SS Sirio 1906
Marker: recorded wreck position (Steam era).
Key facts
| Name | SS Sirio | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1906 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Steam era | derived from year |
| Ship type | ship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Sea / ocean | Mediterranean Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Spain | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 12 km from land |
| Position | 37.6519, -0.6529 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
SS Sirio was an Italian passenger steamer that was wrecked off the eastern Spanish coast on 4 August 1906, causing the deaths of at least two hundred Italian and Spanish emigrants bound for Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. The wreck had a profound effect on communities in northern Italy and was remembered in popular songs of the era. It was the second worst peacetime maritime disaster in Italian history, only surpassed by the sinking of the Principessa Mafalda nineteen years later.
Diving & visiting
While passing off Cape Palos, Sirio followed a course that passed too close to the coast, and ran aground at full speed on the Punta Hormigas, a reef off Hormigas Island, two and a half miles east of Cape Palos, Cartagena, Spain. According to an eyewitness, the captain of the French steamer Marie Louise, she was "taking a dangerous course" when he saw her stop, her bow lifting. The boilers exploded, and "dead bodies began to float past the French steamer, and those on board could hear the shrieks of the drowning."
Many passengers were trapped in the lower decks, which were quickly flooded; a number of first class passengers were drowned soon after the grounding as their cabins were located in the stern, which…
Location
- Recorded position: 37.6519, -0.6529 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Mediterranean Sea
- Nearest coast: Spain
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article SS Sirio (revision 1346288168), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
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Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Spain · Mediterranean Sea · Steam era