In this July 26, 1956 photo, the Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria keels far over to starboard before sinking 225 feet to the bottom of the Atlantic 45 miles off Nantucket. (John Rooney/AP file)

Seventy years ago, an Italian ocean liner collided with a Swedish ship off the coast of Nantucket.

The Andrea Doria sank just south of the island on July 26, 1956. While 51 people were killed in the collision, more than 1,600 were saved in one of the largest maritime rescue operations in history.

One of those people was a 9-year-old who left Italy with her grandparents to move to the U.S. — with all their life’s possessions packed up in trunks on the ship.

Now 79, Pierette Domenica Simpson recalled the moment she first stepped foot on the Andrea Doria, which she called “the most beautiful ship in the world.”

“I still remember the smells of all the foods that I had never smelled or seen before, and the ice sculptures, and everything was luxurious, even in immigrant class — third class,” she said.

But everything would soon change.

On the last day of the voyage to New York, she and her grandmother went to a late-night gathering in the the ship’s social hall.

Just after 11 p.m., Simpson said she felt a tremendous jolt — and the ship tilted high in the air.

“ All the furniture was all over the place, on top of us and just piled up,” she recalled. “Everybody was screaming things like, ‘a boiler must have exploded.’ or ‘we hit an iceberg’ and the ship just kept inclining and lifting and lifting. So we had no choice but to just sit and say prayers.”

They prayed — and waited — for about three hours until someone announced rescue ships had arrived.

But they still weren’t close to being saved.

“We had to figure out how to get out from the social hall by crawling up the floor to the high side, making a human chain with our hands and pressing against the guardrail,” she said. “Some people let go and were injured by hitting the swimming pool or sliding across the deck, and it was very slippery because it had been foggy.”

She finally made her way to the lower side of the ship where she could be rescued.

There, she encountered two young men who tied a rope around her waist.

The captain and crewmen head for rescue ship in lifeboats from the Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria, July 26, 1956. (New York Daily News/AP)

“They dangled me over the black ocean. By this time it was probably 2, 3 o’clock in the morning, and I couldn’t see the lifeboat below it. I thought they were lowering me into the water, and I was screaming,” she said. “But fortunately, there was a lifeboat below the incline.”

“We made it across the ocean — and we could see the sign at the very top of the ship lit up like an oasis, and it said: Île de France.”

The Île de France was a French luxury liner that turned around to help rescue Andrea Doria passengers, including Simpson and her family.

They eventually made it to New York to establish their new life.

Today, Simpson has made it her mission to tell survivors’ stories, for example through her book “Alive on the Andrea Doria: The Greatest Sea Rescue in History” and a documentary she helped produce.

She said the stories of resilience can be an example to the rest of society.

“It’s a story of bouncing back after you think you’re in a situation that you’ll never be able to get through,” she said. “We are part of history. We were mostly immigrants on that ship. We made it that night, and we are here because we have survived. We have overcome, and I think it’s really important to learn that lesson.”

This weekend, Simpson organized a gathering in Boston with seven other survivors of the Andrea Doria to pay tribute to those who lost their lives and remember the historic rescue effort.

Survivors of the Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria crowd the rails of the Ile de France as it nears New York Harbor. (Bettmann via Getty Images)

This segment aired on July 24, 2026.