“The frightening disaster of Marsala”. “Sixteen boys and a cleric lose their lives in a tragic trip off the coast of Marsala”. “17 college students drowned in Marsala due to the capsizing of an overloaded boat”.
These are just some newspaper headlines from May 2, 1964. The day after the Marsala Stagnone tragedy.
60 years ago 16 boys and a cleric drowned in the waters of the Stagnone di Marsala. That day, which should have been one of joy and light-heartedness for the children of the House of Divine Providence, turned into tragedy due to a poorly organized boat trip. An overloaded boat, which suddenly capsized. Many did not know how to swim. The tragic toll. The drama of family members, the stories of survivors, the stories of heroes. Today there will be a commemoration at the site of the disaster.
Sixty years after the tragedy, we retrace that drama through the newspapers of the time. Yellowed pages collected by “I fiore recisi di Marsala”, the group created to remember the young lives broken 60 years ago.
PARENTS’ CRYING
In the newspapers of the time all the pain of the parents at the funeral in Marsala and of the families of the other children from other Sicilian cities. La Stampa published the photo of the grieving parents, May 3, with a significant title: “Parents crying at the funeral in Marsala”. And then the photo of the boat in which there were 33 people. “Emotion and indignation for a tragedy that could have been avoided”. “Fatality had nothing to do with the Marsala disaster. The 17 boys drowned because the boat was too loaded.” La Stampa also writes on May 3, also publishing the photos and stories of the victims and survivors.
THE HISTORY OF MESSINA AND ORLANDO
Among the most striking stories of that tragedy is that of two boys, two friends, victims and heroes, to whom a street in Marsala was dedicated. A street that many do not know, or whose name they distort because they do not know the true history. They are Antonino Messina and Carmelo Orlando. They were 18 and 17 years old. Carmelo Orlando, a courageous seventeen-year-old, managed to save four companions that morning, before disappearing into the waters, perhaps carried to the bottom by the weight of those other companions seeking salvation. Same fate for his lifelong great friend, Antonino Messina.
THE TALE OF THE YOUNG MAN WHO SAVED 4 SURVIVORS
“Four of the boys who were saved from the terrible tragedy owe their lives to the young 18-year-old Michele Ragona who at the time of the tragedy was on the small pier where the fishing boats usually dock watching the three overloaded boats heading to the nearby island of Motya”, thus Diario Siciliano, on May 2, the day after the disaster, began to tell the testimony of one of the heroes of that day.
“I immediately realized that the boat that had left first, both due to the ripples of the waves and the movement of the boys who moved from one point to another, in an attempt not to get their trousers wet, was taking on water. At a certain point – Ragona continues, visibly moved – I saw the second boat overtake the first and when it was about 300 meters from the shore I saw it sway fearfully and suddenly capsize”. It is Ragona’s story. “I remained petrified, then I immediately got on a motor boat and headed to the place where I still saw many children agitating. I realized that we had to act quickly. I threw myself into the water trying to help the boys closest to me, but I immediately saw myself grabbed by dozens of hands trying to cling to me.”
THE NEWS IN FOREIGN NEWSPAPERS
A tragedy so great that in addition to shocking the entire nation, it also found space in the foreign press. There are articles in the Press Telegram, in the Marshall Evening Chronicle, in the Columbus Daily Telegram, in the ABC de Madrid.
THE INVESTIGATION
On May 3, two days after the tragedy, the newspapers wrote about the investigation that opened after the tragedy. “The prefect of the Salesians arrested. Four under accusation for the Marsala disaster”, writes L’Unità.
And then the photos from the hospital and a graphic of the accident site published by Il Gazzettino.
Also in the Gazzettino, on 4 May, the headline reads: “The sudden stop of the death vessel is fatal”. He explains what emerges from the initial investigations, that when the boat capsized “the engine was off”. “The serious responsibilities of the pilot: he could not have carried more than ten children, the life jackets were missing, the required authorization had not been requested. Some arrest warrants are expected.”
L’Unità, on 4 May, headlined: “The boatmen and the Salesian prefect indicted”. And again “The accusation is of manslaughter”. We always read that the accusation is of “multiple manslaughter with the aggravating circumstance of having acted despite the predictions of the event. This is the accusation that hangs over the head of the prefect of the Salesians, Don Luigi Giudice, and the three boatmen for the tragedy of Marsala”. They knew and did not prevent the tragedy.
THE PAIN OF THE POPE
“The Pope’s pain for the terrible disaster”. Also in the Gazzettino is Pope Paul VI’s invitation to the faithful to pray for the victims. The pontiff “expressed his condolences to the Salesian family”.
500 LIRE
One of the surviving children of the tragedy told L’Unità that they paid 500 lire for that trip. “Another 500 lire they paid for breakfast, which they should have eaten on the island of Mothia – with 150 shares the Salesians made the boarders pay 75 thousand lire for the motorboats, which they then rented for 15,000 lire”. Behind the tragedy, therefore, there is also a sort of crest.
THE BOY WHO TRIED TO ESCAPE AND DIED
Among the dramatic stories of the tragedy is also that of a Calabrian boy who tried to escape from boarding school and died. “Mimmo Papaleo, a 13-year-old boy who lost his life in the great tragedy of May 1st, wanted to see his city again,” writes Il Tempo, publishing the photo of the letter.
