Then I got to work with Hooper, who is a brick, as my partner, and
between us we cleaned out that hold. Mr. Griscom came down and saw what
we were doing, and tried to photograph us. He approved our efforts,
which resulted in our finding many things at the bottom that were
supposed to be missing. Such a jumble there never was seen! Everything
had been hauled off the lighters and pitched into the holds, without any
attempt at order; one and every kind of thing on top of the other and
always the thing most needed at the bottom. When I tell you that a bunch
of picks and spades had been dropped upon boxes of macaroni, you may
get a slight idea of what would naturally happen. I spent the day as
Hooper’s side companion--a bully worker, no shirk in him--and we got
through about six this evening. It was a splendid day and Thompson, who
worked above the water line, had a glimpse of Stromboli as we passed it
about noon. At 4.45 we dropped anchor at Messina--what there is left of
it, only a heap of ruins, though at first sight the houses didn’t seem
to be so utterly destroyed. However, under the searchlights from the
ships one could see how complete the ruin is--nothing but heaps of
rubbish with walls sticking up above them. As soon as we came to anchor,
the Captain of the Port came aboard. I stuck to the Commander like
Sherlock Holmes and was his interpreter. He (the Italian port official)
wanted to know the kind of things we had on board. Three American
officers came aboard with Major Landis and Delmé Radcliffe, Mr. Cutting
and Chanler, who seemed quite in his element.... Everyone says what
splendid work he has been doing. A little later the Ambassador and the
Commander (Belknap), Mr. Lupton, the American Vice Consul, Major
Landis, and yours truly, went to see General Mazza on board the ‘Duca di
Genova,’ a magnificent Italian liner. It was all very interesting. I
went as interpreter. Delmé Radcliffe is quartered on board the staff
ship, so he went with us too. He applied to the captain of one of the
American ships in the harbor for a boat to take the remains of the
English Consul’s wife to the cemetery tomorrow morning, but could not
get one promised till three P.M., as the U. S. flagship only arrives in
the morning. Mr. Griscom returns on her and brings you this letter.
Delmé Radcliffe saw a man taken out alive at six o’clock this afternoon.
_A propos_ of boots, they seem to be the things most needed. I fear I
have lost my pen in the hold. I am sorry Mr. Griscom is leaving, and
Dodge too. D. has been working like a slave. Splendid! I forgot to say
that the visit to the General in command was to place the ship with
everything aboard at his disposal.”
Captain Belknap’s record for the same day, giving a fuller account of
the visit to the “Duca di Genova,” ends with these words:
“General Mazza expressed his warm appreciation of the offer and the
spirit that prompted it, and recommended that the ship proceed to
Catania and Palermo, possibly also to Syracuse, as these places had
received many sick, wounded and refugees, but so far no help in
proportion to their needs. At Messina the situation was well in hand and
supplies were already available, sufficient for all requirements.”
The next morning, Saturday, the U. S. S. “Connecticut,” flagship of the
Atlantic Fleet, Admiral Sperry commanding, arrived at Messina with her
tender, the “Yankton,” and the supply ship, “Culgoa.” A conference was
held, and the plan of action, the policy of the American relief work in
Sicily was doubtless then and there perfected; of this the men in the
hold of course knew little or nothing. They only knew that Mr. Griscom,
the leader of the expedition, was to leave them and were sorry that he
should go.
Admiral Sperry landed two hundred and fifty men to excavate the American
Consulate and recover the bodies of the Consul and his wife; the
“Yankton” remained at Messina as a base of supplies; and the
“Connecticut,” with the Ambassador on board, sailed for Naples Saturday
afternoon and left the “Bayern” to coöperate with the supply ship,
“Culgoa,” in relief work along the coast.
Several boatloads of supplies for the American Consulate were landed,
and a large amount of food and clothes was given with a sum of money to
the Archbishop of Messina. About the time the “Connecticut” sailed, a
message was received by the Americans that at Reggio, the city on the
Calabrian shore that faces Messina, their help would be gratefully
received.
While all these official matters were going on, Wilfred Thompson was
busy with his invoices and accounts, and J. with his stores in the hold.
It was not until the afternoon of Saturday that they went on shore.
Gasperone and Hugh, the Yeoman, went with them. In all J.’s notes and
letters there is frequent mention of the strange Sicilian servant,
Gasperone, who seems to have been half crazed by the earthquake, and of
Hugh, the Yeoman, one of the enlisted men who had sailed on the great
cruise round the world.
