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Now: From coast to coast, the media early last week marked the 50th anniversary of the collision of the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm.

Survivors of the crash -- and there were plenty -- have gotten little peace of late. They have been sought out to relive their adventure of the foggy night of July 25, 1956 by writers on Nantucket and in Seattle and points in between.

The crash, and the sinking of the Andrea Doria 11 hours later in waters off Nantucket, is a fascinating event, particularly in seafaring areas.

It was dramatic and riveting, in a way captured by photos from July 26, 1956, of the Italian liner making its final plunge into the depths.

It was a punctuation mark for an era -- intercontinental flights had not yet caught on; liners were still the preferred way of crossing the ocean, though they would not remain so for long. But the collision etched its place in history mainly as the greatest at-sea rescue operation ever. News accounts drew frequent comparisons to the sinkings of the Titanic and the Lusitania. Hundreds died in those incidents. With dozens of vessels speeding to the scene of the crash, the death toll on the Andrea Doria was held to 46, even though half the lifeboats could not be used, while five died on the Stockholm. The death toll, to put it crudely, was about a third of your garden variety jetliner crash.

Then: I was 8 years old when the ships collided. It is the first national or international news story I remember paying any attention to. But I remember it not so much for the details, as I recall it as an introduction to Attleboro's ethnic wars.

For while the Associated Press story on the front page of the Attleboro Sun was breathlessly asking if one of the ships could have been off course, my grandfather -- the head of my boyhood household -- was already declaring IT HAD TO BE THE ITALIAN SHIP'S FAULT!

And if it was a case where the Stockholm had hit the Andrea Doria in the side, slicing a gaping hole in the vessel '85 well, that was no sign of negligence, but merely evidence that THE STOCKHOLM WAS MADE OF GOOD SWEDISH STEEL!

I was surprised to hear him speak so defensively of a ship named `` Stockholm.'' On earlier occasions he had expressed the opinion that the Swedes had made a mistake -- possibly the only mistake Swedes had ever made -- in choosing Stockholm as their capital. Gothenburg -- spelled Goteborg and pronounced Yit-ta-boyg around our house -- would have been a better choice, in Ernie Lindgren's view. He was, need I say, a native of Gothenburg.

As proud as he was to be an English-speaking, English-reading American citizen, part of him would always think of himself as a Swede first. When Swedish and Italian ships collided, it was no time to sort through facts and reach a reasoned decision. It was time to choose up sides. In the battle of ocean liners -- luxurious Andrea Doria vs. functional Stockholm -- he wasted no thought before placing himself on the Swedish team.

So it went with his life. He taught a world outlook where Swedes were at the top and other ethnicities -- well, they were drunks and thieves and reprobates who mostly couldn't be trusted.

Though brought up to respect my elders, I couldn't follow grandpa's advice on this matter. My playmates had names that sounded Italian, Irish, French, Portuguese. They were a trustworthy lot and, at that age, sober.

And at home, they had grandpas and uncles who taught a similar ethnic hierarchy, but one in which Swedes were surely not at the top, but down there with the drunken untrustworthy reprobates. Together we played anyway.

In between The wreck of the Andrea Doria has become known as `` the Everest of scuba diving.'' Attracted by the challenge, or by booty -- china from the liner's dining room is reportedly highly prized -- some 14 divers have paid for the deep water adventure with their lives.

Dozens of books have been written about the collision and the authors have safely concluded that the fault '85 lay with a Stockholm watch officer who misread the radar.

But wait. Another author asserts the Italian navigators were hardly using their radar at all.

The owners of the liners, who might have been able to say exactly how it happened, settled out of court six months later. The findings are sealed, which probably means they include facts embarrassing to both steamship companies. The argument goes on, and, among the few who care too much, it will go on forever.

As for a world outlook based on ethnicity, I suppose there are still some in Attleboro with an outlook like grandpa's. But I would like to think we have learned that we are all like ships passing on a foggy night. Keeping an eye out for one another is the safest course.

rdrtrdrsrdrw15rsp160 NOW, THEN and In Between is written by MARK FLANAGAN, Opinion page editor of The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0335 or at opinion(at)thesunchronicle.com.