Original scientific paper
Austro-Hungarian Veritas Office in the Town of Korčula (1860—1915)
Vinko Ivančević
Abstract
Austrian Ship Register Veritas (later Austro-Hungarian) was established in Trieste in 1858. Not longer than two years, in 1860, its Office was opened in Korčula, then a very important town for its shipbuilding industry. The office worked permanently for 55 years, i.e. till 1915, when the First World War stopped its activities.
From the published supplements and photographs one can see that the office used to provide the inspected ships with certificates containing numerous valuable data on shipbuilding in Korčula.
The author gives biographies of people who as shipbuilders or sea captains used to be agents or experts of the Veritas Office either in Korčula or abroad. They were all born in the town of Korčula.
The Veritas used to publish its Libro Registro in Trieste every year. Making use of its data, the author — in Table 1 — gives the names of ships (beside other important pieces of information) classified by the Korčula Veritas Office. Particularly valuable is Table 3, in which there were published the data concerning the ships built in Korčula shipyards (especially for foreign owners) that were not mentioned in the official Annuario Marittimo. In Table 5 the names of shipbuilders whose ships were inspected by the Veritas Office in Korčula are given. According to all the data presented here it is evident that Korčula occupied an important position in the shipbuilding industry of those times and that the Veritas Office was very active carrying out an important job in the Austro-Hungarian maritime affairs of that period.
Keywords
Austro-Hungarian Veritas Office; Korčula
Hrčak ID:
243007
URI
Publication date:
20.6.1987.
Visits: 986 *