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
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.
