The representative museum exhibition "Iron Men on Wooden Ships", dedicated to the famous Battle of Vis from July 1866, was opened on Friday evening in the Maritime Museum in Kotor, in the presence of a large audience, including the Montenegrin Minister of Culture Janko Ljumović. One of the most impressive and best exhibitions shown recently in Boka was opened by Croatian Ambassador to Montenegro Veselko Grubišić. Recalling that among the actors of the events of 151 years ago in Viška vitka, to which the exhibition is dedicated, were many people from the area of today's independent states of Montenegro and Croatia, Grubišić pointed out that the exhibition is "another successful project of international cooperation between Croatia and Montenegro, which testifies to historical, cultural, spiritual unity, the wealth of the Dalmatian area and its importance in the history of civilization".
"Iron men on wooden ships" is a project jointly implemented in Kotor by the local Maritime Museum, the Archaeological and Croatian Maritime Museum from Split. The authors of the representative exhibition, which through a series of panels with an abundance of information, and a large number of extremely interesting objects, some of which were retrieved from two Italian warships sunk in the Battle of Vis, are Boris Čargo and Ljubomir Radić. Through a series of artifacts and documents, they shed light on all aspects of the largest naval battle in the Adriatic, when the Austro-Hungarian and Italian fleets clashed near the island of Vis on July 20, 19866. The victory was won by the Austro-Hungarians, who sank two Italian battleships without any losses, and in that battle, which decisively influenced the history of the regions on the eastern coast of the Adriatic, many of our officers and sailors from Istria, Dalmatia and Boka Kotorska participated on the Austro-Hungarian side. Among them, the then captain of the frigate Marko Florio from Prčanja, commander of the steam corvette "Erzherzog Friedrich" stood out. That corvette suffered numerous hits from Italian guns in the battle, and one heavy shell pierced the ship below the waterline. Despite the heavy damage and the dangerous penetration of water into the ship, Florio kept the "Erzherzog Friedrich" in battle, not stopping to shower the enemy with shells from his weaker cannons of a shorter range. It is interesting that the helmsman on the command ship of the Austro-Sugar fleet, the ironclad "Ferdinand Max", which sank the Italian ironclad "Re d Italia", was Đuro Dabinović from Dobrota.
"Memories that connect us with Admiral Florio and the Battle of Vis are some of the objects that are on display tonight together with the objects of our colleagues from Split. There is a piece of the torn Italian flag that the Austrian admiral-in-chief Wulheln Tegethof awarded as a trophy to Floria, as well as a preserved daščica from the frigate "Kaiser" that the Maritime Museum received as a gift from Captain Miroslav Štrumberger. Most of the items related to the Battle of Vis and the personality of Mark Florio are on permanent display in our museum," said the director of the Kotor Maritime Museum, Mileva Pejaković Vujošević, while the director of the Archaeological Museum from Split, Damir Kliškić, pointed out that for many years they carry out archaeological research on the island of Vis, and store their objects in the Austrian fortress of Bataria, "the same fortress that actively participated with its cannons during the days of the Battle of Vis and fired at Italian ships that came to the port of Vis".
A battle that is studied at all major naval academies
Recalling that the Austro-Hungarian ships, on which about eighty percent of the crew consisted of our people from Istria, Dalmatia, Lika and Boka Kotorska, won a victory over the more numerous and technically superior Italian fleet, the author of the exhibition Boris Čargo pointed out that the Battle of Viška is still studied today at to all major maritime academies in the world.
"You must know that it is the last time that ships collide and sink the opponent with a 'beak' strike, which was done in ancient times.
The very tactics of the Austro-Hungarians were the same as those applied by Nelson in 1805 at Trafalgar, and the Battle of Viš was at the same time the first conflict in the history of warfare at sea with the then new and modern, iron-armored ships powered by steam, and not with wooden sailing ships, as they were fought before. That's why it entered the annals and remained 'alive' to this day", said Čargo, presenting some of the exhibited rarities from that battle - artillery ammunition from both sides, parts of the ship "Radetzky", dishes and other objects removed from the wreck of the "Re d' Italy", pieces of a flag spear from that and another sunken Italian ship, the gunboat "Palestro".
Bonus video:
