Pitch black, icy water, 230 feet below the surface and inside a 54-year-old collapsing ship.

Lake Havasu City resident Joel Silverstein descends to the shipwrecked Andrea Doria in strong currents at 220 feet in 2006 off the coast of Nantucket. Submitted Photo.

That combination would scare most people, but for Havasu resident Joel Silverstein, the dive down to the famous Andrea Doria shipwreck is as good as it gets.

“You have to be able to work in the dark, you have to be able to work alone and you need a fair amount of resolve. This is a very dangerous location and fatalities do happen,” said Silverstein, vice president and COO of Havasu’s Tech Diving Limited. “Sometimes it’s flat calm and perfect down there. Other days it’s a washing machine.”

But the famous ocean liner shipwreck that sunk in 1956 after colliding with the Swedish liner Stockholm in the waters off Nantucket still gives up treasures, Silverstein said. On June 25 aboard Capt. David Sutton’s R/V Explorer on the Silverstein/Sutton 2010 Andrea Doria Expedition, New Jersey divers Ernest Rookey and Carl Bayer located and recovered the “crow’s nest bell” from the Andrea Doria. The bell is considered to be “one of the most significant finds in the history of the wreck,” Silverstein said.

“This is an outstanding and historic find,” said Silverstein, the expedition leader during the find, in June. “In my 18 years of diving the Doria, this is probably the most significant artifact found.”

Andrea Doria historian and author Gary Gentile, who found the wreck’s stern bell in 1985, was also aboard the Silverstein/Sutton expedition.

“There was never any proof that a crow’s nest bell existed until today,” said Gentile in June.

Gentile has been diving the wreck since 1974 and has more documented dives on the Andrea Doria than any other diver, according to a press release. Fewer than 1,000 divers have visited the wreck from all over the world and 13 have lost their lives. Silverstein said the dangers, depth, isolation, freezing temperatures and strong currents have combined to earn the Andrea Doria the nickname as “the Mount Everest of dives.”

“The danger and the intrigue of finding something significant make it one of the most famous dives in the world,” Silverstein said, adding that he’s made 14 dives on the wreck since 1992. Silverstein’s wife and Tech Diving Limited President Kathy Weydig has made several dives as well. “We take a lot of precautions before heading out and safety is our absolute first priority. Finding artifacts is actually easier now than it used to be because it has collapsed and they’re just spilling out. Most divers don’t enter the inside anymore.”

Finding the crow’s nest bell was a combination of “great skill and a little bit of luck,” Silverstein said. The 75-pound bronze bell, which holds the Andrea Doria name, was largely covered in sand and debris on the ocean floor when Bayer and Rookey first saw it.

“The currents are so strong and move back and forth, so some days it’s covered and some days it’s not,” Silverstein said. “But we had flat seas, calm conditions and big fish (Maako sharks) and everything else that makes this a once-in-a-lifetime dive.”

The feeling of seeing the bell on the surface after Bayer and Rookey collected it is a feeling Silverstein said he won’t soon forget.

“So I’m standing on the deck with the others when this bag comes up and we look at it and we’re all star struck,” Silverstein said. “We’ve been diving this thing forever, and these guys on their first trip find the bell. And at that moment we knew this bell would change them for the rest of their lives.”

Sutton agreed.

“This was their first expedition to the Andrea Doria,” Capt. Sutton said in June. “Andrea Doria expeditions are hard-core adventures. A discovery like this one just makes it all that more special.”

But the most memorable moment on the trip, Silverstein said, was the moment when Sutton rang the bell eight times to signify the changing of the guard.

“From what we can gather, this bell was used on the crow’s nest to signal fog. So it’s quite possible that the last time it had been rung was when the Doria was about to collide with the Stockholm in the fog,” he said. “So when he hit it, it was the first time the bell had been struck since it sank in 1956. It was pretty moving when you realize that almost 1,700 people almost lost their lives in the shipwreck. When you hear a sound that hadn’t had a voice in over 50 years, it’s pretty emotional.”

Rookey and Bayer recently said they considered selling the bell, but expect to put it on permanent loan to be featured in diving exhibitions following its restoration.

“It’s a significant find because it has the words Andrea Doria on it, so it’s more important than the dishes and trinkets found on previous expeditions,” Silverstein said. “In the world of maritime collectors, the bell could probably yield upwards of $50,000 if it was sold.”

Those interested in learning more about the expeditions to the Andrea Doria and those looking for photos of the crow’s nest bell are encouraged to visit www.techdivinglimited.com. To hear and see Sutton ring the bell, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ_ipSJPvEE&feature=player_embedded.

You can contact the reporter at nbruttell@havasunews.com