Elisabetta Arrighini
Amilcare Beretti
Egizio Cicali
Cursio Corsi
Marco Agottani
Aldino Agottani (brother)
Tranquillo Agottani (father)
Monica Levi
Luisa Torti
Erasmo Torti (brother)
Carlo Torti (brother)
Adelina Artusi
Virginio Artusi (brother)
Aniceto Artusi (father)
Zeffirino Soldi Vito Ferroni
Lorenzo Cappato
Pietro Varisone
Anna Dolfi
Ezio Ruggera
Argia Fagnoni
(I’ll continue the list tomorrow.)
February 1st
There really aren’t many sailors on board, and when we asked the captain about it, he explained that a man in Le Havre was supposed to supply a full crew, but the recruiters had come and taken away six sailors whose numbers were drawn in the lottery for the army.
Today the Germans who missed yesterday’s boarding rowed up in three big cutters. They clambered up the ropes and one woman fell and split her head on the edge of a cutter. Umberto Verona, who worked at the slaughterhouse in Livorno, examined her, but it was too late. The sailors carried the corpse back to the city with them. One of the German men also wanted to go back, but the rest of them surrounded him and persuaded him not to.
The passage takes about two months. We set sail at a quarter past twelve.
Most of us stayed on board, watching the land fade into the distance until a thin strip was all that was left, but some people got seasick and didn’t last till the end. In fact almost everyone.
Achille Gallina
Pietro Riva
Cattina Dondelli
Mario Carosi
Domenico Codega
Pietro Colli
Paolo Costagli
Francesca Reboa
Achille Dondelli
Carla Mezzadri
Primo Crollanti
Domenico Parodi
Livia Dabrigi
Tristana Renzi
Manfredi Renzi
Cecilia Negri
Amos Vallone
Umberto Verona
(I’ll continue the list tomorrow.)
February 2nd
Below decks there’s almost no lighting at all and vomit everywhere. We’re divided into compartments of nine people each. The tickets say “second-class cabin” but they aren’t really cabins.
February 4nd
Aurelio Gattai
Rina Gattai
Pietro Gavarri
Antonio Massa
Eugenio Grassi
Eugenia Grassi
Carla Gaibi
Decio Boni
Giacomo Zerla
Alessandro Mansueto
Alessandro Mostaca
Giovanni Bossi
Rinaldo Garzino
Adele Servanti
Luigi Silano
Bruno Celli
(The end.)
February 6th
This morning some of the sailors on deck were having an argument and failed to carry out the commands of the first officer quickly enough, so he took a pole from the windlass and began to beat them with it. One he hit so hard that he collapsed to the deck covered in blood. Achille Dondelli, Domenico, and Umberto tried to help the sailor, but the officer drove them back and ordered us to remain in our designated berths.
February 7th
The captain and the first officer are both Americans. The first officer is vicious and cunning, pelting the sailors with whatever comes to hand and kicking them constantly. The shipmaster is Portuguese and speaks a little Italian. The crew is made up of various nationalities and includes three Negroes, whom the officers beat like horses. When they want to speak with the captain, they have to wait by his cabin without knocking until someone else comes along and knocks on his door. The cook is a Negro, too. His name is Samba and his hair is white.
February 9th
The Germans are poorer than us Italians, and most of them have hardly anything of their own. We’re worried that they might try to steal some of our things. Zeffirino suggested that we keep watch at night. But Decio disagreed. He said: We’re sailing towards a world where everything will be shared, including property and women alike. Zeffirino said that for property to be shared, first there has to be some, and if some scoundrels go and steal ours, the only thing we’ll have left to share is s—. And then he said: The women can look out for themselves. Cattina said she wouldn’t sleep with a German even if he begged her on his knees. Umberto said he would be happy to sleep with a German, and Cattina said that was just like him. Zeffirino suggested that only those who agreed with him keep watch, and that he would take the first shift. Fifteen people signed up. But Decio said majority rules and we didn’t leave the Old World behind so we could make the same mistakes and submit to the decrees of self-styled leaders. Zeffirino said he left to find freedom and wouldn’t take orders from anyone. Vito Ferroni said Decio was right, matters affecting everyone should be decided by majority, the settlement regulations said so. Zeffirino said we weren’t in the settlement yet, and once we were, the Germans would be there with us, but until then we had to look out for ourselves. Giacomo suggested we go below decks and see whether anything of ours was missing, and if so we keep watch, and if not we trust the Germans. The suggestion was adopted with a majority of thirty-seven votes. Giacomo and Zeffirino went to the first officer to borrow the key to the storeroom, but he said it was out of the question, they might steal something there.
February 11th
Elisabetta is a year older than me, and after dinner we sit together in a cutter on the starboard side.
February 12th
There are more than 200 passengers on board, mostly German, French, and Italian. The Germans are poor and filthy, and there are more of them than anyone else. Some of the Germans and the French live together, and Mr. Mangin goes above deck to sleep because he can’t stand the filth. There aren’t enough sailors, so the captain has hired on eight of the Germans. There are also two Americans on board, and a lady from Vienna with a female companion who chews tobacco, but they aren’t settlers. There are some other Austrians also, but it’s hard to tell them apart from the Germans, unless they stay in a different part of the ship. There are also a few Austrians who don’t speak German but some other language even the captain doesn’t understand. And there is one Swiss family with three children who stay in the first-class cabins. The captain speaks French and a little bit of German. Some of the Austrians are settlers, but not all. All of them are against the occupation of Piemont, though. One of the Germans told Agottani that the Austrians who don’t speak German speak a dialect from eastern Germany called Slavic. But Decio said it isn’t a dialect but the language spoken by Serbs. There’s also a Belgian man who’s short and fat and his name is Atlant. All of the food has a salty taste, and we each get 1.5 liters of water a day.