Two mysterious escapes of Albanian ships from the territorial waters of that country, right after the Second World War, one towards Italy, the other towards Montenegro, ended tragically - in the first case with the death, in the second with the disappearance of the crew members.
Both cases are told by an associate professor of computer science in Tirana and an excellent connoisseur of maritime history, from Ulcinj. Ilir Chapuni, are closely connected with Ulcinj, because the victims on the ships were also people with roots from that city, probably only with the intention of reaching their homeland...
Early in the morning, on June 1, 1947, the patrol boat "Mujo Ulqinaku", then the fastest vessel of the Navy of the People's Republic of Albania, made strange maneuvers approaching the port of Durrës. When the ship reached the pier, those present saw that it was being steered by a sailor Spiro Kote. His colleagues also set sail with Kote the night before Vlash Bushi, Xhemal Kerrniqi i Enver Kruci, but they could not be seen from the pier that morning - the deck was eerily deserted. All three were allegedly liquidated by Kote and prevented from fleeing to Italy.
"The night before Kote sailed into port, officers and sailors, three of them, were killed while trying to reach Italy. Kote, who later became a real hero of communist Albania, prevented them from that intention," Capuni says, referring to information from the author's Anthology of Albanian Maritime Affairs. Shefqet Kercelli from 2013 and the Yearbook of Maritime and River Traffic of the FNR of Yugoslavia from 1953.
He adds that it is not known exactly what happened and how the crew members were killed during the failed escape, because only the version based on the not very convincing story of one sailor is known.
"This whole story has two direct connections with Ulcinj. The first is the name of the patrolman 'Mujo Ulqinaku', who was named after a hero from Ulcinj - Mujo Cakuli Ulqinak. The second one is tragic - Xhemal and Enver were from Ulcinj families", says Capuni.
Since that event, the story continues, all sailors have been under strict surveillance by the Sigurimi (Albanian secret service). And not only them, but also their families. But even the strict surveillance measures did not sway some sailors to try to break away from the steel grips of the regime of the then ruler of the neighboring country. Enver Hoxha...
Just six years later, another escape and another tragedy occurred, this time in Montenegrin waters, near Cape Đerana on Velika plaža, in which at least two crew members from Ulcinj lost their lives in an attempt to reach their homeland.
In the evening hours of February 16, 1953, under still unlit circumstances, with a strong southerly wind, the tugboat "Zaho Koka" went, on a call for help, seven miles west of Cape Rodon.
"However, the ship reached Ulcinj at high speed, and ran aground about a hundred meters from Cape Đerana. The bodies of the sailors were never found, and their names are not known in Albania. It is only known that one of the sailors was saved and that he emigrated to Italy and then to America", says Capuni.
A day later, the Yugoslav authorities concluded that it was an accident because the ship's mast was sticking out above the surface of the water. In May of the same year, "Brodospas" with its crane "Veli Jože" lifted the wreck and pulled it to dry land. The powerful engine, says Čapuni, was taken out and possibly installed on another ship.
The original name of the tugboat was "Tigris", because it was fast and the pride of the Drak shipyard and port authorities. It had a steel structure and wooden formwork 30 meters long.
"One of the first ones built in the then shipyard in Durrës, but with a very modern 'Skoda Praha ČKD' engine. Because of its good engine and speed, it was mostly used for quick tasks - unlike this tugboat, the two others that Albania had at that time had a steam engine and it took a long time for them to be put on standby. "Whenever a ship had problems in Albanian waters, the then Tigar and later 'Zaho Koka', were immediately on the spot," Čapuni says.
He adds that the information about that tragedy is still shrouded in secrecy.
"The data in this tragedy is covered by a vow of silence. After the 'heroic' feat of Spiro Kote, it would have been an extraordinary embarrassment for the Albanian public, so the accident was skillfully hidden. The names of the crew members were never published, and their families were not interned, as was the case for even minor offenses in Albania at the time. What we know is that they were also from Ulcinj families and that there were at least two of them," says Čapuni.
It is not known exactly which ship sent the SOS signal.
“Or maybe it was a skillful simulation for the sake of escape. A swift water tiger, he disappeared from the registers and was never mentioned again. The data was then taken over by the Sigurimi. Even in maritime anthologies its fate is nowhere mentioned. We found it in the memory of the old Ulcinj captains and in the Yearbook of Maritime and River Traffic for 1953, which was published in 1954," says Čapuni.
In the Yearbook, under item 12, it is written that on February 16, 1953, 20 minutes after midnight, at a position 0,5 Nm SE of Cape Đerana, due to a strong storm and engine failure, it was sunk near the coast . The estimated damage to the ship was three thousand dinars.
Conversation with relatives eyes and Morse code
Čapuni tells that sailors from Ulcinj, working on SFRY ships, often had the opportunity to dock in Durres or Valona, but also had regular problems because the local authorities did not allow them to get off the ship.
"Now the late (deceased) captain Abdullah Nimanbegu, in 2018, told me how the Albanian guard did not let them get off the ship while they were disembarking. Like most people from Ulcinj, he also had relatives there, but he could communicate with them only with his eyes," says Čapuni.
He also remembers that another well-known captain from Ulcinj, Zejnel Ismailaga, also told him how he communicated with a man from Ulcinj from the Kalezić family by using his eyes and signaling Morse code with an aldis lamp. The man from Ulcinj tried to explain with his eyes that he was marrying off his daughter.
"During this strange conversation, the guards warned the Ulcinian from Durrës to move away from the ship, so he continued the 'conversation' with hammer blows, and Ismailag with rhythmic blows on the plating. One colleague on the ship who heard the shots did not understand whether he was marrying a son or a daughter because the word 'martesa' in Albanian means both. Ismaliaga explained to him that he was marrying off his daughter. The captain brought sweaters and other things from Split to that woman from Ulcinj for her dowry," Čapuni remembers conversations with famous captains from Ulcinj who talked about strange conversations with people from Ulcinj who lived in Durres and Valona.
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