The Maritime Library of Boka Kotorska has recently been enriched with a new major title - a memoir book "From Cadet to Ship Commander", by the author of a long-distance captain Branislav N. Kordić from Risan.
Like their predecessors, the famous Risan captains Vlada Ivelić from the end of the 19th century and captain Mihailo Ognjenovic from the mid-20th century, and Captain Branislav Kordić, when he retired from active navigation after a full 50 years spent at sea, dared to literary shape his memories and rich experiences from his naval career and sublimate them between the covers of a book that has almost 500 pages. His work “From Cadet to Ship Commander” was published before the New Year holidays, published by the Herceg Novi “So” Bookstore, as the 29th title in the award-winning “Bokeljologija” edition.
In this way, Kordić joined the growing constellation of still active or retired sailors from Boka Bay who are writing books about their own deeds or the deeds at sea of their numerous famous naval predecessors, who have left an indelible mark on the maritime history of this region, but often also of the world.
The book "From Cadet to Commander" is a unique testimony of life at sea from the pen of Captain Kordić, who, in his career that began in 1974 as a cadet on the bulk carrier "Kotor" of the famous Kotor-based "Jugooceanija", until his last embarkation in 2006 as a commander on the general cargo ship "EEC Atlantic", spent 33 of the 50 years of his active career sailing the world's seas and oceans. He visited countless ports on all continents of the world, and while sailing on a total of 31 ships, 13 of which he was the commander, he covered a total distance more than enough to circle the equator at least five times.
The richly illustrated book brings a handful of photographs from the everyday life of seafarers on merchant ships, operations in ports, passage through some of the navigationally challenging areas such as the Panama or Suez Canals, or the Saint Lawrence Seaway waterway along the river of the same name and the Great Lakes in North America, but also testimonies about calms, storms, the challenges of everyday life on board, fires, accidents, stowaways, life-threatening situations, months of separation and longing for family and friends, the beauties and uniqueness of distant countries, but also the fact that after all this, Captain Kordić himself concluded that his homeland, the Bay of Boka Kotorska, is "the most beautiful in the world".
In addition to being read as a kind of travelogue and maritime chronicle, this book is also a reminder of the numerous skills, sciences, and practical knowledge that a professional seafarer must master in order to safely lead the ship entrusted to him and his crew: from navigation, meteorology, hydrography, and oceanography, logistics, shipbuilding, to various aspects of maritime economics and law. Being a captain on a merchant ship puts people who are essentially "only" sailors - naval engineers, in fact into an immediate challenge where the captain must be not only a navigator, but also a connoisseur of the technique and technology of ship structures, drives and deck equipment, a logistician who must organize in the most optimal way the reception, loading and unloading of the diverse cargo that his ship carries, a structural engineer who drives the ship's structure or pushes deck cranes to the limit, a diplomat who skilfully "chases" with political or port authorities of foreign countries, a psychologist and an unquestionable leader to his crew, an expert in maritime law, insurance, accidents and maritime economy in general who, without endangering the safety of the ship and crew, will "squeeze" the last cent of earnings out of that same ship for its owner, to the connoisseur of numerous international conventions, rules and standards without which shipping cannot function as the backbone of the world economy. That is precisely why this book by Kordić, which explains in detail almost all these aspects of the life and work of a merchant ship's captain, is literature that should definitely be included in the curricula of maritime schools, but also something that all leaders of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs should read before taking up these duties, in order to finally understand how complex the maritime sector actually is, and how versatile individuals with multidimensional professional competencies are.
Half a century of naval service by Captain Branislav Kordić has come together in the pages of this book into a mosaic of expert insights, vivid memories, and warm human stories. He convincingly tells about his seafaring life on a total of 31 ships under the national and numerous foreign flags on which he sailed, his experiences working for Yugoslav and shipping companies from Monaco, Switzerland, Israel, Greece, and Italy, explains in detail the principles of navigation, ship stability, and safety procedures, while at the same time guiding the reader through the little-known everyday life of a captain: from cargo distribution and ship maintenance to tours of the galley and conversations and socializing with crews from all over the world.
With stories about navigation and storms, vessels and companies, stowaways and crews in distress, we discover that a true commander must be as skilled with the sea and ship as he is with people.
"I learned early on that you cannot go against Nature, but you have to live with it, and that is why I always respected the sea, protected the ship, the crew and the cargo. While sailing, I visited all the continents, from north to south, from east to west - the only thing I have never been to New Zealand. I have worked my entire life in a multinational environment, getting to know various cultures and customs, and thereby enriched myself and my family. I respected my own and others', myself and others, I have never asked for anyone to respect me more than I respect them. I have never given orders on board, I have always asked and in the end I have always said thank you. From the first voyage to this day, whoever I have been with, there is no one I do not talk to, although I have been very demanding of myself and others, but also very correct, always protecting the interests of the company, officers and crew... For fifty years I was the ambassador of my country and of all the countries whose flags I have seen on ships. A cosmopolitan from Boka," wrote, among other things, in the introduction to this book, Captain Brano Kordić.
After half a century of active career at sea, he settled on land where he first worked in the management company "Bnavi Montenegro" in Bijela, which operationally and technically managed 15 ships of the Italian company "Bogazzi", then in the small domestic company "Zega Shipping Montenegro", "Crnogorska plovidba" in Kotor and in the Port of Kotor where for years as a pilot he introduced some of the largest and most attractive cruise ships in the world into the Bay of Kotor.
The book "From Cadet to Commander" by Branislav Kordić is not only a personal memoir and a rich professional record of all aspects of seafaring and navigation on the world's seas and oceans, but also a kind of homage to the seafaring of the Boka Bay: to compatriots who left their mark on the world's navies and captains whose names shaped generations of sailors. That is why this work goes beyond mere autobiography - it is a valuable read for students of maritime academies, cadets and fellow captains, but also for all sailors and their families: those who sail, those who wait for loved ones to return from the sea, as well as those who only dream about the sea and sailing.
Bonus video:
