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The authors were passengers on the liner that picked up survivors of the Andrea Doria. They report an initial shock in which the survivors acted as if under sedation. In this stage, emotional regression to a childlike helplessness and dependency was common. Adequate leadership for these shocked people was an important aid in their recovery. In the recovery phase, pressure of speech developed and the victims showed a compulsive need to talk repetitively about their experiences. Many of the victims and passengers on the rescuing ship as well as on the Andrea Doria showed stereotyped prejudices. For example, the sailors of the Andrea Doria were assumed to be guilty of poor seamanship and therefore responsible for the collision. Such opinions were expressed even before the facts of the disaster were known. The prejudice was based upon the idea that Italians are poor sailors as compared with Swedish sailors. Some victims experienced loss of sense of identity; rapid re-establishment of identity is necessary to minimize amnesia and regression. Simply recording name, address, and next of kin was helpful. The loss of the passport, symbol of identity, was particularly important to immigrants. The authors criticize the principle of women and children first. Separating a child from both parents was traumatic and the authors recommend that if the mother is lost, the father should accompany the child. The passengers on the rescuing liner were not much depressed by the event. Episodes of perceptual distortion were reported in which the rescue was variously but incorrectly interpreted. One man actually thought the rescue scene looked like a water carnival.