Are there any Andrea Doria dreamers out there?

[hawgfish]

So you're going to dive the Doria, and the ship that Churchill sank, the Lucsistaina, I don't think thats the correct spelling and I apoligize. It's nice to dream and realize those dreams, so I hope you'r young, experienced, skilled, lucky and have a lot of disposable cash. Good luck, and let me know what or where you're diving next.

 

[MASS-Diver]

Aviatrr,

Have you read Gentiles book(s) "The Lusitania Controversies"? Every since I read that I wanted to diver her.

 

[hawgfish]

No I did not, but I will now. Is it by Chowberry, again pardon the spelling? For some unexplained reason wreck diving, deep diving is what I really look foward to. I'm not stupid, and have been training to take on such dives, I'm drawn to it like Ahab was drawn to the White whale, hopefully with a different outcome. I dive safe, and have had superior instruction, so I welcome the challenge. But for divers to talk about these dives bothers me because I know, or have some insight, into the skill, money and all the other variables that it would take to accomplish successfully. Loose talk is just that, dreams are great, but to risk your life for a touch dive or a piece of china is not what I believe these dives are about.

 

[MASS-Diver]

"The Lusitania Controversies" Vol 1+2 (2 is better IMO) by Gary Gentile (the first guy to penetrate the Doria and one of the most famous divers in the world); good reading.

Clearly, the Doria is still a tough dive, even by today's standards, but, I really don't have any problem with people talking about wanting to dive it at some point in their carreer, even if they have little experince. I know some people that have done her(including my PADI instructor), my feeling is that if you are TRIMIX certified and have a couple hundred dives at similar depths under similar circumstances, you in good physcial/mental condition, and you don't mind long boat rides in bad seas, the Doria can be a fun, safe dive.

Like I said earlier, if there's anything left of her when I'm ready to do a dive like that, hell ya I want to dive the famous luxury liner that sank off my home state and, even today, remains one of the most famous wrecks in the world.

 

[TRUETEXAN]

Hey MASS-Diver

I like Gary Gentile and his books, but he was not even close to being one of the first people to penetrate the Doria.

 

[MASS-Diver]

I'm pretty sure Gentile is the first rec guy to penetrate the Doria, Gimble and his crew were commercial/salvage divers that clearly went in (and got the safe) before Gary.

What rec diver do you think penetrated it before Gary? I'm pretty sure he was the first and I don't why you say he's "not even close."???

I not the world's expert on the Doria, but, every book I have read gives Gentile credit for this feat, do you have some "secret" unpublished info about some brave sole that snuck out to the Doria and went in her before Gentile?
I know that Tom Gatto and all those famous NJ/NY divers give Gentile credit for being the first also.

 

[WreckWriter]

I really don't know if Gary was "the first" to penetrate her. If I think of it next time I talk to him I'll ask him. I'm almost certain though that he was doing it long before the safe recovery thing went down. Gimble's hole was not the first penetration, it just made it much easier for folks to get in who were already going in through more standard routes.

Tom

 

[MASS-Diver]

That would be great if you were to ask Gary, when I return home from the office and get some free time I'll search through "The Lusatainia Controveries" for the section where Gentile describes the dive which he labels "the first penetration of the Andrea Doria."

Do you know what year Gimlbe brought up the safe, it must have been pretty early? I thought I read that Gentile and those on their first Doria dives used Gimbles' tapes as a guide. I know besides some photgrapheres who snapped some grainy pics within weeks of the Doria going down, there was a big period when rec divers, like Gentile and that whole group of "Mud Hole" divers, simply could not get a charter to take them out there to dive.

Maybe being from the Northeast I'm biased toward who started to really dive the Doria, start the china run, etc, but, if you ask most people around here, they will give lots of credit those Mud Hole divers.

 

[TRUETEXAN]

MASS-diver,

You didn't say that Gary was the first rec diver to penetrate the Doria, you simply stated that he was the first person ever to penetrate the Doria. I think he probably was the first non-commercial diver to penetrate the Doria, but as far as being the very first diver to penetrate the doria, he was not, and I got my information from a book that Gary himself wrote "Andrea Doria Dive to an Era". By the way, my post was not intended to be a slam against Gary, I think he is one of the best!

 

[WreckWriter]

Originally posted by MASS-Diver
[BDo you know what year Gimlbe brought up the safe, it must have been pretty early?[/B]

That would be 1981 or 82
Tom