Mount Etna to widespread reports of up to 15,000 (or even 20,000) human fatalities caused by the lava, contemporaneous accounts written both in Italian and English mention no deaths related to the 1669 eruption (but give very precise figures of the number of buildings destroyed, the area of cultivated land lost, and the economic damage). Therefore, it is uncertain where the enormous number of fatalities can be attributed. One possibility is confusion between this eruption and an earthquake that devastated southeast Sicily (including Catania) 24 years later in 1693. A study on the damage and fatalities caused by eruptions of Etna in
Etna (sternwheeler) of "Etna" was substantially affected by the rise and fall of river levels, which were generally seasonal. Small craft like "Etna" on the Columbia River system were sometimes referred to at the time as the "mosquito fleet" "Etna" was built in Portland, Oregon in 1906 for Horace Campbell by the Portland shipyard of Joseph Supple. Campbell was a steamboat engineer with extensive experience on the Lewis and Lake rivers. "Etna" was exclusive of the extension of the deck over the stern, called the fantail, on which the stern-wheel was mounted. "Etna" had a beam of exclusive of the protective timbers