Battle of the Espero convoy. Part 10
Title
Battle of the Espero convoy. Part 10
Description
Two life rafts packed with survivors in distress meet in shark-infested waters. Several of the survivors are injured.
Label reads “16”; signed by the author; caption reads “(10) … al 3o giorno del 36 uomini raccolti, soltanto 14 rimanevano in vita. In quel giorno s’incontrò un’altra zattera, la terza carica di 15 persone, che non erano in migliori condizioni, di quelli delle altre due zattere, si svolse un breve e tragico dialogo: “avete acqua voialtri, niente acqua abbiamo feriti a bordo, “Il mare crudele scintillava di luce abbagliante, tutto era bruciante e salato; legni e carni, indumenti e cavi, tutto combusto dall‘acqua e dal sole. Una banda di pescicani, affiorò attorno alle zattere, più volte si senti cricchiare il legno, sotto i denti dei mostri, gli squali tentarono di rovesciare le zattere, e raccolti verso il centro dei legni, lottammo come potemmo, contro quella potenza affamata. La banda vorace delusa, s’allontanò d’improvviso com‘era venuta…”
Caption translates as: “(10)… Of the 36 men we rescued, only 14 were still alive by the third day. On that day, we encountered a third raft with 15 people on board. Their condition was no better than the people on the first two ones. A short, dramatic conversation occurred: “Do you have water?” “No water, only injured on board”. The cruel sea glistened with dazzling light, everything was burning and salty; wood and flesh, clothes and ropes, the sun and the water burnt everything. A pack of sharks gathered around the rafts. The wood creaked many times in the jaws of those monsters. The sharks tried to capsize the rafts. We gathered at the centre of the rafts and we fought as we could against that ravaging power. The insatiable pack swam away disappointed and suddenly as it came…”
Label reads “16”; signed by the author; caption reads “(10) … al 3o giorno del 36 uomini raccolti, soltanto 14 rimanevano in vita. In quel giorno s’incontrò un’altra zattera, la terza carica di 15 persone, che non erano in migliori condizioni, di quelli delle altre due zattere, si svolse un breve e tragico dialogo: “avete acqua voialtri, niente acqua abbiamo feriti a bordo, “Il mare crudele scintillava di luce abbagliante, tutto era bruciante e salato; legni e carni, indumenti e cavi, tutto combusto dall‘acqua e dal sole. Una banda di pescicani, affiorò attorno alle zattere, più volte si senti cricchiare il legno, sotto i denti dei mostri, gli squali tentarono di rovesciare le zattere, e raccolti verso il centro dei legni, lottammo come potemmo, contro quella potenza affamata. La banda vorace delusa, s’allontanò d’improvviso com‘era venuta…”
Caption translates as: “(10)… Of the 36 men we rescued, only 14 were still alive by the third day. On that day, we encountered a third raft with 15 people on board. Their condition was no better than the people on the first two ones. A short, dramatic conversation occurred: “Do you have water?” “No water, only injured on board”. The cruel sea glistened with dazzling light, everything was burning and salty; wood and flesh, clothes and ropes, the sun and the water burnt everything. A pack of sharks gathered around the rafts. The wood creaked many times in the jaws of those monsters. The sharks tried to capsize the rafts. We gathered at the centre of the rafts and we fought as we could against that ravaging power. The insatiable pack swam away disappointed and suddenly as it came…”
Creator
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Type
Format
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
PFilliputtiA16010012
Collection
Citation
Angiolino Filiputti, “Battle of the Espero convoy. Part 10,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 26, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/102.
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