Straits of Messina

“ The *Voyage through the Straits of Messina (Faro or Stretto di Messina) , the Fretum Siculum of antiquity, is one of the most beautiful in the Mediterranean. Both banks are luxuriantly fertile, shaded with palms, and yielding oranges, pomegranates, and prickly pears. The Calabrian coast, thickly studded with villages, partly in ruins, culminates in Montalto (5424 ft.) , the highest peak of the wooded Aspromonte, the ancient Sila, while we survey the Sicilian coast as far as Mt. Ætna. ”

“ We hauled in her cable--these gentry must never be trusted with a chance of slipping loose--and tugged her into Messina, thereby losing a valuable day.
The famous Straits were almost a replica of Ionian Island scenery: the shores of the Mediterranean, limestone and sandstone, with here and there a volcanic patch, continually repeat themselves. After passing the barren heel of the Boot and its stony big toe, the wady-streaked shores become populous and well cultivated, while railway trains on either side, island and continent, toss their snowy plumes in the pride of civilisation. ”

“ The moon is on the wane; La Syla is growing dark, the land-breeze is coming, and the Crescent lies close to under the Campo di Mare, with jib and foresail loose: I must sail by daybreak, if I would keep clear of the British fleet; which my prince of crookbacks, Gaspare Truffi, says, stood down the Straits of Messina last evening. ”

“ The city itself, with its forts, its cathedral, and its imposing line of buildings on the quay, looks wonderfully picturesque. The straits are at this point so narrow that they look like a river; and the mainland of Italy, with hills covered with thick chestnut forests, seems but a stone’s throw from the town. There were a great many English vessels in the harbour, all engaged in taking in lemons, which are at this season the staple export of Messina. But even more welcome than the sight of these English ships, was the appearance of my old friend the Charles Quint. ”

“ When I pass in review the hundreds of survivors I have seen and talked with in Rome, Syracuse, Palermo, finally in Messina itself, I see clearest of all the face of Rosina, the ancient woman; I hear her shriek of woe:
“Messina non esiste più!{39}”
II
THE STRAITS OF DEATH
Wednesday, December 30th, the King and Queen of Italy sailed through the straits and into the harbor of Messina. As their ship, the “Vittorio Emanuele,” approached the Faro, the gunners of the Russian cruisers, the English men-of-war, and the Italian battleships began to fire the royal salute. ”

“ The coast fisheries are important, especially in and near the straits of Messina. Commercial organization is, however, wanting. The climate is very hot in summer, while snow lies on the mountain-tops for at least half the year. Earthquakes are frequent and have done great damage: that of the autumn of 1905 was very disastrous (O. Malagodi, Calabria Desolata, Rome, 1905) , but it was surpassed in its effects by the terrible earthquake of 1908, by which Messina (q.v.) was destroyed, and in Calabria itself Reggio and numerous smaller places ruined. ”

“ The Mediterranean sea, opening directly into the Atlantic ocean at the straits of Gibraltar, and washing the shores of many countries of different sovereigns, has, excepting such portions thereof as the gulf of Venice or the straits of Messina, been recognized and considered by all nations, for centuries, as part of the high seas, free to all mankind. ”

“ Between Sicily and the main land are the straits of Messina, where the current is rapid. Ancient mariners deemed this a terrible place; one side they called Scylla, and the other Charybdis. The poets depicted the sailor in this rapid, as beset by horrors; for if he escaped Scylla on one side, Charybdis was ready to dash him in pieces on the other. This idea has come down to our day, and has even passed into a proverb.
CATARACTS AND CASCADES It has often been remarked that no one is insensible to the beauty of flowing water. ”

“ Very much depends upon the state of the winds, which sometimes bank the water up in the angle between the toe of Italy and the North coast of Sicily, on which a current and strong eddies occur in the Straits of Messina. ”

“ It was now immediately the business of our Commandant3 to place the city of Messina in a respectable state of defence, for as it was certain that the other side of the Straits would soon be occupied by the legions of Napoleon, Messina, which was to be the grand depot and headquarters of the British army, must be placed beyond the apprehension of surprise. ”

