Il Panfilo ElettraIn 1919 Marconi purchased the two-masted steam yacht Rovenska. She had been constructed in 1904 at the Leith shipyard of Messrs Ramage & Ferguson for Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria. Renamed by Marconi as the Elettra, the yacht served a floating laboratory fitted with an eight kilowatt transmitter and a loop aerial capable of transmitting wireless signals over a 1,000 miles distance. During the First World War the Elettra was requisitoned and served as a minesweeper.
After Marconi's death Elettra was sold to the Italian Government. In 1943 she was requisitioned by the German forces while at Trieste. In 1944 she was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Adriatic sea. After the war tensions between Italy and Yugoslavia over the region of Trieste meant she was salvaged was only in 1962. Any possible restoration plans for Elettra would have been prohibitively expensive and she was scrapped due to her poor state of repair. Part of her keel stands in the grounds of Villa Griffone, at Pontecchio near Bologna, sited there in October 1977 and her bow section was unveiled at Padriciano, Trieste in September 2000.