Captain Pietro Antonio Marinich
(June 12, 1816 – August 9, 1897)
Pietro Marinich was born and grew up in Silba, the first male of the seven sons of Giuseppe Antonio (1788-1865), “paròn de barca” (small shipowner), in turn, son and nephew of small shipowners (Pietro, Zuane, Nicolò, Andrea). As Alberto Cosulich explains in “I velieri di Lussino” (The sailing ships of Lošinj), the time of carefreeness soon passed for the sons of the sailors and after finishing the three elementary classes the boy went to sea and as a ship-boy made his two-year sailing. So after the male elementary school with the local parish priest, Pietro made his first maritime experiences accompanying his father in his frequent long journeys in the Adriatic and the Aegean (from the Black Sea to Genoa a sailing ship took 4 or 5 weeks). Giuseppe Antonio had lived through the years of the fall of the Venetian Republic, of the French occupation, and his son Pietro was born when Silba entered the Kingdom of Dalmatia of the Austrian Empire (King Francis I). He began his studies as a captain, first privately, as was then customary, with the expert captain Ferrara, husband of his paternal aunt Antonia, in Silba. Then, in Trieste, he went to a nautical school, believed to be the Academy of Commerce and Nautics. In 1841 he was enabled by i.r. Government of Dalmatia in Zadar to the “command of Austrian merchant ships of any size within the limits set for the great coastal navigation”. In 1846 he obtained from i.r. Central Maritime Government of Trieste the long-course captain’s patent for merchant ships. These are the years in which the small military fleet of the Austrian Empire merged with the powerful Venetian navy (Österreichische-Venezianische Kriegsmarine) and the language “Venesian da Mar” became the official command language of the Austrian navy. We have no records about his possible enrollment in this navy. He commands the ship Melania, the first paddle steamer to land in Silba, for a Venetian company that transported coal from Sibenik to Venice.
He then worked for Österreichischer Lloyd (Austrian Lloyd) based in Trieste on various ships including the “Adriana”. He was a second lieutenant in 1848 and then became a first lieutenant on the “Italia” steamer in 1850. Following an incident which occurred on the night of April 21st 1850 during the passage of the Mytilini Straits (Ottoman Empire) he left Austrian Lloyd and was immediately hired by the Danubian Shipping Company (DDSG) of Vienna which was in close cooperation with Austrian Lloyd. From 1853 to 1856 the Crimean War was fought and won by the Ottoman coalition against Russia. The Ottoman Empire reconquered the Moldova which had been occupied by Russia, while the Istrians and Dalmatians enriched themselves by providing services to the French and English bases. During these years the Captain served at the DDSG on the Metternich, Galatz and other ships, between Orsova in Banat at the Iron Gates (the last border of the Kingdom of Hungary) and Galaţi in Moldova at the mouth of the Danube with the Black Sea (an important strategic town of the Ottoman Empire and since 1856 the headquarters of the European Danube Control Commission).
The Captain was always in touch with his family in Silba, where in 1858, at the age of 42, he married the twenty-year-old Isidora Domenica Rassol, known as Dumiza. In his youth he had known her mother Antonia Giovanna Mauro. We do not know if they were engaged, but in the dark evenings without light, radio, TV, at home or on sailing ships, many tales were told which resulted in the nice love legend that the captain married the daughter of his girlfriend and had the tower built so that his wife could greet him both towards Sotorišće and towards Žalić.
Since 1841 he had been the owner of a 54-tonne pielego with six crew members which was commanded by his father, Giuseppe Antonio, built in Trieste in that year and named after the just proclaimed Governor of Dalmatia “Cavaliere de Türski”, but commonly called Il Turco (The Turc). The ship sunk in 1854, loaded with gravel in Silba, and remained disarmed at the point where the Silba pier was later built.
In 1858, the year in which the maritime boom crisis began, he was co-owner (16/24 carats) with his father (8/24 carats) of the long-course schooner “Sacra Famiglia” (Holy Family) of 130 tons built in Mali Lošinj with a loan of Bank Morpurgo of Trieste. In 1859 the short Franco-Austrian war broke out and the “Sacra Famiglia” was seized by the French navy commanded by Admiral Defauchè and brought to Lošinj at the French naval base built for the maritime blockade of Venice; restored, it was later brought to Galaţi by Captain Sambugnak, where Captain Pietro Marinich sold it in 1864.
In 1865 his father Giuseppe Antonio died and Pietro, with his brothers Giuseppe and Giovanni and his sister Antonia, inherited the houses and land. He contracted malaria in the lower Danube, retired at about fifty around 1866, and returned to Silba permanently to devote himself to his native island, his family, and his first three children. He purchased land, with a deed or a handshake, he added to the fields inherited from his father. He dug a cistern using the excavation material first to fence the property and then to build a new house inspired apparently by the Budapest office of the Danubian Company. The construction was carried out under his direction by workers of the village and of Lošinj, and was completed in 1872. The cost was said to be about 42,000 florins, that is, on the average about half the value of a sailing ship. The epigraph was engraved on the lintel of the entrance: To you my children – keep it dear with the surroundings – Pietro Marinich 1872. The first child born there, in that same year, was his son Pietro. The “tower of love” is erected later. A small chapel is then built in the garden in front of the house. Inside the frieze there is the inscription: By paternal piety – made by the hand of Pietro Marinich cap. – Sacred Stone Bishop Nachić – Archbishop Greg Raicević authorized – consecration Par. Can. Valentich – First Mass St. Peter 1894.
Silba was represented in the Dalmatinischer Landtag (Dalmatian Diet) of Zadar and the Captain, a passionate lover of his island and his Dalmatia, a defender of the Austrian monarchy and institutions, embraced the Dalmatian autonomous party and became a councilor of the Municipality of Silba (including the islands of Silba, Olib, Premuda, Ist, Molat and Škrda) and later became the podesta, a position held between 1878 and 1890. During those years he transformed the simple streets that lead from the church of Sv.Ivan to the church of Sv. Marka and he carried out many public works such as the improvements to the street from the parish church to the Žalić Pier, He promoted the fight against malaria stemming from the existence of a pond called “Draga”. He drained the pond and at his own expense he provided two water wells to the benefit of the population,
The Captain was also meritorious in the field of education. In 1873 he provided a permanent location for the women’s school on the ground floor of the Municipal House which was built during his tenure. Previously the courses took place in the private home of his father-in-law Rassol. In 1880 he instituted a Preparatory Maritime Course (Pomorsky Tečaj), taught by Antonio Nakić, which lasted until the outbreak of the First World War. Though he was multi-lingual, he preferred the “venesian da mar” in memory of his youth, the lingua franca of the Mediterranean at the time.
Respected and esteemed by everyone, he usually received in his house the Archduke Charles Stephen when traveling on his yacht which was manned mostly by Silbans. Other guests included Governors Dragotin Blaženković and his predecessor Lodovico Comaro when inspecting Silba, the Archbishop Pietro Doimo Maupas of Zadar, when he went to Silba for confirmation, the Archduke Ferdinand d’Este (in 1896?), the Archduke Albert, and on the occasion of an inspection of the Austrian Navy Squadron, the Archduke Admiral Carlo Lodovico (brother of His Majesty incognito) and his commanders, among them the Count Wimpfen.
Not only did he accomplish much in Silba but he also figured among the exhibitors who participated in the great Agricultural-Industrial Exhibition held in Trieste in 1882, on the occasion of the 500 year anniversary of the “dedication” of Trieste to Austria.
He died in Silba on August 9, 1897 at the age of 81. His wife, who gave him 13 children, joined him 15 years later. His son Marino became Captain of the Danube in Budapest, Antonio (Toni) left Silba in 1904 and after an experience in Africa and South America settled in Texas, Giuseppe finished his nautical studies in Bakar, and after a short maritime experience he led various stations of Istria and of Carinthia and died in Trieste, Edoardo lived and died in Osijek, Pietro died in Turin.
This prominent personality, Captain Pietro Marinich, has inspired many memories and stirred up legends and fantasies for the Silbans. For years a doctor in Silba swore that he spoke to him at night when his restless spirit paced back and forth in the attic of the house. Even today a friendly hand sometimes puts flowers on his grave.
Sources:
Family archive
Petar Starešina – Pomorstvo Silbe, Zadar 1971
Alberto Cosulich – I velieri di Lussino, Trieste 1983
Rad u Historijskom Arhivu u Zadru
Peter Sabel – Die Insel Silba, Burglengenfeld 1970
Wikipedia
Obituary on “Il Dalmata”, Zadar 11.08.1897
Annuario Marittimo del Lloyd Austriaco, Trieste 1848, 1854, 1859, 1862, 1865
27.01.2018 – report by dr. Enrico Marinich
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