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-class corvette Etna-class corvette The "Etna" class was a class of six 16 or 18-gun corvettes with a flat hull, designed by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait and his pupil Charles-Henri Tellier. Four separate commercial shipbuilders were involved in their construction by contract - including André-François Normand, Courtois and Denise at Honfleur, and Fouache at Le Havre (2 ships), while the sixth vessel was built by Pierre Ozanne at Cherbourg Dockyard. The vessels were flush-decked and originally designed to carry a 12" mortar. However, as the British navy captured "Etna" within a year and a half of her launch at which time she was not