BOSTON — The wreck of the Italian ocean liner the Andrea Doria off Nantucket may be more badly deteriorated than previous sonar images suggest, with its bow nearly broken off, a team of undersea explorers said Monday.
OceanGate, a Washington-based crew that mans an underwater vessel, spent two full days at the wreck earlier this month capturing more than a dozen sonar images of the liner, which went down in 1956 after colliding with another ship.
Fifty-one people died, 46 of them on the Andrea Doria.
Stockton Rush, OceanGate's CEO, said the images, which are still being processed, suggest a large section of the bow has broken off since the last time a sonar image of the ship was taken two years ago by another organization.
"It looks so dramatically different," he said, speaking at Boston's Long Wharf, where the underwater vessel rested on a docked boat. "When you look at the shape of the hull, it appears a lot has come off."
Rush said it's not clear when the bow started breaking up. He said previous sonar images were taken from the surface and are not as detailed as the ones being produced by his team.
OceanGate had hoped to spend up to a week at the wreck capturing detailed sonar images. But bad weather, including high waves, heavy fog and strong winds, cut the expedition short.
"What you can control is your equipment and your people. Mother Nature can then make up her own mind," Rush said.