They landed in a pouring rain and made their way to the ruins of the
American Consulate. From a shattered window flapped a yellow brocade
curtain above a huge mass of stone and plaster, with gaunt beams
sticking up against the leaden sky. A detachment of American sailors
were working here in shifts day and night. A little farther on the party
stopped, rooted to the earth by the sound of a weird lament, like the
keening of the mourners at an Irish wake. They soon saw where the
dreadful wailing came from. Seated on a pile of debris was an old woman,
all huddled together, her head in her hands, her knees drawn up to her
chin, swaying slowly backwards and forwards, the movement of her body
keeping time to her moans; she might have been one of the ancient
cave-dwellers, the attitude, the lament seemed a strange primitive
expression of despair, old as the race.
“That is Sora Anna; they have found her son’s head and part of the
body,” said Gasperone indifferently. “That girl is Elena, his
_fidanzata_; they were to be married this month. They are waiting for
the coffin.”
The girl, Elena, stood beside the old woman like a thing of stone. She
was a beautiful creature; her face was almost as white as the lint with
which her head was bandaged. Silent and dry-eyed, she looked like a
statue of revolt. At her feet lay the ghastly fragments of her lover’s
body. Two soldiers passed with picks on their shoulders; one of them
asked the girl if he could help her. She paid no attention, but stood
looking across the sea, stony and silent, while the mother wailed the
death song for her son.
“Come,” said Gasperone, “it will be dark in an hour; the sun no sooner
gets up than it goes to bed. Madonna! With all the rest, it is too much
that the days should be so short. After dark, the wild dogs who come
from the mountains to devour the dead are dangerous; in the day, they
are more timid, the soldiers have shot so many.”
Gasperone led the way towards the cathedral square. On their way they
passed the ruins of the Banca d’Italia, guarded by a strong force of
soldiers.
“There is a great treasure here,” said Gasperone, “that must be guarded
at any cost, you understand. These soldiers might--but it is always so;
gold is worth more than flesh and blood!”
In one of the main streets Gasperone stopped beside a tragic group--a
priest, an old woman and a dead man.
“Ah, behold!” he cried, “they have just found Padre Antonio’s twin
brother. He and his mother were the only ones saved of a family of
fourteen.”
The priest, haggard and wild looking, with his arm in a sling, began to
read aloud a prayer. His mother stood beside him, swaying backwards and
forwards. As the prayer ended, the mother joining in the benediction,
_In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritûs Sancti_; a newspaper reporter
fixed his camera on a tripod and photographed the pathetic group. The
rain, that had stopped for a moment, now came down again in torrents and
drenched them all to the skin.
“It was raining like mad most of the time,” J. writes, “I can well
understand how your poor old woman, Rosina, kept harping on the rain.
Anything more dismal it is hard to imagine. I have only been made
uncomfortable by it; but there are hundreds of poor people camping out
wherever there is a clear space big enough to run up a primitive shelter
with boards, if they have them, or sails rigged on poles. I saw one
ambitious family roofing roughly with tiles they had collected from the
streets. They seemed to be the first to make the attempt, though the
streets are literally strewn with tiles. In these poor shelters, and in
the miserable little tents (some of them about half big enough for a man
to crawl into and lie down, and which do not reach the ground by about a
foot and a half) the water had flooded everything. The suffering from
this cruel rain that these poor souls endure must be cruel beyond
words.”
Mr. Thompson writes under the same date:
“Worked early getting off the goods the Vice Consul had asked for. The
Ambassador and the rest of the party, except Elliott and myself, went on
shore; weather very wet and stormy. Lunched early and went on shore with
Elliott, passing the ‘Connecticut’ with the Ambassador on board. Went to
temporary Consulate and met Deputy Vice-Consul, Mr. Cutting, and the
acting English Consul. Then Elliott and I went out to see the town,
wearing our red crosses. The sights were terrible; we realize now what
an earthquake means. We walked along the Marina, the former chief
water-front street. It has in places sunk beneath the water level, and
is full of huge cracks. Here and there we passed a house but little
damaged, but nearly all have the roofs fallen in; and, curious to say,
at short intervals are houses that have been utterly and entirely
smashed for no particular reason that one could see. The American and
British Consulates are a case in point. Italian soldiers were digging
and the party from the ‘Culgoa’ working all day under the driving rain,
looking in vain for the bodies of the American Consul and his wife.
