Original scientific paper
SENJ IN PILOT-BOOKS OF THE ADRIATIC FROM THE END OF THE 18th CENTURY TO THE END OF THE 19th
MITHAD KOZLIČIĆ
SANDA UGLEŠIĆ
Abstract
Real shifts in the quality of navigational handbooks, as well as in the description of Senj harbour, came about with J. N. Bellin and his sailing manual from 1771. The new quality would bring pilot-books which would emerge during the 19th century: one notable book is by the author Giacomo Marieni. The peak of this quality is the Austro-Hungarian pilot-book of the Adriatic from 1893 which emerged after almost a century of, not always constant, hydrographic, oceanographic, geographic and other research. In this very extensive work a deserved place is also held by Senj and all the properties of its maritime-geographic location. In the information many such very specific acts are discussed which the authors developed or emerged as institutional works without emphasising authorship: J. N. Bellin, H. Michelot, G. B. Grubas, G. D. Bassi, "Atlas plovidbenih karata Jadrana" (“Atlas of sailing maps of the Adritaic”) printed in Milan in 1822-1824, J. Purdy, J. W. Norie, G. Marieni, M. Г. Балиохин, A.
B. Cosulich, L. Lamberti, A. Le Gras, the British “The Adriatic Pilot” from 1861 and 1880, and the first edition of the Austro-Hungarian “Peljara Jadranskog mora” (“Pilot-books of the Adriatic Sea”) from 1893. Each one of them is compared, in order not just to gain the sequence of the development of maritime construction in Senj but also an insight into the maritime, meteorological and other characteristics of its harbour, and also through that a special aspect of
history of the city at the foot of Velebit. Highlighted in a section about the specific analysed historical material are the exceptional
meteorological characteristics of the Velebit Channel, though mostly of the Senj door, as the traditionally most frequent approach to Senj (the passage between Krka and Prvić), and Senj itself. After that the bura wind dominates, and in some of the pilot-books it is dramatised into phobia and fear. With analysis it is unequivocally confirmed that the knowledge of Senj as a town and harbour was principally determined by the bura wind, due to which the internal navigation way of the Velebit Channel was avoided for a long time. Only with the systematic and very complex marine research into the 1820s and 1870s would this knowledge significantly advance. In this sense Marieni’s “Peljar Jadrana” (“The Adriatic Pilot”) from 1830 and the Austro-Hungarian from 1893 are the peak of this knowledge, and all others are more or less summaries of what they provide, from which these others also compiled works. Such scientific research has not appeared until now, so this work will probably also encourage other authors to pay attention to these parts of the very important historical sources which have been earlier and unjustly neglected in historical investigations.
Keywords
Senj; Senj harbour; pilot-books; end of 18th century to end of 19th century; Eastern Adriatic
Hrčak ID:
129812
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2013.
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