Pierette Domenica Simpson

This exhibition was created with the guidance of survivor, educator, author, and filmmaker Pierette Domenica Simpson, who is the gatekeeper of the Andrea Doria survivor stories. The museum staff is grateful to her.

In 1956, Pierette Domenica Simpson (née Burzio) and her grandparents left their village of Pranzalito, near Torino, Italy, to begin a new life in America. They made their journey on the last voyage of the Andrea Doria. The family settled in Detroit, Michigan where Simpson attended Wayne State University. Later she did graduate work in France.

Simpson pursued her love of foreign languages by teaching all levels of French and Spanish in the Farmington Public Schools and Detroit Country Day Schools.

For many years, Simpson played the violin and performed with several local symphony orchestras and chamber groups. She also has traveled extensively, with an annual trip to Italy, where half of her family resides.

In her 2006 book Alive on the Andrea Doria: The Greatest Sea Rescue in History, Simpson becomes the first woman to publish an all-inclusive book about the shipwreck, recounting both the human and scientific aspects of the Andrea Doria-Stockholm collision and sinking of the Italian luxury liner. Simpson has also become the first shipwreck survivor to collaborate with a naval architect in writing a complete technical report of the account.

Simpson also produced the documentary Andrea Doria: Are The Passengers Saved? based on Alive on the Andrea Doria. She is also the author of I Was Shipwrecked on the Andrea Doria! The Titanic of the 1950s.

As an authority on her shipwreck, Simpson has appeared on American and Italian documentaries and newsmagazine features inspired by her books. She is interviewed frequently on radio, cable, podcasts, and for periodicals.

For more information on Simpson’s work, visit:

Arrival in Detroit, 1956

Pierette had been raised by her grandparents in Pranzalito, Italy since she was fifteen months old, when her mother immigrated to the United States to pursue the American Dream. After many years, Vivian convinced her parents to bring her daughter to live with her in Detroit, Michigan and booked passage for them on the Andrea Doria’s ill-fated crossing. The photos below were taken upon landing in Detroit one day after being rescued by the Ile de France.

Photos taken in Detroit City Airport, from left to right: Nine-year-old survivor Pierette hugs her mother, Vivian, as her new stepfather looks on; Pierette is surrounded by her tearful grandfather Pietro Burzio, her mother, and her great-uncle Tony; Pierette is shown with her grandfather and her mother looking for her grandmother, Domenica Burzio; Pierette with her mother and grandmother

View the trailer for Pierette Domenica Simpson’s documentary Andrea Doria: Are The Passengers Saved?

Copies of the documentary Andrea Doria: Are The Passengers Saved? as well as Simpson’s books Alive on the Andrea Doria: The Greatest Sea Rescue in History and I Was Shipwrecked on the Andrea Doria! The Titanic of the 1950s are available for purchase in the museum shop.