Constantly saw soldiers with spades passing along. The city is under
martial law and we saw many soldiers on guard. A few people living in
wooden shanties or among the ruins with the rain soaking in upon them.
Made our way inland to the cathedral which looks, as far as one can
judge, as though the façade must have been fine. The ruins of the
cathedral are well guarded by soldiers, on account of the great treasure
buried there. The streets around the duomo are so ruined that we climbed
over debris level with the second and third floors. The presence of the
dead was all too obvious at every few yards. It will take two or three
years to clear what is left of the city, and I should think it was a
hopeless task and that Messina must be abandoned. Some of the
[Illustration: MESSINA. A HOUSE THAT ESCAPED DESTRUCTION. _Page 129._]
[Illustration: REGGIO. SOLDIERS ON THEIR WAY TO A RESCUE. _Page 130._]
[Illustration: MESSINA. THE MILITARY COLLEGE. _Page 130._]
[Illustration: MESSINA. PALACE OF THE PREFECT. _Page 130._]
remains, broken beds and chairs, tawdry candlesticks, torn dresses were
very pathetic. One of the sentries stood on guard under a black silk
lace-trimmed parasol. So fearfully wet we returned to the Consulate and
found Mr. Griscom. About four P. M. we went down on the beach to wait
for the boat. Grand and terrible storm over Calabrian coasts. Flashes of
lightning lit up the shipping in the harbor and the dreary shore with
its broken barrels and all kinds of rubbish. Fell in with an officer
from the ‘Culgoa.’ Frightful rain and flashes of blinding lightning.
When it was dark but for these, the launch from the ‘Bayern’ at last
arrived with a boat in tow. The boat was cut loose, but the fool men did
not know how to manage it and tried to beach it on the shelving shore
over a huge iron grating. Every wave filled the boat and the men let her
get broadside on and almost swamped her. To my relief Mr. Cutting was on
board and jumped into the water over his knees. Cutting ordered the men
to carry the bales and cases of stores ashore. The goods were full of
water and some were in consequence almost too heavy to carry. Quite dark
except for the lightning. I sent a man back to the Consulate for a
lantern, which helped somewhat. Finally Cutting and the men went off and
left me to guard the goods. When all but the heaviest were taken away I
went to the Consulate, taking my officer. Found various men and we had
hot coffee, which was welcome and I think saved me. My coat so heavy
with water I could hardly move under the weight. Great difficulty in
getting the German sailors (of the ‘Bayern’) to carry up the heavy cases
to the Consulate. If Cutting had not spoken German we never could have
done so. Finally got it done and started to walk about a mile to where
the launch and boat were waiting for us. Weird effects! Lights of ships
in the harbor over inky black water and sky. At last got launch and got
to our ship. Tired out but felt better after dinner. Dreams full of
earthquake and huge waves. The desolation of those hours in the
drenching rain, waiting for the boat, will remain always in my mind!”
“January 10th: Left Messina about 7:30 A.M. in rain. Came over to Reggio
and lay there all day. Commander Belknap heard from the Italian cruiser,
‘Napoli,’ that they wanted stores there, so we had a hard and busy day
getting them out. Officers and boats came about three P.M. to fetch
them. So rushed had hardly time to look at coast and Reggio, but it did
not seem so badly damaged as one would expect from the newspaper
accounts. The ‘Napoli’ is to distribute our stores to the small towns
along the coast. Tired out and bruised by fall. Thick wet evening. At
dark got all boats on board and got up anchor and went back to Messina,
and lay there for the night about a mile off shore (there is no
anchorage at Reggio). Woman said to have been taken out alive from
debris at Messina but to have died later.”
J.’s letter for the same date says:
“I only got a squint at Reggio for a moment, just as we were leaving,
when the rain let up a little and we had sent our last boatload ashore.
I spent all the morning getting up the stuff from the hold and keeping
track of it, and most of the afternoon. What did not go into the boats
went into the forward hold. I hunted among hundreds of bales and things
for two bales of tent canvas, which I found and got on deck. Chanler had
been down there with a gang in the morning and arranged things in a way
that made it possible. The last time I was down there it was in a
terrible mess with everything together. You see the after holds are
where I have been since the first day, and in my part I know where to
find everything they ask for, though some things--the white beans for
instance--I can’t get at, as there are two layers of sacks on top of
’em, which will have to be removed first. It is raining like mad most of
the time; I never saw such rain as we had last night. I believe I have
said so already; anything more dismal it is hard to imagine.”
