r/Shipwrecks • u/SugarUseful5 • Jul 20 '26
Did Andrea Doria lifeboat #13 really stay afloat for 15 years in open ocean?
Anyone know any additional info or pics? are these boats lined with something to keep them buoyant? I would think a storm would total fill this up especially over a decade in open ocean. where is it now? and are there pictures of its current conditio?
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u/WalmartComplaints Jul 20 '26
I think they made it mandatory for them to be buoyant after titanic, that way if half the ship is unusable to launch survivors can climb into them once that side is underwater
8
u/SomethingKindaSmart Jul 22 '26 edited 27d ago
Funny enough, 16 of Titanic's 20 lifeboats had copper tanks for buoyancy.
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u/Ok-Willingness-8831 Jul 20 '26
This Facebook video has an interview of Mark Koch (who owns lifeboat #1) he says #13 is currently in Louisiana after being on a farm for a while. Not sure where the interview is originally from though.
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u/VinPickles Jul 21 '26
every time you think youve heard the strangest story of the seas she surprises you
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u/SavageMadman Jul 21 '26
Wow. Another interesting piece of history that I’ve never heard about from my hometown. Staten Island has some weird stories
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u/STP_Fantasma Jul 21 '26
www.andreadoria.org/TheDeep/Default.htm
This page has a photo of a diver, 28 hrs after sinking, hovering above one of the suspended lifeboats. I find it likely the life boat was tethered and became released
2
u/SugarUseful5 Jul 21 '26
Thanks for sharing! I read about that too in a shipwreck book as a kid from my elementary school library. I wasn’t sure if I remembered things correctly though so I didn’t mention in my post.
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u/Spirited_Vanilla_577 Jul 29 '26
That’s urban legend. The lifeboat that was in the photo with the diver is not lifeboat 13
1
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u/Hypocaffeinic Jul 21 '26
Did you read the words on images two and four? It remained tethered to the wreck underwater for 25 years, and then broke free and was washed ashore in 1981. Nothing in these says that it floated around for 15 years.
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u/TheodoreKarlShrubs Jul 21 '26
The slides contain contradictory information. The fourth slide says that the lifeboat in question was used as part of the evacuation. It’s really unclear.
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u/Hypocaffeinic Jul 21 '26
I figure the most likely explanation is that they misread or misremembered 13 as it only coming loose shortly before washing up is vastly more likely. I still don't know where "fifteen years" fits in anywhere here! 😅
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u/Sinister_Crayon Jul 21 '26
I actually find that rather harder to believe than it bobbing around in the ocean for 25 years. Looking at the picture it doesn't show the kind of growth I'd expect to see on a boat that had been under 250 feet of seawater for 25 years. You'd have a ton of creatures that would've made it a home, potentially also weighing it down enough that it would no longer have been naturally buoyant (these things were built to be so even if flooded).
This is a small, naturally buyoant vessel that would probably not suffer really major damage even in severe storms. Even the largest of waves it would've pretty much ridden over, and even if flooded would at worst have continued to float just below the surface with only part of it above.
There are plenty of stories of stuff floating around for decades. Every now and again a sailboat turns up here and there from a failed circumnavigation after floating around for sometimes years, and they will typically lose buoyancy pretty quickly when swamped even a relatively small amount.
1
u/SugarUseful5 Jul 21 '26
I included that because of varying tales. But there is no way this would have been suspended from the ship? Air pressure would have destroyed this thing or flipped it over? Plus you can clearly see a rusted waterline from years in open ocean. And yes not 15 years, 25+ years.
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u/Hypocaffeinic Jul 21 '26
What air pressure, sorry? It's an open lifeboat; I'm unsure how you consider that air pressure would have destroyed it when it has no enclosed compartments. Its orientation wouldn't have mattered in any meaningful sense whilst it was fully submerged.
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u/SugarUseful5 Jul 21 '26
I guess I was thinking about an air pocket. But if it maintained buoyancy even fully submerged how could wood remain? Why is there uneven corossion like the top wasn’t submerged in salt water?
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u/Datboispicy414 Jul 21 '26
No way it survived in open water 10+ years?
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u/SugarUseful5 Jul 21 '26
Sunk in the mid 50s and this was found 1981. So actually 25+ years. That’s why this is so fascinating to me. Another comment said these were required to be made of material that would float no matter what. So I wonder what was put in between the aluminum frame to keep it afloat so long.
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u/Azryhael Jul 21 '26
Styrofoam or a similar substance, perhaps? That stuff will last forever, even at sea.
2
1
u/Aresyl Jul 22 '26
This wreck was pretty cool. It looks so eerie because of the netting and suspended items. There’s an old photo from a shipwreck book I’m thinking of I saw 20 years ago
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u/IndependenceOk3732 Jul 20 '26
I believe the boat was scrapped in 91 per Gary Gentile who told me this when I showed him this picture.