Laconia incident. Part 7

PFilliputtiA16010034.jpg

Title

Laconia incident. Part 7

Description

Six naked figures are on two makeshift rafts floating in rough seas, surrounded by sharks. Two figures holding sticks are trying to scare the sharks away. Three of the figures are pointing to their left and shouting. Men are also in the water surrounded by sharks. A pair of legs can be seen in a shark’s mouth. One figure is holding a knife in his right hand ready to defend himself.

Label reads “70”; signed by the author; caption reads “(7) … L’alba ci diede un’esatta immagine dell’immane tragedia, attorno a noi, a perdita d’occhio, nessun segno di vita solo il mare era disseminato di centinaia di cadaveri, tenuti a galla dai salvagente, testa ripiegata in avanti sommersa dall’acqua. Fummo circondati dai pescicani, stavano straziando i corpi dei nostri morti, uno mi sfiorò una gamba, aveva in bocca un’atroce pasto. Un’italiano certamente impazzito, a cavalcioni di un lungo palo, sospinto dalla corrente, solcava l’Oceano nostante i nostri gesti di salute, e di richiamo. Imperterrito senza profferire parola, egli si allontanò come una statua sul mare…”

Caption translates as: “(7)… The sunrise allowed us to understand the extent of the tragedy surrounding us. As far as the eye could see, there was no sign of life; only the sea, in which hundreds of corpses were dispersed. These were kept afloat by life vests, their heads tilted forward, submerged in water. Sharks surrounded us, tearing apart the corpses. One brushed against my leg, its mouth full of a horrific meal. One Italian, surely insane, was sitting on a long pole with his legs astride and, driven forward by the current, cut through the ocean despite our gestures of greeting and signals. Undaunted, and without saying a word, he went away like a statue on the sea…”

Temporal Coverage

Spatial Coverage

Language

Type

Format

One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board

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

PFilliputtiA16010034

Citation

Angiolino Filiputti, “Laconia incident. Part 7,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 29, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/124.

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