A part of the ship's keel Elettra, the yacht on which Guglielmo Marconi carried out extraordinary radiotelegraphy experiments, arrived this week at the Museo Tecnico Navale in La Spezia.
The keel was kept in the park of Villa Durazzo in Santa Margherita Ligure and the municipal administration has agreed to deliver it on free loan to the Museum, which will carry out its extraordinary maintenance, thanks to the economic and technical support of Promostudi.
The yacht was built in the British shipyards of Ramage & Ferguson, to a design by the London architects Cox and King; it was launched in 1904 on behalf of the Archduke of Austria Francesco Ferdinando, confiscated by the English government during the First World War and auctioned in 1919, first being bought by an English lord and later by Guglielmo Marconi who gave it the name Electra.
On the Elettra, under the command of Marina officer Achille Lauro, the scientist lived often and willingly, even if the essential use was that of an extraordinary laboratory for radiotelegraphy experiments.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, it was moored in the port of Trieste and the September 8 furiquisita by the Germans, who turned it into an auxiliary ship; the scientist's apparatuses were recovered and held in custody at the Maritime Museum of Trieste.
On 8 January 1944 it was sunk by an allied submarine off the coast of Zadar and four years later the Italian government asked for its return to Yugoslavia, which returned it in 1960. The wreck was towed to Trieste and then moored at the Venice Arsenal. waiting for a recovery that didn't happen; the yacht was cut into several parts in 1977 and the remains were distributed in the sites of greater Marconi value: Pontecchio Marconi, Milan, Trieste, Santa Margherita Ligure, Fucino, Sidney, Venice, Rome, without considering at the time that La Spezia saw the first Marconi's experiences since 1897.
Thanks to the free use of its patents, the Arsenal of La Spezia was in fact home to the birth of the first Italian radio construction workshops and staff training schools.
One of the five museums of the Armed Force, the "Rear Admiral Guglielmo Marconi" Museum Room, is dedicated to the scientist and his link with the Navy.
