A Venetian Bargee in Boston 



A STRANGE looking craft made its 

 appearance recently on the Charles 

 River. It was an exact replica of 

 the state barge of Venice used annually 

 by the doge in the ceremony of the 

 marriage of the Adriatic. It led the 

 procession in the water festi\al at the 

 exercises when the transfer from the 

 old to the new Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology buildings in Cambridge 

 was made. 



The barge was named "Bucentaur" 

 after the old Venetian name. The last 

 Bucentaur or state barge was built in 

 1729 and was later destroyed by the 

 French. The ancient ceremony was 

 instituted after the victory of the 

 Venetians over the Imperial Fleet in 

 1 1 77, on the gift of a gold ring by Pope 

 Alexander Third to the doge as a token 

 of the city's dominion over the sea. It 

 was celebrated annually on Ascension 

 Day, the doge casting a consecrated ring 

 into the sea from the Bucentaur or state 

 barge. The Venetians called the ceremo- 

 ny an "espousal of the sea." 



Technolog\''s Bucentaur is one hun- 

 dred feet longwith a beam of eighteen feet 

 and a draft of only fourteen 

 inches. The galley 

 are ornamented 

 with hand 

 carved 

 figures 



of wood in white and gold. At the bow 

 is a massive figure, the symbol of the 

 Institute of Technolog>-. It is a woman 

 in whose left hand is held a T-square 

 and whose right hand holds aloft the 

 torch of enlightenment. 



On either side of the waist of the odd 

 craft is an ornamental frieze more than 

 fifty feet in length, made up of realistic- 

 looking sea-horses, dolphins, mermaids 

 and cupids, at play in the waves. On 

 the main deck, at the stern, is a deck- 

 house with an arched roof supported by 

 caryatids in groups of three. The 

 flagstaff is erected at the forward end of 

 this deckhouse. In all more than fiftv 

 figures were used in the ornamentation 

 of the galley. 



The barge was constructed on the 

 suggestion of Professor Ralph Adams 

 Cram. It has a twelve-horsepower 

 gasoline engine to drive a propeller of 

 twenty-four inches as an aid to the 

 rowers. The whole superstructure is 

 built upon what is practicalh" a scow, 

 the prow forming the o\-erhang. Over 

 this overhang is the an- 

 chor well, where two 

 mushroom anchors are 

 placed, although 

 in\isible from 

 out- 

 •idc. 



The Bucentaur led the procession in the water festival on the Charlis Kiv.i. vvhcn the 

 transfer from the old to the new Massachusetts Institute of Technology buildings was made 



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