SS Andrea Doria

Sorry I am rather late with my most recent blog post. As mentioned on Wednesday, today's blog post is in very questionable taste and I've been putting off writing about it.
The below is probably the most controversial card I own, not just because of the subject matter but because I bought the card knowing the history of the subject matter. I have other cards in my collection featuring controversial subjects but which were purchased in a job lot and I didn't realise the significance of the cards.

It's not the New York skyline which is the  problem here, this card is from the 1950s, long before the World Trade Centre was built and I would not feature that on the blog anyway.
The ship featured on the card is the Andrea Doria, which sank almost 60 years ago today on 25th/26th July 1956 (again the  date is a coincidence) with the loss of 46 lives.
The ship, built in 1951, was famed for it luxury and beauty and boasted three outdoor swimming pools and expensive artwork and décor throughout the ship.
It was also considered one of the safest ships ever built, with early warning radar and plenty of lifeboats no-one expected another Titanic. However there were flaws and its tendency to list when hit by heavy force was a contributing factor to its sinking. It also made it impossible to reach half of the lifeboats.
On 25th July, 9 days into a routine crossing, The Andrea Doria collided with the MS Stockholm after misinterpreting each others courses. I don't want to dwell too much on the accident itself, there are plenty of places you can read about that. I will say that 51 people lost their lives, including 5 from the SS Stockholm, but considering there were over 1700 people on board the Andrea Doria and a further 742 on the Stockholm, the loss of life could have been much greater. Survivors of the crash included Hollywood actresses Ruth Roman and Betsy Drake. Sadly, many of those killed were young families.
The fate of the two ships involved was very different, The Stockholm was repaired and is still in service as the MV Astoria, the Andrea Doria remained afloat for 11 hours after the collision before sinking into the North Atlantic Ocean. The wreck remains there to this day and 16 divers have lost their lives diving wreck giving it the nickname the Mount Everest of Scuba Diving.