The secret automotive project lost inside SS Andrea Doria

"SOS DE ICEH [this is Andrea Doria] SOS HERE AT 0320 GMT LAT. 40.30 N 69.53 WE NEED IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE"

However, as the ship disappeared beneath the Atlantic following a catastrophic collision, it took America’s vehicular secret beneath the waves – never to be recovered.

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During the late-night hours of July 26, 1956, SS Andrea Doria sliced through seemingly impenetrable fog off the coast of Nantucket Island. On this voyage, her 51st westbound crossing towards New York, almost 90 per cent of the total passenger capacity had been booked out. More than 1,300 passengers rested within their homely cabins – safe, relaxed, and at ease.

Residing in cargo hall two, a large crate overshadowed the surrounding freight. Only select individuals knew about its presence onboard, and fewer still were aware of the four-wheeled contents.

Intended for tactful delivery to Chrysler as an exhibition on the automotive show circuit, and meanwhile kept firmly out of sight, the state-of-the-art Chrysler Norseman had taken 15 months to build at a cost of US$150,000 (roughly $2.1 million by 2023 standards).

Chrysler’s masterpiece was set to change the face of motoring. The highly-advanced design showcased a wide number of world firsts, alongside safety aspects destined for eventual production. Even by today’s standards, it was futuristic beyond words – yet, fate encircled the Norseman right from the beginning.

Although designed by stylists at Chrysler HQ in New York, the construction had been contracted out to celebrated Italian coachbuilder Carrozzeria Ghia. This was a common scenario: European styling houses habitually tag-teamed projects with hyper-glamorous North American budgets.

Citing complex production reasons, the project fell riotously behind schedule and ultimately missed its intended cargo shipment from Turin. The next sailing that ensured delivery before 1957’s show season was the SS Andrea Doria.

It felt like the perfect pairing.

A luxurious Italian flagship seemed ideal for safeguarding the next generation of transport. Of all the ships at that time, Doria was highbrow enough to mask the car’s arrival in New York, and was supposedly the fastest and safest ship ever to fly the Bandiera d'Italia. Chrysler HQ was more than happy about the arrangement.

Except - although nobody knew it, opting for SS Andrea Doria had sealed the car’s fate.

SS Andrea Doria's sealed fate

Northern Atlantic waters south of Nantucket Island are well known as a frequented area of intermittent fog, whipped up by the interweaving forces of the Gulf Stream and cold Artic Labrador Current.

The SS Andrea Doria reduced speed from 23.0 to 21.8 knots, her captain having already taken customary measures for the weather conditions; activating the fog-warning whistle and closing the watertight doors.

Despite following protocol, Captain Calamai would ultimately be blamed by many for what happened next.

The previous day, upon the strike of Noon, MS Stockholm – a passenger liner of the Swedish American Line - departed New York Harbour. Although the smallest passenger liner to operate on the North Atlantic at the time, Stockholm was mighty. The Swedish liner was designed for Artic seas and, bearing a sturdy ice-breaking bow, was considered hard-wearing and resistant to the elements.

As the clock ticked closer to 11.10pm on July 25, and in the last moments of onboard calm, acrid panic engulfed the bridge of SS Andrea Doria. As Stockholm’s lights pierced through the fog, one officer screamed: “She’s coming right at us!”

MS Stockholm, having ventured 20 miles off course in a busy shipping lane to save time, was spearheading straight into oncoming west-bound traffic. Cutting through the thick curtain of fog, and without communication, the Swedish vessel emerged from the murk and ploughed its reinforced bow directly into Doria’s starboard side – shattering bulkheads and penetrating some 30 feet into her hull.

Doria was mortally wounded, although MS Stockholm remained seaworthy. Staying afloat for 11 hours after the collision, most passengers managed to escape the Italian liner during a mammoth rescue attempt.

However, as the ship slowly rolled over and sank beneath the waves, not everyone was so lucky. 46 souls went down with the Doria, alongside another five who perished aboard the Stockholm – meaning that any loss of cargo swiftly became inconsequential in comparison.

And that included the ruinously expensive Chrysler Norseman.

The Norseman goes under

Once the SS Andrea Doria had pointed skyward and slipped away, she came to rest on her starboard side, 260 feet beneath the changeless seascape. The Norseman would first have been damaged by the subsequent effect of a listing ship; smashed within the crate before seawater took the vehicle into the dark abyss.

The news naturally hit a nerve with Chrysler management. Not only had the company lost over two years’ worth of work and an eye-watering amount of investment, but also their main exhibit for 1957.

The car’s designer – Virgil Exner – was recovering from a heart attack when news broke about the ship’s accident. His family made a wise decision to delay informing Virgil that his creation rested upon the sea floor. Needless to say, Exner was not happy.

As the submerged ship slowly lost its battle for structural rigidity against time’s onward march, the tidal currents, and the ravages of salt erosion, so too did the Norseman. We know this not through assumption and scientific reasoning, but because one diver has since ventured into the wreckage site – and caught a fleeting glimpse of Chrysler’s scene-changing masterpiece.

Secretly lurking in the blackness

“The Mount Everest of dives.”

