The Montana plaindealer. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1906-1911, 1906-08-10
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TERRIBLE MARINE DISASTER OF
CAPE PALOS, SPAIN,
The Italian Steam Ship sirle Wrecked
and Hundreds Of italian and Span
lsh Emigrants Were Drowned
CAPTAIN Committed suIcide-Flsher'
men Rescue Survivors.

men Rescue SuTNiHOlS'
Cartagena, Spain, Aug. GA terri
BILE marine disaster occurred Sunday
evening off Cape Palos. The Italian
steamship sirio, from Genoa for Bar
celona, Cadiz, Montevideo and Buenos
Ayres, with about 500 persons on
board was wrecked off Hormigas Is
land. Three hundred emigrants,
of them Italians and Spaniards, were
drowned.
The captain of the steamer commit
ted suicide.
The bishop of San Pedro, Brazil
was lost, and it is reported that an
other bishop is among the missing.
The remainder of the passengers
and the officers and crew got away IN
the ships boats or were rescued by
means of boats sent to them from the
shore.
A number Of fishermen who made
attempts at rescue were drowned.
Those rescued from the vessel are
NOW at Cape Pales In a pitiable condl-
ton. being without food or clothing
The Sirio struck a rocky reef known
as Baios Hormigas and sank soon
afterward. stern first. Hormigas is
land lies about two and a half miles
to the eastward of Cape Palos.
The Sirio was owned by the Navi-
gaziono Italiana of Genoa.
Before he committed suicide the
captain declared the steamer had 645
passengers on board, and that her
crew numbered 1877 men. The Sirio
had $40 passengers when leaving Gen
GA, but additional Spanish passengers
we're taken on board at Barcelona,
where the vessel touched a few hours
before the disaster.
Reef a Continental Menace.
The disaster occurred at 5 o'clock
in the afternoon. The steamer was
threading a difficult passage through
the Hormigas group, where the Bajos
Mormigas reef is a continual menace
to navigation.
The vessel began to settle immedi-
ately after she had struck and a SEN
s%ational scene of panic ensued on the
vessel. The fishermen along the coast
sought to render every assistance and
sent out boats, which brought many
survivors ashore. Most of the officers
and crew If the Sirio are among the
saved. The survivors have gone into
camp on the main square of the town
at Palos. Narrowing scenes are en-
acted as the stricken families anx-
iously seek beloved ones among the
rescued. A mother who lost her three
children went insane. The doctor Of
the Sirio gave up his wife and child
as lost, but they were finally brought
in by one of the rescuing boats, and
the scene as this family was reunited
was most affecting. One of the boats
sent out by the fishermen brought in
AZ passengers.
In DepIorabIe Condition.
The condition of the survivors is
most deplorable. They have lost ev-
erything, and are without food or
J clothing. The military authorities of
Cartagena have dispatched a tug to
the scene carrying relief supplies.
The buildings Of a circus and a poor
house are being used as temporary
quarters for the survivors.
In addition sadness is added to the
catastrophe owing to the fact that a
number Of fishermen who were con-
Quoting ~rescuing operations were
drowned in consequence of the over
turning of a boat.
The captain of the Sirio just before
he committed suicide attributed the
wreck to his own imprudence.
All the ships books were lost. 1t
is impossible at present to ascertain
the full extent of the disaster. Nine
tenths of the passengers were Ital-
ians. and the remainder Spaniards.