Victory in Venice

Down the long sweep of the Grand Canal came the gondola, a slender vessel reminiscent of older, statelier times. But there was something that looked like a propeller shaft projecting from the craft's bottom; the gondolier had abandoned his classic, nonchalant stand at the stern to crouch at the center; and the boat emitted wild gusts of fumes and roars that shook the lagoon city into outrage.

Outrage is exactly what the strange craft was intended to provoke. The stunt of putting an outboard motor in a gondola was perpetrated by Gino Macropodio, who led his 350 fellow gondoliers in their latest protest against the growing encroachment of motorized craft in Venice. The motoscafi, strikers pointed out, violate the canals' 7-m.p.h. speed limit and kick up waves that further weaken the foundations of the slowly sinking city. Some motorboatmen also violate the city ordinance limiting their working hours from midnight to 6 a.m., carry passengers and small freight afterhours in competition with gondolas.

The gondoliers have gone on strike before (twelve times in the past 16 years), as their trade has dwindled steadily since the 18th century, when they reigned as kings over the Grand Canal. But this time Gondolier Macropodio inspired the strikers, instead of merely beaching their boats, to mock, not fight, the opposition.

Other gondoliers installed outboard motors in their craft and set off at high speed down the waterways. The absurd anachronisms, trumpeting through the muddy canals, finally stirred action as well as municipal nostalgia: Venice authorities agreed to enforce restrictions on motorboats. Victorious, the gondoliers threw out the motors, grabbed their oars, and lazed back at the boats' sterns, safe and somnolent and--temporarily, at least--kings again.

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