Despite its sleek and dramatic styling, this Chrysler show car is remembered mainly for its sad fate: For decades now, it has been sleeping at the bottom of the Atlantic.  Here’s the unfortunate story of the 1956 Norseman.

Throughout the 1950s, the Italian coachbuilder Ghia of Turin enjoyed a prolific partnership with Chrysler, creating many of the Motor City automaker’s most memorable show cars. Chrysler provided the designs, chassis, and running gear, while Ghia’s artisans created the hand-crafted bodies, typically at a fraction of the cost and time required in America.

However, there was at least one Chrysler-Ghia collaboration that was never officially shown to the public: the ill-fated 1956 Norseman. On its voyage to Detroit aboard the Andrea Doria, the Italian passenger liner collided with another ship, the Stockholm, and sank around 50 miles off the coast of Nantucket, claiming 51 lives. Since July of 1956, the Norseman has rested in the Andrea Doria’s hold at the bottom of the Atlantic, and a handful of photos are all that remain.

Designed under the supervision of Chrysler styling chief Virgil Exner, the Norseman showcased a number of distinctive features, but arguably the most spectacular was its fully cantilevered roof, reportedly conceived by Chrysler stylist Bill Brownlie. With no A or B pillars, the top was supported entirely by the buttress-like C pillars, aided by a pair of thin steel rods in tension at the forward edge of the panel. Other distinctive touches included hidden headlamps and floating bumpers front and rear.

The Norseman was constructed on a 129-inch wheelbase chassis—the same wheelbase as an Imperial, we note—while a 331 CID hemi V8 provided the power, coupled to a PowerFlite two-speed automatic transmission. According to Chrysler, the idea car, as the automaker called its show car prototypes, represented an investment of 50,000 man-hours and $150,000 to $200,000, while Ghia’s portion of the build consumed $15,000 and took 15 months, it’s said.

This photo of the Norseman’s cockpit, above, also provides a close look at the pillarless roof construction and the elaborate one-piece windscreen supplied by PPG Industries. Four bucket seats upholstered in two-tone metallic leather were separated by broad consoles front and rear, while the front seat backs pivoted to provide easier access for rear passengers.

Since the Norseman went to Davy Jones’ locker before it was ever officially photographed or displayed, very few images exist. (There is even some dispute about the color of the paint.) The few available photos were all taken at Ghia in Turin, including the fascinating shot below of the wooden body buck on which the aluminum body panels were formed. The rare snapshot provides some insight into the tremendous amount of hand labor required. While the Norseman and its unfortunate history are well-remembered today, few if any of its exotic features ever made it to a Chrysler production vehicle.