In Captain Belknap’s report of this day he says:
“We were unable to see General Mazzitelli (in command at Reggio), as he
was ill, but Captain Cagni, commanding the ‘Napoli,’ senior Italian
naval officer present, received us in his stead. He showed much
satisfaction in having our supplies to draw upon, especially for women
and children’s clothing, oil stoves, tent canvas, cooking and table
utensils, tools and nails. About four-fifths of the ‘Napoli’s’ crew had
been sent away on relieving expeditions among the outlying small
villages, and our supplies were in good time for use in a second
expedition which was being prepared. We were cordially thanked for our
supplies (about 25 tons), which we were able to transfer that afternoon.
The ‘Bayern’ then returned to anchor overnight at Messina, there being
no good berth at Reggio. The ‘Culgoa’ remained off Reggio to deliver
provisions next day.”
Remember Captain Cagni! We shall hear of him again; a live man, with red
blood in his veins!
Extract from Mr. Thompson’s diary.
“Monday, January 11th: Left Messina about six A.M. Splendid rainbow with
moon above it. At 7:30 as we passed close to the coast, the lower slopes
of Etna, covered with snow, visible. Unfortunately a cloud on top.
Anchored off Catania at 10:30. Ugly town from the sea view, but Etna
proud above it.”
Extract from J.’s letter of same date:
“We have been getting rid of a lot of stuff and I believe are likely to
discharge the greater part of our cargo here, perhaps all, and take a
fresh cargo of planks and building wood to some particular place where
they are very much in need of it for shelter. This afternoon I helped
Captain Belknap to receive the Prefetto and Sindaco of Catania,
together with a committee of ladies and gentlemen, and to show them over
the ship. The operating room, store room, and rooms where the nurses
have the clothes, boots, hats, etc., which they put up in bundles as
they are wanted. They inspected also the staterooms, turned into
hospital wards. As soon as they were all gone I got the hatches off (it
was six o’clock), went down into the hold and sent up sixteen bales of
blankets and two cases of suits of clothes. As luck would have it, I had
them all moved in the morning, right under the crane so that I was able
to get them slung up and over the side into the boats on record time,
but for all that it took an hour and three quarters and I didn’t come
out of the hold till eight o’clock. I helped Thompson for about an hour
after dinner, and that let me out for today. We started in with
breakfast at 7:30; hatch off at 8:30, work till lunch at 12 o’clock;
then getting ready for the reception--the receiving committee being
Captain Belknap, Hooper (my side companion) and Gay--myself and Flint (a
firstrate Harvard boy) as assistants to handle the crowd. I have done so
many different things today that I have forgotten about half of them.
Now I must go to bed as tomorrow is going to be a tremendous day.”
* * * * *
Catania is the second largest city in Sicily. Twenty-five thousand of
the survivors had been sent to Catania from Messina and the smaller
towns destroyed by the earthquake; the problem of supplying food,
clothing and shelter for these poor people was no easy one for the
Catanians to solve. Catania had not suffered from the earthquake and
therefore was not under military law; the civil authorities were most
grateful and appreciative of all the help the Americans offered in
whatever shape. Admiral Gagliardi, who was in the harbor on board the
battleship “Garibaldi,” seems to have been as cordial in his reception
of the “Bayern” as the Sindaco. He immediately sent an officer to
welcome the expedition and to offer any assistance Captain Belknap might
require. The cordial relations that immediately sprang up between the
Italian admiral and the commander of the American relief expedition can
be felt even in Captain Belknap’s necessarily guarded record.
“We were immediately boarded by an officer from the battleship
‘Garibaldi,’” he says, “with the compliments of Rear Admiral Gagliardi.
The Admiral offered us any assistance we might need; and when I made an
official visit to him that afternoon, he inquired with much interest
about all that could be learned of the situation at Messina and Reggio,
and about the expedition. He very kindly made it well understood that we
had only to ask to obtain any assistance at his disposal--an offer that
I was glad to avail of, for men to assist with handling supplies,
transmission of telegrams by wireless, and service of boats. The Admiral
returned the visit next day, inspected the ship with evident interest,
and expressed his approval of her organization and arrangements,
particularly of the medical department.”
Catania was glad to see the Americans, and the Americans were glad to
see Catania. Everything combined to make the visit a success. It is
noted in the diary that the eleventh of January was “a splendid warm day
and a starlight night.” The dreadful rain had held up for a little; they
were received with open arms. The Sindaco letter of welcome, dated
January 11th, rings true:--
“MUNICIPALITY OF CATANIA,
“January 11th, 1909.
“With pleasure I express to you, Gentlemen of the Committee and all
of the Expedition of the American Red Cross, embarked on board the
S. S. ‘Bayern,’ the heartiest thanks of the population of Catania,
and of the refugees and wounded who have found here a shelter, for
your generous offer of medicines, clothes, food, etc.
“The relief brought by you will be effective to lessen the
sufferings of so many wretched people who have been deprived in a
few moments of their relatives, of their beloved native town and of
every possession.
“With esteemed consideration,
“The Mayor, S. GONSOLI.
“The Signor Reginald Rowan Belknap.”
Catania, the rival seaport of Messina, is a thriving city but the drain
put upon the citizens, many of whom had suffered great loss of property
through the earthquake, and the consequent paralysis to business all
over Sicily, was more than they could meet. The relief work was in the
hands of a Municipal Committee and a Ladies’ Committee; through these
well organized committees the medicines, clothes, food and tools that
our committee in Rome, and our Consul in Genoa, had worked so hard to
collect, were distributed and put into immediate use. Mr. Hooper notes
in his diary that “Mr. Gay and Mr. Cutting were sent on shore to
investigate hospitals and the general situation.”
Tuesday, the 12th of January, was a busy day; the men in the holds
worked from early morning till late night, getting out stores as they
were wanted. Here at last was a demand for their wares. In desperate,
stricken Messina General Mazza’s policy was to discourage the few
survivors from remaining. The military authorities wished to get rid of
them as quickly as possible, and they were shipped to all parts of Italy
by steamer or train. The entry in Mr. Thompson’s diary for January 12th
is briefer than usual, but the quality and color of it brings the whole
scene vividly before us.
“January 12th: In Catania harbor all day unloading goods. A long hard
day. Crowd of soldiers, sailors, representatives of various hospitals,
priests, sisters of charity and others, all standing about, asking for
‘goods’ and getting in the way. Had a party of thirty men from Italian
warship to help load the lighters. The hardest day of the expedition,
nearly knocked out by night. A beautiful day, especially towards sunset.
Admiral Gagliardi from the ‘Garibaldi’ came aboard with officers and the
committee from Taormina arrived; Miss Claxton, one of the nurses, left
us. German Consul and friends to dinner. Two quite dirty men kissed Gay
on each cheek as a slight token of their gratitude.”
The committee from Taormina included Miss Mabel Hill, Fräulein Gasser,
Mr. Harry Bowdoin, and Mr. Charles King Wood. They brought with them a
letter from the Sindaco of Giardini, a fishing village on the coast, at
the foot of the hill on which Taormina stands.
Captain Belknap’s report of the Taormina Committee’s visit says:
“Upon their representations of conditions in their district, work
already done and still in hand, and cases of need still unrelieved,
about twenty tons of clothing, sheets, blankets, provisions, medical
dressings and miscellaneous articles were given into their care for
shipment by rail, and 10,000 _lire_ to be spent at the discretion of
the committee in their work in these two places. We also sent with this
shipment all clean linen remaining on board. The services of a nurse
were also wanted at Taormina and Giardini, and Miss Claxton was sent
with this party on their return there. A letter since then has been
received from Miss Claxton, saying that she is engaged as a district or
visiting nurse, and that all the supplies sent have proved very useful.
A further sum of money was entrusted to Messrs. Bowdoin and Wood, both
members of the American Red Cross, who undertook to arrange for the
expenditure for the relief of the small villages outside Giardini and
Taormina, between there and Messina.
“In response to an appeal from Acireale, Mr. Gay made a personal visit
among the relief workers there, after which some clothing and other
supplies and 5,000 _lire_ were delivered to them. To the Little Sisters
of the Poor 1,000 _lire_ were given for their immediate assistance. A
few bundles of clothing were sent by rail to Messina in care of Mr.
Chanler in response to a wireless message from the ‘Yankton.’”