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The Nantucket Life-Saving Museum usually pays tribute tothose brave men who more than a century ago battled fierce storms and pounding seas to rescue the passengers and crew of sailing vessels that wrecked in the treacherous waters just off the island’s shores.

These rugged men, who were stationed in life-saving stations along Nantucket’s shoreline, would row long lifeboats through torrential rains and howling winds to the wreck sites in the often faint hope of bringing back survivors. They truly understood – in fact many even lived and died – the Coast Guard motto: “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back.”

Yet this summer, one of the exhibits at the museum off Polpis Road will celebrate a different kind of rescue, one which didn’t involve that rare breed of life-saving man, one which took place during a more modern era, and one in which the island actually had relatively little involvement.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the collision of the Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria and the Swedish liner Stockholm in a thick fog 50 miles southeast of Nantucket, the Life-Saving Museum has mounted an exhibit that highlights the amazingly successful rescue operation in which all but 46 of the Andrea Doria’s passengers survived, despite a crippling blow that sent the ship to the bottom of the sea.

Ongoing throughout the summer, the exhibit will be highlighted by an intricately detailed model of the Andrea Doria, a life ring, deck chair, programs, china, playing cards and other artifacts from the vessel. Former museum director Maurice Gibbs will speak about the collision, its possible causes and its aftermath July 27.

“We often talk about the tragedy of shipwrecks, and not to discount the deaths of those people who died, but this really was a life-saving success story. Nearly everyone was rescued. Those that died, most of them did so in the actual collision,” said museum curator Jeremy Slavitz. “We wanted to mark the 50th anniversary of the collision, and we wanted to redefine how we talk about lighthouses and lightships and life-saving. When we usually talk about wrecks, they were usually fairly close by, and the rescue attempts were launched from Nantucket. This occurred about 50 miles away.”

On July 26, 1956, the Andrea Doria, considered the most opulent liner on the seas at the time, sank to the bottom of the Atlantic 53 miles southeast of Nantucket, 11 hours after colliding with the Stockholm in a dense fog so common in that part of the ocean during the summer months.

To this day, it has never been fully determined why two luxury cruise ships, each equipped with the latest radar technology and manned by an experienced crew, were fated to collide in such a wide expanse of ocean.

The scenario becomes less improbable, however, when the fog, the speed of the vessels, and the congestion on that part of the ocean are taken into account. The area where the collision occurred was at the time the heart of both the east- and westbound shipping lanes for vessels traveling to and from Europe. It was here that those shipping lanes converged at the Nantucket lightship, as many vessels set their course for the ship located about 60 miles off the island’s eastern shore, and from there headed straight for New York Harbor or north to follow the Great Circle route to the continent.

“The Andrea Doria was the last of the great ocean liners. Others came after her, but they didn’t have her style or beauty. It really was the end of an era when she sank,” Slavitz said. “The vessels that followed never really had the allure of the Andrea Doria. Her lines were described as yacht-like. It was a part of society you don’t see anymore. The dinners were formal and black tie. Stars of stage and screen would travel in style. Today you can have breakfast on cruise ship with Mickey Mouse.”

It was also the dawn of a new era in how information was communicated.

“Not only was this a dramatic event, but it was a shipwreck that people still remember,” Slavitz continued. “It happened during folks’ lifetimes. It was one of the first big media events. Today, when stuff happens on the other side of the world, we expect to be able to turn on CNN and see it. This shipwreck was really the start of that era. People woke up that morning and heard about it on the radio. The evening editions of the newspapers already had photographs taken at the wreck site.”

The Nantucket Historical Association will host its own Andrea Doria exhibit, opening July 14, in the Whaling Museum.

Starting Saturday, the Nantucket Life-Saving Museum will be open daily from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. through Columbus Day.

For much more about the saga of the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm on that fateful night, check out the July issue of Nantucket Today, on the stands at the end of June.

(Nantucket Enquirer & Mirror)