On October 14, during the Columbus Day Parade on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, Pierette Domenica Simpson, survivor of the fatal Andrea Doria shipwreck, was invited to honor Christopher Columbus as well as the casualties of the Andrea Doria while aboard lifeboat #1 stopped on the red carpet in front of the event reporters. The first ring was for Christopher Columbus; the second ring was in memory of the Andrea Doria’s 46 fellow passengers that perished from the shipwreck with the Stockholm in 1956.

The lifeboat “float”, pulled by its owner Mark Koch who collects items of rare history, was carrying the Andrea Doria brass bell and its owner, John Moyer, who recovered the bell with a team of divers. Also aboard were some of Simpson’s fellow survivors Ada DiFabio, Lucy Raimengia, Corrado Sigona, diver Ted Hess, and two witnesses of the greatest sea rescue who had watched the entire operation thru their porthole on the rescue ship, Ile de France.