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Two seamen from Croatia in voyages up to the Edge of the know world (early 15th century)
Krešimir Kužić
orcid.org/0000-0003-3201-539X
; Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Towards the end of the 13th century, Venetian Republic established bonds with harbours in the North Sea. For reasons of prestige and financial profit, state control was kept over the convoys sent in this direction, yet enough room was left for private trading initiative as well. Thanks to the experience gained and for the purpose of facilitating the sailing itself, a whole set of cartographic products and portolan charts with descriptions of shores, harbours, anchorages, and sea characteristics were developed. The principal feature of those maps was that they did not include the shores southward of the Canary Islands, Cape Bojador, and the north shores of Scandinavia. Pietro Querini’s voyage was described in two reports written by the surviving crew members. Their sailing ship set on the voyage from Crete on 30 April 1431, freighted with barrels of malmsey wine and other goods. The crew numbered around fifty seamen, among whom there were two Croatians – one from Zadar, and the other from Šibenik. During the voyage, the ship passed the Gibraltar and was wrecked near Cadiz. The damage to the steering wheel decided the ship’s further fate. After repair, the wind directed them to the Canary Islands, which caused fear among the crew. This was in line with the belief that all ships that sail behind Capes Non and Bojador would suffer a wreck. They however managed to return and, after passing Cape Finisterre, arrived to the Channel. They were caught in a sequence of storms, which destroyed their steering wheel and sails, and consequently arrived to a position approximately 1,000 km westward of Ireland. After leaving the ship, they embarked two smaller boats. One of them carried Querini and another 44 seamen; they set to the northeast under strong wind and the Gulf Stream. The majority died of cold, hunger and thirst, while only thirteen of them managed – on 5 January 1432 – to disembark on Sandøy in the Lofoten Islands (in the north of Norway). The islanders of Røst rescued them and offered them hospitality, so that they recovered. The eleven men who had survived (the two from Zadar and Šibenik with them) set off on a journey home. They crossed Norway and Sweden on foot up to the harbour of Lödöse. Ivan VI Frankopan, who was in service of King Erik VII at that time, offered them hospitality on the way. Querini and Croatian seamen continued to sail to England, and later to Flanders. They arrived in Venice on 12 October 1432. Though shipwrecks were rather frequentin that period, none of the other cases attracted as much attention as the case of Querini. It is interesting due to the fact that the ship had reached the ultimate borders of the world as known at that time – the Canary Islands in the south, and the Lofoten Islands in the north; the voyage crossed 14,100 km in total. Additionally, as a result thereof, certain data were entered into cartographic products of later dates – for instance into the Mappamondo by friar Mauro of 1459. The seamen who survived were the first South Europeans who ate codfish. For us, it is of interest that two seamen from Croatian lands took part in the voyage and managed to survive all the hardships.
Ključne riječi
Croatian seamen; Venetian Republic; Canary Islands; Lofoten Islands; portolan charts
Hrčak ID:
170519
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.12.2016.
Posjeta: 2.133 *