MACHINE-GUN ATTACK ON YACHT

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 3 January 1931, Page 9

MACHINE-GUN ATTACK ON YACHT

AN amazing story of Italian Fascist • Militia firing with machine-guns and rifles on the British yacht Fretrada, off the coast of Ponza ,an island to which Italian political prisoners are sent, was told by Captain F. F. Wessel, the owner of the vessel, on his return to London recently. Ponza is one of three Italina ‘‘confine’’ islands, and is one of: a group lying about. 50 miles to the west of the Bay of Naples. . . 'Captain Wessel, who was cruising with his wife and crew of two ,was making for Civita Vecchia, on the Italian coast, and after 20 hours decided to anchor for the night off Ponza, which he found described in an official guide as “a pleasant little island with a well-sheltered bay. ’ ’ As he approached the narbour lie found a fleet of fishing-vessels half a mile from the shore.

He was carrying full navigating lights, but, in order to steer a course through the fishers, he switched on his searchlight and made for a bay a little to the north of Ponza port. “We were feeling our way very carefully,’’ said Captain Wessel, “when suddenly a motor-boat came alongside, and a very arrogant voice commanded us to go into port. “I knew nothing of Ponza, and 1 replied that I was an Englishman proposing to drop anchor where I was us we were very tired, and needed rest.

“The order was repeated and we gave the same reply. Again come the order for us to put into port, and I then saw the boat contained six men of the Fascist Militia, only one of whom was in nniform.

“Argument was useless, so I pulled up my anchor and headed for the port.

Fired on by Fascist Militia

“After we had gone 40 or 50 yards there was a rattle of machine-gun lire, | and bullets struck the deck and rigging around us. Our crew flung themselves full length on the deck, and my wife and I sheltered behind a lifeboat and an outboard motor. “Bullets struck these shields; but for them we should have been hit. “I stopped the yacht, and the motoiboat again came alongside. This time the men levelled revolvers and rifles at. tts. and as my wife attempted to put a fender between the vessels she was stopped by a man who thrust a revolver Ul ‘‘Wlmn we got to Ponza I asked the port captain for an explanation, and then, for the first time, we learned that Ponza was a ‘confine’ island, to which Italian political prisoners arc sent. ‘The militia said they were afraid wo were going to help a prisoner to escape. This, of course, was perfectly ridiculous, as wc had no idea what the island was used for. “It is curious, too, that, the previous ,l av Prince Paul of Greece had left us after a short cruise, and he was in possession of Fascist passes admitting him almost anywhere. ’’

Captain Wessel was detained at Ponza for four days, during which time he and his wife were “shadowed” by Fascist agents, and, as he described it, “generally treated like criminals.”

The British Ambassador at Rome was informed of the position Captain Wessel and liis wife were in, and certain otlTer leo-al action has been taken, but the only redress Captain Wessel expects to receive is “a written letter of apology,” which, as he pointedly puts it would have been no use to anyone who had been shot.