Original scientific paper
»Filjuga« – The Most Significant Man-of-War of the Republic of Dubrovnik (Second Half of the 17th–19th Centuries)
Josip Luetić
Abstract
On the basis of his archival-historical studies, the author is the first in this country to be concerned in more detail with the »filjuga«. Besides, he corrects certain conclusions in the past regarding this type of ship. In the first place the author discards the appellation »feluka« for this type of ship in this country, pointing to the old-established appellation for this type of sailing-vessel, which our seafarers, the administration and the folk literature used to denote as the filjuga.
Having established on the ground of numerous well-known Italian, French, English, Dutch, American and other writings that the »filjuga« was a generally known Mediterranean type of small trading vessel and warship (thus solving in this country the debatable query as to its national and regional belonging), the author contributes a description of the «filjuga«, along with a number of confirmations about the domestic folk name for this type of sailing vessel. On the basis of his own archival investigations, the author contributes new data on the services rendered by the »filjuga« in the mercantile marine and in the navy of the Republic of Dubrovnik.
At the end of the paper the author draws the following conclusions: In the 18th and at the beginning of the 19th centuries the »filjuga« was the most conspicuous and most effective state armed ship of the Republic of Dubrovnik, and in its navy the smallest type of vessel afloat. Also, this conclusion may serve as an illustration that the power of the Dubrovnik State rested not upon its navy (as for example in the Republic of Venice) but upon the mercantile marine.
The enclosed documents illustrate a part of the sailors’ life and some events on filjugas, the behavior of this type of ship and of its crew in the course of a voyage and in a storm. They illustrate also a part of the activities of the mercantile marine and to a certain extent the navy’s activity in the Republic of Dubrovnik.
Keywords
filjuga; Republic of Dubrovnik
Hrčak ID:
244797
URI
Publication date:
30.6.1976.
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