Re: [Chrysler300] Palo Alto

[lettercars@xxxxxxx]

Thanks John.  I had sort of hoped that there would be some pictures of  it as 
it lies, but perhaps it is better to remember it as it was.   It  has a 
really nice profile, but looses it a bit in the front,  especially.   However, who 
am I to criticize Exner?     300ly, Gil
 
In a message dated 6/30/2006 7:46:41 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
crossram@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

 
it IS the Norseman  that’s in the Andrea Doria.  One of the most fascinating 
things, about  this concept car, is that precious few pictures even exist of 
the car!   It had the most beautiful, cantilevered roof .  The Imperial Club 
has one  picture of it on their site:   
_http://www.imperialclub.com/Articles/GhiaStory/Ghia222-reg.jpg_ 
(http://www.imperialclub.com/Articles/GhiaStory/Ghia222-reg.jpg)  
The roof line / front  windshield, while quite similar to that of a 57 300, 
differs because the  windshield is a one-piece curved affair, with  no posts at 
all.  The  rest of the car is rather ugly, in my opinion.  
As far as the car’s  current condition, yes, it HAS been seen since the ship 
went down. Here is an  excellent “cut and paste” from a relevant web  site: 
_http://shipwreck.blogs.com/shipwrecks_historical_tim/andrea_doria/index.html_
 
(http://shipwreck.blogs.com/shipwrecks_historical_tim/andrea_doria/index.html)  
February  06, 2006
Prototype  Car of the Future Lost on the Andrea Doria -  Norseman
One  of the "casualties" of the  Andrea  Doria sinking has received quite a 
bit of attention  in the past decade; however, this casualty was not a person  
but a beautiful automobile called the Norseman. The Norseman was a special  
prototype car that was a joint project of Chrysler and Ghia. It is thought  that 
the complete development of this automobile cost more than $100,000  
1956-dollars. Normally, all passenger cars were placed in the garage section  of the 
Andrea  Doria that is slightly aft of the collision point  where the Stockholm  
impaled the Doria  underneath the bow wing bridge. These cars would have been 
placed on to the  Doria  by use of a crane and meticulously parked in the 
garage and arranged  strategically for stability. However, the Norseman was no 
passenger vehicle  and was specially packed and treated with extra care. The 
Norseman was put  into a wooden crate and placed in the number 2 cargo area. 
While looking for a  lost diver, I had an opportunity to see the Norseman for 
myself in the cargo  hold. The crate had disintegrated and the car was in very, 
very poor  condition. The ocean's salt water invaded the Norseman's metal and 
most of the  car is rust, corrosion and a heap of indistinguishable junk. The 
tires are  still there and have assisted to its identification.   
I  have been back to the cargo area several times (it is pretty scary in the  
cargo hold because the ship is lying on its starboard side) and visited the  
Norseman on a couple other occasions. I contributed to an article authored by  
a New York Times reporter that appeared in the Hemmings Motor News in the  
early 1990's. In 1996, a website in Germany translated part of this  Hemmings 
article and added additional information. The link to this article  is: 
_http://riekmann.prohosting.com/magazin/chrysler_norseman/chrysler_norseman.htm_ 
(http://riekmann.prohosting.com/magazin/chrysler_norseman/chrysler_norseman.htm)   
I have been interviewed about my dives to the Norseman several times since  
the original Hemmings article appeared. I have not been back to this cargo  
site since 1994 and with all the decay that the wreck has had over the past 10  
years, it is doubtful if I will ( or anyone else) ever get a chance to see the  
remains of the Norseman again. 







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