Divers brave deadly 'Mount Everest of shipwrecks' as famed wreck breaks apart

Some 240 feet beneath the ocean lies a shipwreck so dangerous and difficult to explore that divers have dubbed it the " Mount Everest of shipwrecks " — and it's right off the coast of the U.S.

The wreck's depth and unforgiving conditions leave little room for error.

"Even expert divers have had challenges," retired U.S.

Coast Guard Capt.

Aaron Davenport told Fox News Digital.

Now, after 70 years beneath the Atlantic, the Andrea Doria itself is becoming another hazard as it continues to deteriorate.

MAN FISHING WITH GRANDSON UNCOVERS MYSTERY WRECKAGE IN MUD FLATS, ARCHAEOLOGISTS INVESTIGATING "The Andrea Doria is breaking apart.

And [as] it’s moving around, things are falling," Davenport said.

Longtime Andrea Doria explorer John Moyer, who has made over 100 dives to the wreck, said in a 2022 interview that divers have watched it "decay and fall apart." Speaking to dive magazine X-Ray Mag, Moyer said the steel hull was collapsing onto itself and described the wreck as being in its "final stage" of flattening.

Previously, Divers Alert Network, a nonprofit diving-safety organization, reported that the Andrea Doria was "rapidly deteriorating," citing research from OceanGate, the company that later operated the Titan submersible that imploded during a dive to the Titanic in 2023.

That deterioration could eventually leave divers unable to experience the legendary wreck as generations before them have — even as it still attracts those willing to brave the risks while they can.

The Italian liner Andrea Doria collided with the Swedish liner Stockholm off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, on July 25, 1956 — sinking beneath the Atlantic the following morning.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER CENTURIES-OLD SHIPWRECK BENEATH HISTORIC CITY: 'UNIQUE SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE' Remarkably, more than 1,600 passengers and crew were rescued from the Andrea Doria, according to the U.S.

Coast Guard , which assisted in the rescue effort.