Donna The Duck is no more

Donna the Duck is no more

from Bridge, Spring 1989

The many friends and aquaintances of Donna the boating Aylesbury duck will be saddened to hear of her death on the 21st of January. Donna became well known in boating circles as she travelled the inland waterways. Over the four and a half years she boated she swam in the Thames, Soar, Trent and many canals from the Leeds and Liverpool, Llangollen, Trent and Mersey to the Grand Union and Oxford. She attended three National Rallies and at her last she was an attraction in her own right. She sat in her cockpit area under a painted board giving a pen portrait of her life. She had crowds visit her and photographed.

It was after one appearence at a National Rally that she was invited to open a Duck Ramp on the newly restored locks at Frankton on the Yontgomery. She was especially asked to do this by the I.W.A. and she performed her task with a flourish. She seemed to enjoy the publicity and fans. At the ceremony afterwards she was presented with her own plaque as a momento of the occasion.

She made so many friends as she went along and I'm sure she will be missed. People find the sight of a boating duck quite endearing and she loved to be the centre of attraction and would pose for photographs. The boating world has certainly lost one of its characters.