“ The nearest part of this island is nine miles from Cephalonia, and the same distance from the Morea, and an hundred leagues from Messina. It is above seventy miles in circumference; contains forty thousand souls, and carries on a very considerable trade in dried fruits, particularly currants, so called from a corruption of Corinth, from whence the vines were originally imported.
On the hill above the town there is a fort, very advantageously situated, but much out of repair. It is subject to the Venetians, who have now a ship of the line and three frigates in the harbour. ”

“ The loss of their fleet, and many other disasters, obliged the Spaniards to accede to the Quadruple Alliance in 1720, and to relinquish their claim to Sicily and Sardinia. But the Emperor having forfeited the protection of England, the Spaniards, about fifteen years after this treaty, made themselves masters of Sicily and Naples, as I have already related.
Messina was surrounded on the land side by a strong rampart, which, since the earthquake, has been entirely neglected. The Citadel is a regular square fort, with ravelins, counterguards, and a good covered way. ”

“ Yet even the possession of Sicily he considered only as an intermediate step to the important expedition which he already meditated against the continent of Africa. The straits of Rhegium and Messina are twelve miles in length, and, in the narrowest passage, about one mile and a half broad ”

“ The dangers which were supposed to beset mariners in their passage through the narrow strait which divides it from Italy, on one side of which was Sylla, and on the other Charybdis, sufficiently point out the ignorance and inexperience of the ancients in the construction and management of their ships.
The principal town on the eastern coast of Sicily, opposite Greece, was Messana, now called Messina: it was the first which the Romans possessed in the island: it was one of the most wealthy and powerful cities in ancient Sicily. ”

“ From Marseilles to Genoa the course lies toward the northeast along the coast of France. Thence, in going toward Messina, it turns toward the southeast, and follows the coast of Italy. The route may be traced very easily on any map of modern Europe. The reason why Messina had been appointed as the great intermediate rendezvous of the fleet was two-fold. In the first place, it was a convenient port for this purpose, being a good harbor, and being favorably situated about midway of the voyage. Then, besides, Richard had a sister residing there. Her name was Joanna. ”

“ We run between Scylla and Charybdis, with a fresh wind and a strong current. The “dogs” were silent, and the “whirlpool” is a bubble to Hurl-gate. Scylla is quite a town, and the tall rock at the entrance of the strait is crowned with a large building, which seems part of a fortification. The passage through the Faro is lonely—quite like a river. Messina lies in a curve of the western shore, at the base of a hill; and, opposite, a graceful slope covered with vineyards, swells up to a broad table plain on the mountain, which looked like the home of peace and fertility. ”

“ Messina is beautifully land-locked. The only possible winds that can affect its port are the north-west and south-east. In summer it is said to enjoy more sea breeze than any other place on the Mediterranean. Our Greek friend, however, says that Constantinople is in this respect not only superior to Messina, but to any other place in the seas of Europe. Pity that the fellows are Turks! We did not find much to interest us within the walls of Messina. There was, to be sure, a fine collection of Sicilian birds, amongst which we were surprised to see several of very exotic shape and plumage. ”

“ The working men are perforce thinner and [Pg 23] less exuberant. But they hang together in clusters, and can never be physically near enough.
It is only thirty miles to Messina, but the train takes two hours. It winds and hurries and stops beside the lavender grey morning sea. A flock of goats trail over the beach near the lapping wave's edge, dismally. Great wide deserts of stony river-beds run down to the sea, and men on asses are picking their way across, and women are kneeling by the small stream-channel washing clothes. The lemons hang pale and innumerable in the thick lemon groves. ”

“ The Fata Morgana is a sort of mirage seen in the Strait of Messina. A person standing on the shore sees the images of men, houses, ships, and other objects, sometimes in the air, sometimes in the water, the originals frequently magnified, passing like a panorama before the beholder. The vapory masses above the strait may cause the pictures to be surrounded by a colored line. ”

“ Messina (78) , on a bay at the NE. corner of Sicily; is a very ancient city, but rebuilt after the earthquake of 1783; has a 12th-century cathedral, two old castles, and a university, founded 1549; it manufactures light textiles, coral ornaments, and fruit essences; its excellent harbour encourages a good trade.
Messina, Strait of, 24 m. long, and at its narrowest 21⁄2 broad; separates Sicily from the Italian mainland; here were the Scylla and Charybdis of the ancients. ”

“ At noon we anchored in the finely sheltered harbour, the finest, indeed, in the Mediterranean. The commerce and shipping of Messina are most extensive, and make her quite cosmopolitan. The city undulates with a gentle rise, so as to present to the highest advantage every fine building, the exceeding purity and whiteness of which is thrown up by the dark green forest behind. In speaking of Genoa, I remarked that its situation was unequalled in its imposing grandeur; and here in Messina we have a beauty equally unsurpassed, though of a different kind ”

“ CHAPTER XIII. Messina.—​Trade of the place.—​The Fata Morgana.—​Embark for Naples.—​The Sicilian pilot.—​The Faro of Messina.—​Scylla and Charybdis.—​Exaggerations of the ancient writers.—​Fatal adventure of a Neapolitan diver.
We found Messina quite a lively, bustling place, with a harbor full of all sorts of Mediterranean craft. Several American vessels lay at the quay, loading with oranges and lemons for Boston. These fruits constitute the chief trade of the place, and give employment to a great part of the population of the city and neighborhood. ”

“ To produce this pleasing deception, many circumstances must concur, which are not known to exist in any other situation. The spectator must stand with his back to the east, in some elevated place behind the city, that he may command a view of the whole bay; beyond which the mountains of Messina rise like a wall, and darken the back ground of the picture. The winds must be hushed, the surface quite smoothed, the tide at its height, and the waters pressed up by currents to a great elevation in the middle of the channel. ”

“ All educated people knew Messina by name previously, but it was not until the Italian wires flashed the story of the earthquake which had wrought destruction so swiftly and dramatically that it will always be ranked as among the most appalling that ever happened, that everyone with one consent turned their attention to Messina, and the eyes of the whole world were focused on it. ”

“ Even as a small Italian town would be incomplete without its piazza where streets converge and commercial pulses beat their liveliest measure, so every larger one contrives to possess a public garden for the evening disport of its citizens; night-life being the true life of the south. Charming they are, most of them; none more delectable than that of old Messina—a spacious pleasaunce, decked out with trim palms and flower-beds and labyrinthine walks freshly watered, and cooled, that evening, by stealthy breezes from the sea. ”

“ Zoologists 91came and fished with Müller-nets for tiny transparent sea-creatures in the gentle periodic currents, that may once have given rise to the legend of Scylla and Charybdis. There is no place more favourable for the purpose than the harbour of Messina. The basin is open only at one spot, towards the north. The westerly wind is cut off from the town by the mountains, and can do no harm. Even the detested southern wind, the sirocco, that lashes the Strait till it is white with foam, cannot enter. There is only the north wind that drives the water into the basin. ”

“ This is the Scylla on which ships might run that would too anxiously avoid the whirlpool of Charybdis.
After passing the Faro of Messina, whereof Scylla forms one of the confines, the Sicilian shore42 assumes a bolder and richer form, till at length the romantic seat of Messina itself rivals the grandeur of the opposite scenery, and grafts upon the beauties of Nature somewhat of the proud aspect of metropolitan magnificence. ”

“ They come because they believe that the streets of London are paved with gold, but too many of them find our streets guttered by the tears of foreign waiters who have failed to find work. You had much better stay where you are like a good boy, and I will come to Messina and see you next autumn.
Then a basket arrived containing the prickly pears in a state of pulp, exuding juice from every pore because he had not attempted to pack them, and accompanied by a card wishing me a Merry Christmas.
Early in the morning of the 28th December, 1908, Messina was destroyed by an earthquake. ”