Mussolini’s Yacht.
basil | 11/12/2005 | 6:32 am
Droitwich Canal.
As the war in Italy ended the British Army used Mussolini’s yacht for sail training.”Pinuccia” named after his mistress ‘Little fir cone’ was a beautiful boat and can now be seen on the Cornish coast and River Fal. With the yacht was a small motor boat tender called “Elcona” which two British soldiers decided to use to reach England as there was a desperate shortage of transport to bring everyone home from Italy. Using the French canals they reached the Thames. After a while the polluted Thames made it leak and the Cascamite Co. lifted it out and sheathed the hull with their new Cascover water sealing process which pre dated fibre glass. The boat was shown at the first Earls Court Boat Show. After several years the boat reached Droitwich where we used it as a tug to pull our mud hoppers during the dredging operations to restore the Barge Canal.Sadly this museum piece was destroyed by vandals. Max
Elconia.
