Setting the Hook: A Diver’s Return to the Andrea Doria

The 1956 collision of the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm triggered a night of sheer terror for the Andrea Doria's 1,706 passengers and crew and set in motion one of history's most dramatic rescues at sea. From the moment the Andrea Doria settled on the sea floor in 240 feet of water, skilled sport divers have risked their lives to simply touch the "Mount Everest of wreck diving." Not all returned alive. Peter Hunt crewed on five Andrea Doria expeditions during the early 1980s before becoming a Navy pilot and settling in Washington State. Nearly twenty years after first exploring the Andrea Doria - and following twelve months of training in the sport's amazing advances in equipment and techniques - Hunt hugged his wife and children goodbye and returned to New York to dive the Andrea Doria once again. The experience transformed him forever. Setting the Hook explores the Andrea Doria through an introspective odyssey of memory, heart-pounding adventure, and history as thirty years of extreme diving and enduring friendships merge in a personal tale of learning to accept life's oldest challenge.

Peter Hunt’s fascination with history and the underwater world began while living in Greece for six years, where his parents were teachers at the American Community School in Athens. He began spearfishing at age 10 and spent most summer days exploring the Greek coast where it was not uncommon to run across amphora and other relics of antiquity on the sea floor. After returning to the United States, Hunt immediately enrolled in his first scuba class in 1978, earned an open water certification, and began working at a local Long Island dive store and eventually as a crewmember on the store’s wreck diving charter boat during weekends. In the spring of 1982, Peter Hunt met Steve Bielenda and was offered a position as a crewmember on the Wahoo. He continued to explore New York area shipwrecks, including four successful expeditions to the Andrea Doria, over the course of the next four years. Hunt has been a PADI Divemaster since 1984, is IANTD trimix and technical diving certified, and has made over 1,000 dives around the world. Peter Hunt graduated from Brown University with a history degree in 1985 before joining the Navy and training as an A-6 Intruder attack pilot. He completed three aircraft carrier deployments to the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, and Western Pacific during ten years of military service. After leaving the Navy, Hunt continued to fly as a pilot for a major international airline until being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2005 at age forty-three. Hunt holds a Masters Degree from the University of Washington, lives with his wife and two children on Whidbey Island, and still dives despite the progression of Parkinson’s disease. His first book, Angles of Attack (Ballantine 2002), is a pilot’s account of combat operations during the first Gulf War.