Bonifacio

Bonifacio, Straits of, separating Corsica from Sardinia, and having at the narrowest part a width of from six to seven miles. The straits derive their name from the town of Bonifacio in Corsica. The passage is very dangerous during the west winds, and was the scene during the Crimean war (January 15, 1855) of a disastrous wreck. The Semillante, with a crew of 350 and a body of 450 infantry on board, struck a rock and foundered immediately, not a man being saved, It is this wreck that Alphonse Daudet describes in one of his exquisite Lettres de mon Moulin.