Man Not Overboard

Robert Hudson woke up one morning in the hospital room on board, slightly dizzy from a hangover. He was below deck, and he found himself alone. He got out and made his way through the ship. He was all alone and when he came up on deck, after two hours battling rising water and panic, he understood why. The ship was sinking, and everybody had escaped in the lifeboats. So Robert jump overboard, and was eventually rescued by the tanker Robert E. Hopkins.

That happened 50 years ago, and the ship he was on was Andrea Doria, after it had collided with Stockholm. I don't know why, but somehow I have, ever since I first read about the incident, accident, been fascinated by it, so imagine my excitement when one day I came across a newspaper article from 1956 which told the story of Robert Hudson's unfortunate adventures.

I wonder what he felt, and what he thought, during those few hours. Can you imagine that? Waking up after a good night's sleep, and finding yourself alone on a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean. That's the kind of story that would be ridiculed as being far to absurd, if ever it would be made into a film.

But for Robert Hudson it was real. Poor bastard.