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A group of divers has unexpectedly found the bridge bell of the SS Andrea Doria, an Italian ocean liner that famously sunk off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1956.
The divers, Ernest Rookey and Carl Bayer, came upon the 75-pound bronze bell June 25 at the wreck site some 240 feet (73 meters) below the ocean surface. The pair was about 18 minutes into what was supposed to be a 20-minute dive when Bayer spotted "the very distinctive shape of [the bell] sticking up out of the sand," said Joel Silverstein, the leader of the diving expedition to the wreck.
In just three or four minutes, divers were able to raise the bell to the surface with an inflatable balloon-like device. Then they got a better look at the bell, weathered by decades on the ocean floor, and rang it for the first time since the ship sank.
The discovery of the bell, first reported by The Star-Ledger, is one of the major discoveries from the famed shipwreck, which has been explored by divers since it sank.
"It's a great find," Silverstein said.
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