In the northernmost part of the "R" section of the Cathay cemetery, one of the main cemeteries in Cardiff, the capital of the province of Wales in Great Britain, on a large stone cross there is a carved recognizable coat of arms of a Bokel noble family.
On the upper field of the shield, which is the base of the coat of arms, is a dove with an olive branch in its beak, and below it a bow with an arrow. It is a family characteristic of the Luković family and it is very strange that it is located so far from the homeland of this family - Prčanja in Boka Kotorska. However, near the cross with the Luković family coat of arms in Cardiff, there is also a tomb on which a stone slab in Latin reads that since 1860, Count (Count) Petar Antonov Luković of Kotor has been resting there, not forgotten in his lifetime, nor will he be forgotten by us. in death”.
Apparently, the grave in question is one of the descendants of Count Anton Tripunov Luković (1832-1911), a well-known Bokej shipowner and one of the largest and richest Bokej tycoons from the second half of the 19th century, who also left an indelible mark on the economic history of Cardiff.
Petar (Pietro) was one of his sons who, unfortunately, died in early childhood, a few years after his father moved to Wales from Boka Kotorska and started a family here. Although he was a very successful and wealthy businessman, and a significant ship owner who achieved an international career, very little was written about Count Anton Luković in domestic sources.
To today's public in Boka, he is known more than for his economic and maritime endeavors because of the fact that from 1897 until his death on May 18, 1911, he was the admiral of the Bokel navy and that for 14 years he was the head of this ancient organization of Bokel sailors. taking over its leadership from his brother, Count Marko Luković, who was admiral of the Bokel Navy from 1878 to 1897.
Anton Luković was born in 1832 in Kotor in the family of a famous lawyer, Count Tripun Ivan Pavle Luković and his wife Ana Pauleta di Cattaro. Apart from Anton, the couple had three more sons: Marko, Vičenac and Piero-Anton Luković.
The Luković family, by the way, has held the noble title since March 27, 1773, when by decree of the Venetian Senate and Doge Alviz IV Močenigo, sea captain Marko Luković from Prčanje received the title of count for himself and his descendants for his merits acquired in war and peace. In his historical monograph "Prčanj" from 1937, the well-known Bokel historian and cultural worker, priest Don Niko Luković, wrote that Anton Luković graduated from the Gymnasium in Kotor and passed his matriculation exam as a cleric. However, he was not attracted to the priestly vocation, so it was decided that young Anton would continue his education at the famous University of Padua and study law, like his father.
However, Mladić's restless spirit made him go to sea instead of studying in Italy, so in 1848, Anton boarded the 247-ton brik "Slavomir" from Prčany and set off into uncertainty and adventure.
After several months of sailing on the "Slavomir", a sailing ship belonging to Filip Luković and Pavlo Verona, young Anton Luković disembarked from the ship in the British port of Cardiff in Wales, with only five British pounds in his pocket. He started doing various jobs here, showing exceptional entrepreneurial talent and willingness to take risks.
Soon he acquired the first significant capital, which he continued to invest in businesses related to the maritime agency and trade in metals and the main Welsh export product - the famous Cardiff coal.
In the next few years, Luković also became the owner of several Welsh mines. His business partner in this venture was his brother Marko, who organized the second part of the business chain - in Boka and Dalmatia, and the main Austrian ports of Trieste and Venice, as well as in some other ports in Europe.
Anton develops a business by buying and building more ships - sailing ships that sailed under the Austrian flag. Apart from his goods which he exported from Wales, these ships also transported other cargoes and passengers all over the world. According to the data from the Maritime Yearbooks (Anuario Marittimo) of the central Austrian (later Austro-Hungarian) Maritime Government in Trieste, Count Anton Luković independently or jointly owned as many as 12 sailing ships: the barques "Conte Arturo L.", "Conte Oscar L.", " Conte Iginio L.", "Cavalier Craft" "Isabella" and "Iskra", brig schooner "Lucovich AT", brigs "Nettuno", "Favorito", "Peppina B" and "Ljubica", and brigantine "Andrić". Some of the ships were named after his family members: his sons Oskar, Ijini and Artur, and his wife Izabela.
