THE BIGGEST ALKA SELTZER BUBBLE
By Dick Kraus

Newsday Staff Photographer Jim Nightingale was the early man when the news came in that the luxury liner Andrea Doria had been struck by the Swedish liner Stockholm in the Atlantic between Montauk Point and Rhode Island. At first light, Jim was dispatched with a reporter, to the local airport where Newsday had chartered a small plane to fly them over the scene.

When the team got over the area, Nite began photographing the scene. The Doria was listing badly and obviously was going to the bottom of the ocean. The Stockholm was standing by with her bow crushed, and was helping to retrieve survivors. Other ships were in the area doing the same and the ocean was dotted with rafts and lifeboats.

The small plane was only able to stay in the area for a short time due to limited fuel supply so they high tailed it to the nearest airport in Rhode Island for fuel. While the plane was being gassed, the reporter joined a long line of journalists waiting to use one of the two public phones on the small airfield. Nite tried to get him back on the plane so they could return to the scene, but the reporter insisted on waiting for his turn at the phone so that he could file his early reports.

It took some time before they finally got back into the air. Nite later said that he knew they were in trouble when he saw the NY Daily News plane flying out of the area, heading for Long Island. Jim says that when he got back to the crash site, all he saw was the biggest Alka-Seltzer bubble in the world.