Scandal on the Sirio

THE 4,141-ton SS Sirio wasn’t a cruise ship but an Italian owned and crewed emigrant ship specialising in transporting mostly very poor emigrants from Italy to the U.S..

On August 2, 1906, she sailed from the Italian port of Genoa, commanded by Giuseppe Piccone. He diverted her route to pick up unofficial emigrants from Cadiz and Barcelona who paid their fare directly to him. He then tried to make up for lost time by taking a route very close to the Cabo de Pilas.

Ignoring the remonstrations of his crew, he had the ship steaming at full speed when she hit the Bajo de Fuera, a well known and well marked treacherous underwater peak which rose to within 10ft of the surface. The ship was impaled on the reef and the inrush of water drowned the engine room crew. A subsequent steam explosion killed many more passengers and crew.

The first lifeboat to leave the stricken ship carried the captain and all the officers, bar one. There was then panic on board and insufficient lifeboats. The remaining crew fought off passengers with knives and guns to get in the lifeboats. Among the passengers, men — including priests — beat up women and children to take their life preservers from them.

In fact, after the initial accident the danger was small as the Sirio remained jammed on the rock for more than a week.many passengers were rescued by fishing boats from nearby Cartagena.

A total of 669 people were rescued but between 250 and 350 people died. The exact number cannot be determined because there were so many unofficial passengers.

HAROLD ARMITAGE, Cradley, Herefordshire.

Tanker danger

AFTER several years in the transport industry, I’m dismayed that the Government is relaxing the regulations governing the number of hours tanker drivers will be allowed to drive, albeit for a three-week period to restore fuel supplies following Government-created panic buying.

These regulations were put in place not least to prevent overworked and tired drivers from having accidents. This is particularly relevant where the transportation of a hazardous liquid is involved. But this Government seems to think it acceptable to disregard the law to try to solve a problem of its own making. It assumes that the drivers want to work the extra hours and that employers will pay the overtime.

There’s a shortage of tanker drivers and LGV drivers in general. Perhaps the Government should look at funding driver training to help the unemployed with the cost of LGV training.

Eddie Stobart funds a scheme to train drivers. Our Government should follow the lead of our largest haulier. Sadly, the extra money raised on fuel taxes last week is more likely to be squandered on the likes of A4e.

PETER HUGHES, Liverpool.

Language rules

THERE is nothing in EU law that prevents the UK from checking the language skills of doctors and nurses from elsewhere in the EU (Mail).

Nor is there any ‘new Brussels Directive against language checks’. Proposed revisions to EU rules will make it even clearer that all Eu-qualified health professionals can be subject to such checks before they take up a post.

We can also reassure the General Medical Council and other professional bodies that far from EU law ‘taking precedence’ over Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans to reinforce such checks, the European Commission has welcomed those plans.

MARK ENGLISH, European Commission Office in London.

Silence is golden

SARAH Howard-jones wonders what could be more delightful than the sound of children playing (Mail). There are many.

One is that of complete silence. Or perhaps, at a push, the sound of birds tweeting or bees droning. The sound of screeching four or five year olds who have been brought up not knowing any different doesn’t figure in the list.

We older people have rights, too. It’s not all about you. Mrs D. WALKER,

Colwick, Notts.