In fact, Count Anton married Isabella Maud Doukin in Cardiff, a descendant of the Doukin noble family there, which once had large estates in that part of Wales.
However, by the time the young entrepreneur from Bokele got married, Izabela's family had already lost most of their property. This did not disturb the happiness of the young married couple, so Antonio and Izabela had four children during their life together, among whom, by all accounts, was the little Peter from the beginning of this story, who unfortunately died at an early age.
Count Anton's business simply flourished in the second half of the 19th century - he sold coal and metal from Britain all over Europe, his ships carried his own, as well as the cargoes of other shippers, and some of them, such as the barge "Conte Oscar L." in those years, they also brought the first settlers from the area of the then Austrian province of Dalmatia to distant Australia.
It was recorded that the barque "Isabella" alone brought its owner, Count Anton Luković, 30.000 gold francs in net profit each year in the two voyages it made annually across the Atlantic between Europe and the Antilles. For the sake of comparison, in those years, the cost of building a completely new barque-type sailing ship, with a carrying capacity of 600 tons, amounted to 50.000 francs.....
On his ships, Count Anton primarily employed sea captains from Bokelje and crew from our region, and he often helped his home region with charities. His greatest charity happened on February 13, 1889, when Count Anton Luković signed a gift agreement in front of lawyers in Cardiff donated his large estate in Tivat on the coast between Cape Seljanovo and Pina to the Austro-Hungarian Navy, so that it would build a naval arsenal there, and Tivat would be transformed from a small fishing and fishing town into an industrial center where "the local people will get a crust of bread", as it is written in the decision of the then Tivat Municipal Council.
Count Anton Luković was so important for the economy of Cardiff and Wales that he was elected vice-president of the British Chamber of Commerce based in London.
He retired from the ship-owning business in 1899 when he sold his last ship, the barque "Isabella" - the last large long-sailing sailing ship from Prčany. In 1909, an already aged entrepreneur from Bokele left all his business to one of his sons.
However, Luković's business empire in Britain did not last long because his apparently rather naive descendant was cheated by one of his business partners who ran away with most of the company's money, so the company of the skilled Prčaninian, Count Anton Luković, eventually went bankrupt. However, he did not live to see that infamous end, because he died on May 18, 1911 in Cardiff, where he was buried. Descendants of Count Anton still live in Great Britain and the USA today.
Ships owned/co-owned by Count Luković
Brick "Ljubica" of 315 tons, built in 1852 in Rijeka, sold in 1871 at a public auction in England.
Brik "Andrić" of 238 tons, built in 1858 in Rijeka, in 1874 its navigation category was reduced to coastal. Brick schooner "Lucovich AT" of 240 tons, built in 1865 in Chioggia, Italy, sunk on 14 November 1875 off Jaffa in present-day Israel.
Brik "Nettuno" of 367 tons, built in 1867 in Rijeka, sank in September 1876 at the mouth of the Gironde River in France.
Brik "Favorito" of 244 tons, built in 1858 in Rijeka, sold in November 1881 in Alexandria.
Brik "Peppina B" of 345 tons, built in 1856 in Bakar, sold on July 14, 1881.
Barque "Iskra" of 478 tons, built in 1856 in Sunderland, Great Britain, sold in 1887 to the Kamenarović and Radoničić families from Dobrota.
Barque "Cavalier Craft", 346 tons, built 1869 at Mowbrai Quay, Great Britain, abandoned 9 April 1888 at Montevideo, Uruguay, after suffering a heavy wreck.
Bark "Conte Oskar L." of 953 tons, built in Spoturn in Italy in 1871, sold in 1893 to Alfred Martinolić from Mali Lošinj.
Barque "Conte Iginio L" of 483 tons, built in 1864 in Hilton, Great Britain, sank on January 12, 1894. Bark "Conte Arturo L." of 518 tons, built in 1872 in Koper, sold in 1889 to the Dabinović and Radoničić families from Dobrot.
Barque "Isabella" of 352 tons, built in 1871 in Klimping, Great Britain, sold on February 19, 1899 in Trieste to a Turkish citizen.
Bonus video:
