“From the plan I am honored to send to Your Excellency you can see the position and the extent of the coral bank, and though it is not marked with astronomical precision, even its approximation should serve, especially as this is not a danger to navigation but is a coral bank of great depth that very shortly, once the coral is finished, will be returned to oblivion like the one discovered in 1875, not too distant from this one.”
That this was becoming something truly big, important even for the Sciac-chitani, who this time didn’t even dream of going fishing for anchovies, can be deduced from another passage written by La Via:
“I think by now we can say that coral fishing is becoming familiar even for the sailors of the Sicilian coasts, and in fact in the interval between last year’s fishing and this year’s, many Sciacca boat owners bought boats similar to those of Torre del Greco, with the same fishing equipment and even hired a few Torresi sailors to train the others in coral fishing.”
The Italian Statistical Annals reveal that 1879 was an excellent fishing season. In fact they harvested 980,000 kg of coral, an amount that yielded 8,330,000 lire to the 750 boats involved. But still nothing compared to what would happen the following year, in 1880.
In January a new bank was discovered, larger than all the others, described thusly in a Report by the Merchant Marine Headquarters: “it is located 39° 0’ south from Capo San Marco, about 36 and a half miles distant. The tallest section of the bank, called ‘sommo’ by the fishermen, lies about 68 meters below the sea and the remaining surface is of variable depths, extending up to 90 meters.
The fishermen believe that the bank extends for almost four miles in length and is an average of one a half mile in width. Five miles southeast of the bank is a small appendix, about 42 to 45 meters deep, also containing coral.”
This was an enormous bank! Everyone was euphoric. And justifiably so as they were able to work simultaneously on two banks, the one from 1878 and the one from 1890.
Almost 1,800 boats were used during this fishing season and approximately 17,000 men. Numbers that make the Klondike gold rush pale by comparison! The amount of coral harvested was also incredible: 4,492,500 kg, yielding a gross income of lire 22,462,000.
To be Continued...
[text taken wth license of the author of the book Sciacca Mystery- Giuseppe Rajola]
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