Jeff Bezos Megayacht Forced to Make Secret Escape in the Middle of the Night
The megayacht of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took a route less traveled on Tuesday to avoid Rotterdam residents who wanted to pelt the ship with eggs.
The massive yacht is 417 feet long and has a price tag of $500 million, according to the Daily Mail.
Even before setting sail, the yacht, named Y721, had controversy.
At one time, plans for getting the ship from the yard where it was being built to the sea called for the Koningshavenbrug bridge in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to be dismantled, at least in part.
Although the bridge gives ships under it a 130-foot clearance when it is raised, the top of the bridge was not high enough to clear the masts of the yacht.
In February, a resident named Pablo Strörmann took to Facebook to create an event for whenever the ship sailed through the city.
“Take a box of (rotten) eggs with you and let’s throw them en masse at Jeff’s superyacht when it sails through De Hef in Rotterdam,” he wrote.
“Rotterdam was built from the rubble by the people of Rotterdam, and we don’t just take that apart for the phallus symbol of a megalomaniac billionaire. Not without a fight!” he said.
Although the bridge is not currently used, Stefan Lewis, a former City Council member, said he was opposed, according to The New York Times.
“There’s a principle at stake,” he said. “What can you buy if you have unlimited cash? Can you bend every rule? Can you take apart monuments?”
The bridge was first built in 1927, according to the Daily Mail.
In 1940, during Germany’s attack on the city, the bridge was heavily damaged and has since been declared a landmark.
Rather than a public event to run the gauntlet of egg-throwing citizens, the ship moved while still unfinished, according to Breitbart.
The megayacht also took an unusual and longer route to another shipyard where the masts would be fitted.
The ship initially was planned to go through the city center.
A report in the German-language Der Spiegel said the vessel sailed at 3 a.m. to the Greenport Rotterdam Shipyard for its finishing touches.
“When I was standing on one of the bridges, they shined a searchlight on me, so it wasn’t easy for me to take pictures,” the newspaper reported one unnamed witness as saying.
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