That is how the SS Andrea Doria has become known, courtesy of a deadly reputation among the global diving community.

While tempting for divers – courtesy of both accessible depth and historical intrigue – the wreckage remains incredibly dangerous, and it has become more treacherous as the ship’s wellbeing deteriorates. More than a dozen divers have been claimed by Doria’s hulk since it came to rest on the seabed.

The original divers reached the wreckage site only 28 hours after the ship’s collision, returning with photographs that were promptly showcased in Life magazine.

Subsequent visits to the SS Andrea Doria were exercised in search of valuables; the contents of first-class safes, decorative fixtures from the dining room, jewellery and money that had been left behind.

Floor plans of the vessel were brought out, spurring opportunistic treasure hunters into action. Yet, as this feverish race for collectables intensified, divers were largely unaware of the ghostly automotive presence destined to decay amid the blackness of the ship’s cargo hold; the car’s intricate beauty eclipsed by violent disarray.

Even then, the only divers who knew about the Norseman’s onboard presence had discovered the situation from Chrysler’s awkward press release; claiming the car was insured and that Americans could sleep soundly at night, even if panicking Chrysler bigwigs ran in ever-decreasing circles.

The Chrysler was set for a slow and lonely ruination while its existence dissolved from public knowledge. That is, until a flashlight jettisoned through the void some 38 years later.

The Norseman is found

David Bright cut his teeth as a scuba diver aged only 13. Venturing into the world of American pharmaceuticals for employment, it wasn’t long before he returned to the water and joined expeditions searching for history’s long-lost shipwrecks – including the RMS Titanic and RMS Empress of Ireland.

He repeatedly dived on the SS Andrea Doria in a bid to understand the liner’s final moments, obsessed with her dismal loneliness and unexplored mysteries. As an underwater researcher, David documented one excursion from 1994 upon which, while searching for a lost diver, he inadvertently stumbled across vehicular components far from the reserved onboard garage.

David had found the fabled Chrysler Norseman. Not that there was much left. The Chrysler was almost beyond all recognition.

Normally, cars belonging to passengers were strategically placed in the ship’s garage, located slightly aft of the collision point, having been lowered in via crane and carefully arranged for stability. However, the Norseman was no run-of-the-mill vehicle, and was instead packaged into a wooden crate and stashed away from prying eyes in the second cargo area.

By the time David Bright located the car, the crate and packaging had long since disintegrated.

Bright explained that the vehicle was in remarkably poor condition. Most of the bodywork had been reduced to a rusty lump of sludge. The embellishments were described as “indistinguishable junk”, with only the tyres and hubcaps assisting in the vehicle’s identification.

With ever-increasing dangers around the exploration of Doria’s interior, David never went back to that cargo site after 1994. In a spooky premonition of his fate, David claimed that it was doubtful anyone would ever get a chance to see the remains of the Norseman again.

SS Andrea Doria claimed Mr Bright in July 2006.

Chrysler Norseman: forever lost

The interior of the SS Andrea Doria no longer exists. Her decks collapsed as the hull gradually sank into the seabed, claiming everything that resided within.

The general prospect of returning from an expedition with long-lost artefacts has also diminished. Buried within the tangled ruins of the ship’s innards, ‘rewards’ are almost impossible to find. Some claim that the deterioration has opened new areas for exploration, but the Norseman is long gone – claimed by the salty torrents.

People often search for photographic evidence highlighting the car’s inky-black grave, but they won’t find anything. The technology of the time could not record through an illuminated flash, where every particle suspended in the turgid under-worldly atmosphere became exposed, creating an impenetrable curtain of light.

The loss of Chrysler’s Norseman is small in comparison to the ship itself, and the ultimate loss of life, but arguably the Norseman’s fate was somewhat better than the manufacturer’s original plan intended.

Once exhausted on the show scene, Chrysler planned to crash-test the Norseman before crushing the remains, as was common practice for concept cars of the time. The car’s mysterious fate aboard the SS Andrea Doria provided murky status that has matured into legend, rather than an overlooked asterisk in automotive history.

The aftermath

The aftermath of the accident hit Captain Calamai hard. Although never held officially accountable (and actually commended for his leadership and calm mantra through the hours that followed Stockholm’s collision), Calamai died a broken man in 1972, having never captained another vessel.

His last words were apparently "are all passengers safe?"

The MS Stockholm is still active, having been repaired and passed through no less than eleven owners, before operating as a boutique cruise ship until 2021. At the time of writing, the ship is currently for sale under a different name – MV Astoria.

As for Chrysler, with their beloved and hotly anticipated Norseman rotting within Doria’s submerged hulk, the in-house designers and engineers were left with only the car’s blueprints and a handful of photos.

The radical car design provided a foundation for future models, and some features were attempted for incorporation into other designs. The company could not afford to build a replacement, and the fast-moving car industry would not have waited for a second example.

The Norseman is now something of an urban legend, having dissolved into the sunless depths of the cold Nantucket coastline. Yet, unlike other concept cars, it is far from forgotten – thanks largely to the SS Andrea Doria herself.