Wednesday 7 May 2014

Napoleon at Elba

Napoleon has gone to Elba, again. This time, in the form of a re-enactment to celebrate the bicentennial of the dictator's exile. Boney had captured the island, with the rest of Italy, and after his forced abdication he was made its king and sent to live there.
The Nappy look-alike was taken ashore on a gozzo, an attractive traditional fishing boat from the area. It has a tremendous freeboard so it can be rowed standing up, facing forward, in the Venetian style, though propulsion was normally by sail (a lateen), now usually by a small diesel.
In point of historical fact, Napoleon arrived not on a gozzo but a much grander vessel - the captain's barge of the British frigate HMS Undaunted. But at least the gozzo was designed and built by an Englishman in Italy - Peter Radclyffe.
More on the festivities here, and a tip o'the hat to Gavin Atkin.

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