Archduk :: Mediterranean Sea :: "La" Nixe
“The first Nixe was named after an ondine, a water nymph of spectacular beauty that, according to legend, lives in lakes and rivers. The name revealed a certain fondness for mythology that was at once pretence and a slight tendency towards pathological lying. Construction began on the craft at a shipyard in Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) on 12th July 1971. The Archduke’s mother, always concerned about family administration, asked Sforza (the secretary) for details about the boat: she gave greater credit to Sforza’s opinion than to that of her passionate son. Sforza was forced to act as a go-between for the pair on more than one occasion. After that, distrustful and stingy, the mother would continually ask her son for details, either out of forgetfulness or suspicion. ‘It’s a small boat,’ Ludwig Salvator wrote from Prague on 12th September, ‘a picture of simplicity, though not lacking any modern maritime amenities. It has a 100-horsepower motor and three masts. The final price, including all of the interior fittings, is about 100,000 guldens. It seemed useful to spend the Italian stock for this purpose. I used half of this capital to pay for the construction of the boat, and the other half is set aside for annual maintenance.’”
March Cencillo, J., El Archiduque, Biografía ilustrada de un príncipe nómada, La Foradada, 1991.
