384 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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BOX COFFINS, EACH CONTAINING THREE BODIES, READY EOR BURIAL, IN 



CEMETERIE INGEESIE 

 Under the mound on the right 7,000 bodies are said to be buried 



harbor at the time of the earthquake, 

 and their crews, with the few panic- 

 stricken soldiers of the city, were the 

 first to lend assistance to Messina. The 

 next morning at daybreak the Theropia, 

 a North German Lloyd boat, sailed into 

 the harbor and soon after it came the 

 Russian warship Admiral Makaroff. The 

 crews of both ships turned immediately 

 to the task of rescue, and that afternoon 

 the Theropia, laden with wounded and 

 refugees, weighed anchor for Naples. 

 On the 30th the English man-of-war Sut- 

 liedge and others were dispatched from 

 the fleet at Malta to join the rescuing 

 parties, and Italian warships were sent 

 from Naples and Sardinia. The sailors 

 were organized in small gangs with an 

 officer in charge and worked quickly and 

 heroically, some losing their lives in the 

 endeavor to save others. 



Help did not arrive at Reggio until 

 two days after the disaster, its fate being 



unknown even in Messina, as both tele- 

 graphic and railway communications 

 were destroyed. 



Twenty-four hours after hearing of 

 the calamity the King and Queen of 

 Italy departed for this scene of disaster, 

 and their presence alone gave courage 

 and hope to the distracted, while their 

 personal assistance in relief work in- 

 spired others to do their utmost to succor 

 the wounded and starving. Troops were 

 also sent in from Catania, Palermo, and 

 from the mainland as far north as Ge- 

 noa, but without sufficient food supply 

 for themselves, and many suffered be- 

 cause of it, though all showed courage 

 and endurance. Hardly a building was 

 left in Messina fit for shelter, and the 

 rain and winds added much to the se- 

 verity of the suffering. As every minute 

 meant a life, all else save rescue was neg- 

 lected, even to the burying of the dead, 

 and both sailor and soldier worked far 



