Lost Island History: the end of the island

As we are not sure of the birthday of the Ferdinandea Island, the same way we do not know the exact day of its sinking. What’s true is that everyone was just waiting for the island to sink. It had been clear from the start, because it was composed of unstable material, mostly ash. The continuous break of the waves changed the inlands contours. Already after the first observations were made at a safe distance in July the island seemed mostly composed of volcanic ash and mud. The captain of the brig Achilles, Vincenzo Allotta, detected the disappearance of the island on December 8, but responded with the phenomena that characterized the emergence of columns of water rising into the air. The island will not return ever again to the surface but the volcanic activity on the water will manifest itself several times according to some people (in 1833, in June 1845, in the summer of 1863). The irony of Ferdinandea did not end with his dive. In the twentieth century, the ghost of Ferdinandea also suffered a military attack. It happened in 1986 following the international crisis of Sirte between United States and Libya. On this occasion the Americans bombed the waters of the Tour Graham mistaking him for a submarine enemy.