Mid May 1875: Alberto Maniscalco, called Bertu Ammareddu (little shrimp) together with two of his friends, Giuseppe Muschidda and Alberto Occhidilampa, were on his boat. They were fishing using the parangali, a sort of mast with many hooks, about a dozen nautical miles off Capo San Marco, in other words near Sciacca.
When they pulled it up, it appeared to be very heavy, and Bertu had a surprise: a branch of coral had gotten stuck on the parangali! He lowered it again and the same thing happened: more coral.
He had discovered a coral bank!
When he returned to land at sunset, Bertu recounted the event to his incredulous fishermen friends, who “became convinced” only when Bertu showed them his extraordinary catch. In fact, they tried to find out more about where the bank was located. But Bertu would have none of it.
“If you want to know where I caught the coral, you have to give me three thousand lire” – such were the conditions of Bertu Ammareddu.
He was no fool! Three thousand lire, in those days, equaled a year of work for a fisherman
He was booed and jeered! But in the end they agreed on 250 lire, collected from among all the fishermen.
Not a great amount but it did allow him to enjoy a few luxuries.
The problem, however, was another: the fishermen of Sciacca were excellent at fishing anchovies and sardines, but they knew nothing about coral. So they decided to go see some “experts” and went, very confidentially, to a few boats from Torre del Greco that were fishing in the area and had stopped in Trapani.
You know how these things turn out: if you want a secret not to be a secret, talk to someone confidentially! They had sent the lamb to the wolves. Everyone tried to get into the act! From Trapani, Port Empedocles, Mazara del Vallo. All the fishermen of Torre del Greco and anywhere else, stopped fishing wherever they were and all rushed to the new bank.
The “Maritime Review” 2° Trim. 1876 reported that: “About 170 boats from Torre del Greco rushed from wherever they were after the discovery of the coral bank of Capo San Marco.”
“The Sciacchitani – said Commander E. Accinni, Commander of the ‘Esploratore’, a warship sent to maintain some sort of order – because of old prejudices, wanted to push everyone back and words quickly turned to actions, making it necessary to send a warship.”
It was a very real and serious problem. The bank was not very wide, and so it was unthinkable that 360 boats could be there simultaneously (145 Torresi, 124 Sciacchitani, 51 from Port Empedocles, 30 from Trapani, 30 from Mazara del Vallo, and even 1 from Alghero). Maneuvering space was insufficient and so they organized shifts, which were respected thanks to the presence of the warship, Esploratore, and everything went smoothly.
The bank at first provided good coral and according to Commander Accinni, “a small boat with 8 men collected from 15 and sometimes up to 20 kilograms a day; and since the price had been set at 30 lire per kilo, with a 5% tare, they earned a daily average of five hundred lire.
“This was not prime quality coral as it had little consistency but they collected so much that it was more profitable than the finer coral harvested in other sites.
“As the bank slowly became depleted, the Schiacchitani and the small boats lagged behind, because their fishing gear was not like that of the Torresi, strong enough to uproot the coral attached to the very bottom and at greater depth. In addition to the lesser quantity, its value also began to decrease, such that while on June 15 it was sold at 30 lire per kilogram with a 5 percent tare, on July15 it had gone down to 20 lire with 8 percent tare, on August 15 to 10 lire with 10 percent tare and in the final days it was being sold at 6 lire with a 19 percent tare.
“By the beginning of August, a small boat could not harvest more than 8 kilograms of coral a day, and the daily earnings of 500 lire in the beginning had by now become 72 lire a day.
“In August the sailors of Sciacca go fishing for sardines and anchovies which provide them with greater earnings, and so that month, tired from the brief coral campaign to which they were not accustomed, they returned to their customary type of fishing.”
It’s extraordinary how a man of the sea like Commander E. Accinni, manages – in the report he provided to the Minister – to flavour his report with both financial and social aspects. He concludes by saying:
“We can consider the fishing season over; the last remaining boats of Torre del Greco are preparing to leave.
“The bank is depleted and unless another one is discovered there will surely be no need to send another warship the following year to perform the same duties as the Esploratore.”
This was in October 1875. According to Accinni the bank would not be providing any more coral the following year. But what happens in 1876? You would think that no one would return to that particular bank. And you would be wrong: because more than 550 boats, compared to the 360 of the previous year, showed up!
But the quantity of coral fished in 1876 was 330,000 kg. compared to the 360,000 of the previous year. Which means that, on the average, each of the 550 boats brought home 600 kg of coral compared to the 1,000 kg of the preceding year.
(text taken with license of the author from the book Sciacca Mistery -Giuseppe Rajola)
"To Be Continued..."
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