8 CLASSIC BOAT NOVEMBER 2017NO6 TEXEL
Below, left to
right: lowering
the mainsail;
attention to
detail on the new
winches; period
details; the
original
windlass; at
anchor in the
Aegean Sea; an
ingenious
tensioning
system for the
foresail clew.Facing page: the
yard for the new
square sail (not
hoisted here) can
be seen; it has
helped take the
boat transatlantic
in recent yearsthere came into harbour and anchored close by the
loveliest yacht that any one ever saw. She was an iron
schooner close on 100 feet long, with strongly raked
masts and two square-sail yards on the fore...
“We were shown over the ship, not without pride. She
had been fitted out in the most expensive and elegant
manner; her saloon, for example, had been finished in
16th-century Dutch oak panelling, with linenfold
shutters over the port-lights...” (Source: The First Mate’s
Log by RG Collingwood.)
It was during McFadden’s ownership that Texel
enjoyed a brief career in the secret service. After the
Italian invasion of Cyprus in 1941, McFadden joined the
US navy and was based for a while in Cairo working
with the Marine Section of the Office of Strategic Studies
(the precursor to the CIA). The OSS chartered Texel to
carry supplies and personnel from Alexandria to Cyprus,
although they soon realised that this fancy yacht was far
too noticeable for such a covert operation and switched
to less obtrusive boats, such as the local caiques.
McFadden himself seems to have come in for some flack,
as he carried on entertaining guests aboard Texel,
apparently unaware there was a war raging, earning
himself the nickname ‘Daffy’.
McFadden eventually drowned off Cyprus when a
dinghy he was sailing capsized while, so the story goes,
he was ‘under the influence’. His body was never found.
By then, Texel had already embarked on the next
phase of her transformation from North Sea workboat
to Mediterranean luxury yacht. In 1947, she was bought
by King Farouk I of Egypt, the so-called ‘playboy king’,
who renamed her Feid el Bihar (Lord of the Seas). In
keeping with her new status as a royal yacht, she was
fitted with elaborately carved panels, gold-plated bath
taps and four ‘harem bunks’ in the main cabin. In this
guise, she was to be found in many of the fashionable
resorts on the west coast of Italy, such as Porto Santo
Stefano, Portoferraio and Capri, even featuring in Italian
films of the period.
Farouk’s decadent lifestyle eventually caught up with
him, however, and he was deposed in 1952. The
disgraced ex-king was taken to Italy, where he had been
granted asylum, on board the royal yacht El Mahroussa,
a 430ft (131m) motoryacht built in 1863. According to a
contemporary news report, on arrival in Capri, Farouktransferred 40 cases of liquor, the gold ship’s bell of the
El Mahroussa and some personal belongings to Texel- along with his second wife and their infant son – before
sending the much larger yacht back to Alexandria.
His first home after being deposed, then, was the
former pilot schooner-turned-archaeological-hostel-
turned-luxury-yacht.
In truth, Texel was probably rather small for an
ex-king and his retinue, and Farouk soon passed her
on to his captain, who renamed her Maria II. He in
turn sold her to an Italian naval officer from Genoa,
who owned her for only two years before selling her to
the Agusta family (under the guise of their company
Naval Ricuperi Srl) in 1955. They fitted a new pair of
Deutz engines, to replace the six-cylinder MAN
engines fitted by McFadden in 1938, and gave the
yacht her sixth name: Rosetta I. The Agusta family
kept her for 28 years, based in Genoa, before passing
her on to a Norwegian owner in 1983, who in turn
renamed her Sonia Maria.
And so it was that one day in 2001, Andrea Doná
dalle Rose – an Italian count who can trace his family
lineage back to three Venetian doges – happened to
notice this unusual yacht moored up in the harbour at
Porto Santo Stefano.
“It was all painted white, like Moby Dick!” he
remembers. “Somebody told me it was for sale, but the
owner didn’t allow anyone on board. So I started
chatting to him. The first day I said: ‘You have a nice
boat,’ and he said: ‘Thank you.’ The second day, the
same. Then the third day, he said: ‘Would you like to
come on board?’, and I said: ‘Thank you.’ He said: ‘Are
you interested in the boat?’ and I said: ‘Yes.’” After
several months of courtship, Andrea eventually
persuaded the Norwegian to part with what had become
little more than a floating holiday home.
One of Andrea’s first decisions was to return the
schooner back to her original name – which according
to the 1934-35 Lloyd’s Register was simply No4 (the
name given to her in 1925).
And so for the first few years of Andrea’s ownership,
Texel was known as No4. It wasn’t until further
research revealed her previous name that she reverted to
No6 – or No6 Texel, as written on her original mainsail.
It soon became apparent that the boat hadn’t been
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