The Maritime Museum of Montenegro from Kotor organizes the promotion of the reissue of the book "The Villa of Velebit by the Levant" by the professor Predrag V. Kovačevića, which will be held tomorrow at 19 p.m. in Grgurin Palace.
The professor of the Maritime Faculty in Kotor, dr Stevan Kordic, curator of the maritime technical collection of the Maritime Museum Ilija Mlinarevic and granddaughter of Professor Predrag Kovačević, Adela Barba.
The book "Vila Velebita around the Levant" is a travelogue, i.e. a travel diary of professor Predrag Kovačević with the students of Nautka from Kotor on the Yugoslav school ship - the sailing ship "Vila Velebita" in 1935. This book is a valuable testimony about maritime education, maritime skills and school ship "Vila Velebita" - one of the most beautiful sailing ships from the eastern coast of the Adriatic in the first half of the 20th century, which unfortunately tragically perished in the Second World War in Italian waters.
Predrag V. Kovčević (1904-1989) was born in Baošići in the family of the priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church. He spent his childhood in Constantinople. He was educated in a Jesuit high school in German, and then in a classical Russian high school. He graduated in Prague. He enrolled in the Faculty of Law in Belgrade. During his studies, he was awarded an English scholarship, so he transferred to Cambridge to study economic sciences. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1927.
He spent most of the Second World War in the German Osnabrik concentration camp. In 1945, he was liberated by the British, and since he knew English, Russian, German and French well, he was hired as an interpreter for the Soviet Repatriation Service. In that position, he significantly contributed to the success of the operation in which the Allies captured the German war criminal, SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler.
After returning to Yugoslavia, Kovačević worked as a professor of foreign languages in Kotor's maritime schools. In addition to a large number of translations and expert works in the field of linguistics, he wrote several books dealing with the historical past of Boka, Grblj and Paštovići, among them the capital work "History of Bokel Maritime" from 1967. For exceptional work merits by decree of the President of the SFRY, Josip Broz Tito, was awarded the Order of Labor with a Golden Wreath in 1972. Professor Predrag Kovačević is remembered by Kotorani and Bokelji as a top intellectual, an extremely witty man and an excellent pedagogue who left an indelible mark on the education of numerous generations of local sailors.
His creed in life is perhaps best described by the dedication left by Professor Kovačević in his travelogue "The Villa of Velebit in the Levant".
"To my dear students, who will later, as sea captains, protect the honor of the Yugoslav flag, I dedicate these modest lines in the hope that, like industrious bees, they will collect all that is beautiful and good in the foreign world and, on their return, ennoble their native home," he wrote. Kovačević.
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