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Photo # NH 1447:  Street in Messina, Sicily, showing damage caused by the 28 December 1908 earthquake

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- EVENTS -- The 1900s -- 1908

Earthquake at Messina, Sicily, 28 December 1908

Before dawn on 28 December 1908 a powerful earthquake and tsunami struck south Italy, devastating the Sicilian city of Messina. The death toll was terrible, with estimates of those killed running up to two hundred thousand. Other nations' navies sent men and ships to help Italian authorities with recovery and relief work. Among these were the British, whose large Mediterranean Fleet soon had two battleships, five cruisers and a destroyer at the scene. The Russians, whose training squadron was also in the vicinity, provided men from several battleships, cruisers and gunboats. While digging through the remains of collapsed buildings to rescue survivors and locate the bodies of the dead, some of the Russian sailors lost their own lives when an aftershock buried them in rubble.

The U.S. Navy, whose presence in the Mediterranean was minimal at the time, initially dispatched the station ship (and former luxury yacht) Scorpion from Constantinople, Turkey. She left there on 31 December 1908, arrived at Messina on 3 January and remained there until the 8th, when she began her return voyage to Turkish waters.

More U.S. Navy ships came later. When the earthquake struck, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's battleship force was steaming up the Red Sea toward the Suez Canal, nearing the end of its passage from the Far East during its great World cruise. The fleet's Commander in Chief, Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry, ordered the supply ship Culgoa, carrying hundreds of tons of food, to head for the disaster zone as soon as she could get through the canal. She left Port Said, Egypt on 4 January, arrived at Messina on the 8th and was there or at Naples until 15 January. While Culgoa was on her way, six Navy surgeons from the battleships, as well as medical supplies, were put aboard the tender Yankton (another converted yacht) and, on 5 January, set off from Port Said, arriving at the stricken city on the 9th and remaining until the 14th.

They were followed by Sperry's flagship, the battleship Connecticut, which called at Messina on 9 January, while en route to Naples. All, or nearly all, of the photographs presented below come from the collection of one of her officers. The battleship Illinois arrived on 14 January to help recover the bodies of U.S. Consul Cheney and his wife from beneath the ruins. This mission, involving hazardous tunneling through the ruined Consulate building, was soon completed. Illinois sailed the next day for Valetta, Malta, where she rejoined her division.

A large quantity of supplies, originally intended for Sperry's fleet, along with a hastily loaded prefabricated hospital left the United States at the end of December on board the Navy supply ship Celtic, arriving at Naples on 19 January 1909 and then taken to Messina. Celtic and her crew were in the Sicily-Naples area for about two months, distributing urgently needed supplies to towns along the Sicilian coast, erecting temporary shelters and otherwise helping the quake's survivors. When Celtic left to return home on 21 March, Assistant Surgeon Martin Donelson remained in Sicily with a detachment to construct housing and provide further medical assistance. Donelson was ordered back to the United States on 10 June 1909, bringing to completion more than five months of Sicilian earthquake relief work by U.S. Navy personnel.

This page features all the views we have concerning the 28 December 1908 earthquake at Messina, Sicily, and subsequent relief efforts.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions.

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 1447

Messina Earthquake, 28 December 1908


Street in Messina, Sicily, showing damage caused by the earthquake. Photographed in January 1909.

Collection of Lieutenant Commander Richard Wainwright, 1928.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 123KB; 740 x 565 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 1518

Messina Earthquake, 28 December 1908


Earthquake survivors and destruction in Messina, Sicily. Photographed in January 1909.

Collection of Lieutenant Commander Richard Wainwright, 1928.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 123KB; 740 x 485 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 1177

Messina Earthquake, 28 December 1908


Refugees waiting for transportation at Messina, Sicily, where USS Culgoa and USS Yankton fed many hungry earthquake survivors. Photographed in January 1909.

Collection of Lieutenant Commander Richard Wainwright, 1928.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 500 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 1569

Messina Earthquake, 28 December 1908


Italian soldiers recovering earthquake victims from wrecked buildings in Messina, Sicily. Photographed on or about 9 January 1909. Ships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet called at Messina to render what assistance they could provide.

Collection of Lieutenant Commander Richard Wainwright, 1928.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 72KB; 540 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 2359

USS Culgoa
(1898-1922, later AF-3)

At Messina, Italy (Sicily) in January 1909 to render assistance to the victims of the 28 December 1908 earthquake.
She was stores ship for the "Great White Fleet" during its 1907-1909 World cruise.

Collection of Lieutenant Commander Richard Wainwright, USN, 1920.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 41KB; 740 x 465 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 41509

Messina Earthquake, 28 December 1908


The city of Messina, Sicily, seen from USS Connecticut (Battleship # 18) after she had arrived to provide earthquake relief, circa 9 January 1909.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 69KB; 900 x 550 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 1570

Messina Earthquake, 28 December 1908


Russian Midshipmen's Training Detachment and USS Connecticut (Battleship # 18) off Messina to provide earthquake relief, 9 January 1909.
Connecticut, in the right background with white hull, was then in the Mediterranean during the final stages of the "Great White Fleet" World cruise.
The Russian ships, in the center wearing grey paint, are (from right to left): armored cruiser Admiral Makarov, battleship Slava, battleship Tsessarevich, and (probably) cruisers Bogatyr and Oleg.

Collection of Lieutenant Commander Richard Wainwright, 1928.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 70KB; 900 x 550 pixels

 


NOTES:

  • To the best of our knowledge, the pictures referenced here are all in the Public Domain, and can therefore be freely downloaded and used for any purpose.

  • Some images linked from this page may bear obsolete credit lines citing the organization name: "Naval Historical Center". Effective 1 December 2008 the name should be cited as: "Naval History and Heritage Command".


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions.


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    Page made 30 October 2008
    Coding updated 13 April 2009