
>What remain are the wreck's storied past and the fact that the improbable loss of the Doria, which has subsequently claimed the lives of 17 scuba divers, irrevocably changed the nature of wreck diving.
>It was prescient that the first divers on the wreck — investment-banker-turned-explorer-and-filmmaker Peter Gimbel and editor Joseph Fox — were amateur scuba divers. The two plunged 160 feet through the dark, frigid, oily water using primitive scuba gear to get the first underwater pictures of the Doria for Life magazine. Gimbel, 28, had negotiated the assignment two days earlier by phone as the sinking steamer was being evacuated.
>Over the next 25 years, the Doria was visited infrequently. Gimbel led five expeditions, recovered the purser's safe in 1981 using commercial diving equipment and produced two documentaries and a TV show. There was a French filming expedition and an Italian expedition with cinematographer Al Giddings, who compared diving the Doria to climbing Mount Everest, leading to the wreck becoming known as the "Mount Everest of diving." There were also several unsuccessful salvage operations that used saturation diving systems.
![]() >University of New Hampshire (used with permission). |

>But it wasn't until the early 1980s, with the introduction of a reliable, diver-friendly means of getting to the wreck, that Doria diving became accessible. "We changed the dynamics," said Capt. Steve Bielenda, who built the 55-foot RV Wahoo (which could sleep 26 and had a galley) for that purpose. "I wanted a dive boat that could run offshore and stay for a couple of days." Wahoo, along with Seeker and Sea Hunter, began running up to three trips each season.
![]() >Saturation Systems Inc., who is cutting an entry hole in the Doria’s foyer doors in 1973. |
>As a result, the Doria became the tipping point that led Northeast wreckers to adopt mixed-gas technology to improve their safety and performance. Eventually others followed. The catalyst: Technical diving pioneer Capt. Billy Deans began developing mix protocols after losing his best friend, John Ormsby, on an air dive on the Doria in 1985. That same year Deans helped Bielenda install an O2 decompression system on the Wahoo that got divers out of the water faster and with fewer bends. Soon everyone was decompressing with oxygen.
>In 1991, with Deans' support, the Wahoo hosted the first mixed-gas expedition on the Doria. Led by explorer Bernie Chowdhury, it signaled the eventual demise of deep air diving. "[Mix] put divers on par with those who could tolerate the narcosis," Gentile said. "It enabled them to make dives they couldn't have before." Before long, mixed-gas classes were booming, and the Doria became tech divers' No. 1 destination.

>cutlery on the Andrea Doria in 1981.
>That community has helped keep alive the memory of the Doria and has recovered some of its artifacts: two bells, two Guido Gambone friezes, a bronze statue, the helm, the compass and thousands of china dishes, among others. "Recovering artifacts has been my primary motivation," said Doria historian John Moyer (120 dives), who has an "admiralty arrest" on the wreck, giving him ownership of specific contents. "We have to rescue what we can before it's irretrievably lost." Moyer hopes to create a permanent Doria museum.
>Today there's a drastic reduction in the number of divers venturing to the Doria, and it can be difficult to fill a single charter. Not surprising, rebreathers have replaced open-circuit scuba as the technology du jour. Last year Doria veteran Bart Malone (179 dives) was the only open-circuit diver on a private charter of 12.
>The prospects of finding artifacts have also changed. In the old days divers were almost guaranteed a souvenir; today they are much harder to find. But that hasn't deterred longtime divers such as explorer and photographer Steve Gatto, who plans to conduct his first rebreather dive on the wreck this summer.
>Gatto has made close to 250 dives on the Doria, including the deepest penetration with Tom Packer (150+ dives), and both divers signed the "arrest" claim on the Doria along with Moyer. Gatto said that the deterioration of the ship is a double-edged sword. "While closing off old areas, it is opening up new ones," he said. "There will always be something to find."
>1956 news reel
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>1967 footage of Mike deCamp's expedition (no sound)
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>1984 Peter Gimbel documentary
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>1985 interview with John Moyer and Bill Nagle
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>1991 John Chatterton dive
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>2016 OceanGate survey expedition
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>© Alert Diver — Q3 Summer 2016