role escorting convoys through U-boat-infested waters, the night she was lost, and the painstaking three-year search that finally solved one of the Coast Guard's oldest mysteries.
🔹 The Tampa's early years and transformation into a Coast Guard cutter
🔹 Her WWI convoy escort missions across the Atlantic
🔹 The attack by German submarine UB-91
🔹 How the Gasperados dive team and Coast Guard historians identified the wreck
🔹 What the discovery means for the families of the lost crew

Guests for this episode are:
🔹 Dr. Bill Thiessen, Historian for the USCG Atlantic Area
🔹 Dom Robinson, Gasperados Dive Team
🔹 Gary Thomas, CDR Gary M. Thomas, USCG (Ret.)

👉 Dom Robinson's YouTube Channel: @DeepWreckDiver
👉 Gasperados Dive Team: https://www.facebook.com/p/Gasperados-Dive-Team-61579320759276/
👉 US Coast Guard History: https://www.history.uscg.mil/home/history-program/
👉 Foundation for Coast Guard History: https://fcgh.org/

#USCGCTampa #CoastGuardHistory #WWIShipwreck #NavalHistory #Shipwreck #WorldWarI #MaritimeHistory #Cornwall #UBoat #podcast #history

**🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES**

👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs is part of the Into History podcast channel. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠https://www.intohistory.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠

👉Get exclusive bonus episodes and merch on Patreon: ⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/patreon⁠⁠

👉Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/apple⁠⁠

👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs Merchandise is available!
⁠⁠https://shop.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠

👉You can support the podcast with a donation of any amount at:
⁠⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠

** No AI was used to create this episode.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, images, and sources can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried.
⁠⁠https://www.seansigfried.com⁠⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the summer of 1813, American and British forces raced to build fleets on the shores of Lake Erie, each side betting that naval control would decide the fate of the western frontier. On September 10th, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry sailed his squadron out to meet the British fleet under Robert Barclay. Early in the battle, Perry's flagship Lawrence was battered into a wreck, forcing him to row through open water under fire to reach the Niagara and continue the fight. Turning the tables, Perry drove his second ship straight into the British line, breaking their formation and forcing a full surrender within hours. The victory gave the U.S. total command of Lake Erie, cut off British supply lines, and paved the way for General William Henry Harrison's recapture of Detroit and the Battle of the Thames. Perry's now famous "Don't Give Up The Ship" battle flag resides at the US Naval Academy as one of its most treasured artifacts.

**🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES**

👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs is part of the Into History podcast channel. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠https://www.intohistory.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠

👉Get exclusive bonus episodes and merch on Patreon: ⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/patreon⁠⁠

👉Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/apple⁠⁠

👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs Merchandise is available!
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👉You can support the podcast with a donation of any amount at:
⁠⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠

** No AI was used to create this episode.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, images, and sources can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried.
⁠⁠https://www.seansigfried.com⁠⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices