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.