Carried by a northwesterly wind, at the end of October 1875, a beautiful three-masted sailing ship flying the Austrian flag was approaching the western coast of Australia. At the stern of “Stefan”, as this barque from its home port of Rijeka was called, there were already thousands of happily traveled miles across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, on the almost four-month journey of this ship, which had set sail from the port of Cardiff in Great Britain in July.
Loaded with 1.300 tons of Welsh coal, the “Stefano” set off very far, almost to the other side of the world, to the port of Hong Kong. The ship, 51,9 meters long, 10 meters wide and with a draft of 6,3 meters, had a gross register tonnage of 857 and was almost brand new. It had been built less than two years earlier, at the end of 1873, in the shipyard of the famous Rijeka shipbuilders from the Brazzoduro family in Sušak, commissioned by the famous Dubrovnik shipowner Nikola Bačić, who lived in Rijeka at the time.
During his ship-owning career in the second half of the 19th century, Bačić owned a total of 11 large sailing ships, most of which he built to special order. Among them was the barque “Stefano”, which the Dubrovnik shipowner named after his prematurely deceased son, Captain Stefan Bačić.
Nikola Bačić spared no expense in selecting the highest quality timber (oak, pine, ash, larch, elm, spruce and beech) and other equipment that needed to be installed on the new ship, so the "Sefano" turned out to be one of the best and most modern barques at that time in this part of Europe.
Sailing from Cardiff
When the ship was docked in London in June 1875 and its underwater part was covered with copper plates, it was inspected by experts from the renowned British “Lloyd Register” and classified it as a first-class barque. On July 1875, 17, “Stefano” under the command of Nikola Bačić’s nephew, the young Dubrovnik captain, twenty-six-year-old Vlaho Miloslavić, set sail from Cardiff on a long voyage to Hong Kong. The sailing ship, including the captain, had 11 crew members on board, almost all from the area of present-day Croatia, but also two Boka Kotorska natives - cook Mato Zanetović from Kotor and sailor Božidar Vulović from Dobrota. The only foreigner, and also the youngest on board, was the deckhand, XNUMX-year-old Henri Grois, who had joined the crew of the Dubrovnik sailing ship in his native Cardiff.
Also on board was a sixteen-year-old cadet Miho Bačić from Dubrovnik, nephew of shipowner Nikola Bačić. This was Miho's first time on board, and therefore, as he was required to do so before taking the later official exam for the rank of officer, he kept a detailed diary. It was these records of his that were preserved in the extraordinary events of the following months, which later, along with the testimonies of survivors, were the main source for learning everything that happened to the "Stefan" and its crew.
Sailing across the Atlantic, "Stefano" had favorable winds and good weather conditions, so with all sails unfurled, at a speed of over 10 knots, it cut across the sea surface.
"The ship was sailing under full sail, fast and strong like a thoroughbred horse galloping with spurs. The sharp bow of the "Stefan" cut through the waves, and dolphins rode on the bow wave, constantly following us to the joy of our sailors," cadet Miho Bačić described those moments in the pages of his diary.
A terrible storm at the Cape of Good Hope
Fine weather and favorable winds accompanied the “Stefano” all the way to the southernmost point of the African continent, the Cape of Good Hope, where the ship in the South Atlantic, about 300 miles from the African coast, fell into a terrible storm on September 1. For nine days, the “Stefano” fought the raging ocean, hurricane-force winds and huge waves that crashed into it, while the sea “cleansed” everything in front of it on the deck of the sailing ship when the bow of the “Stefano” almost to the foremast crashed into an oncoming large wave.
The crew could only move and perform the most urgent and necessary tasks with extreme effort and caution, tying themselves to a specially stretched strong rope that stretched from the bow to the stern of the ship, with shackles. “Stefano” sailed with a minimum number of sails, which were shortened to the maximum, just enough for the ship to have at least a low sailing speed and thus retain the ability to maneuver and position itself most conveniently to meet the next huge wave that the raging sea was throwing at it. In all these extraordinarily difficult circumstances, the excellent maritime characteristics and solid construction of the new sailing ship were shown in their true light.
The storm finally subsided on the ninth day, and the tired crew of the “Stefan” was once again greeted by fine weather and a favorable wind in the Indian Ocean. They again set all sails and, at an average speed of 9 to 10 knots, continued eastward. However, due to the foggy weather and low cloud cover that they encountered just when they were supposed to arrive near the small island of Saint Paul, which is located literally halfway across the Indian Ocean, about 2.500 miles east of the Cape of Good Hope, and which was a key point for sailors sailing those waters in the 19th century to check the validity of their navigation and, in particular, the accuracy of ship chronometers crucial for determining the longitude of the vessel using astronomical navigation methods, the officers of the “Stefan” were unable to check the true state of the navigation they were conducting from the Cape of Good Hope.
Assuming that they were about 20 days' sailing away from the west coast of Australia, Captain Miloslavić therefore decided to continue east. The plan was that when he saw the Australian coast, the "Stefano" would turn northwest towards the Indonesian islands and then enter the Pacific Ocean through the Ombai Strait and continue on towards the Philippines, or Hong Kong in the South China Sea.
At noon, October 26, 1875, an observer from the masted ship “Stefana” saw the low and deserted coast of Western Australia in the distance. Not wanting to get too close to it, Captain Miloslavić ordered a course to the northwest, fearing the numerous coral reefs and sandbars that lurked at a shallow depth beneath the waves of these then insufficiently explored and poorly mapped Australian waters.
"Stefano" drifted closer and closer to land
At midnight, October 27, the guard was taken over by a shift consisting of Second Officer Martin Osojnak, Coxswain Srećko Bučić and Sailors Nikola Brajević, Toma Dediol, Josip Perančić, Dominik Antinčić and Božidar Viulović. The other crew members were sleeping in their cabins. At around two in the morning, Osojnak, who was the duty officer of the navigational watch, left the bridge and went down to the ship's saloon to make himself a cup of coffee. He stayed below deck for a short time, during which the ship was largely without navigational supervision by a competent person. It is assumed that at that moment, Coxswain Bučić mistakenly turned the rudder more to the east than it should have been, and the sea current that moves from the open sea to the shore along this part of the Australian coast, imperceptibly for the crew, carried the "Stefan" ever closer to land. They were about six miles south of Point Cloates, near the desolate coast of Australia's Ningaloo region, one of the most remote, wild, and inhospitable parts of that continent. As soon as Lieutenant Osojnak returned to the bridge around 2.30:XNUMX a.m., the "Stefano" landed on the coral reef that was lurking in the shallow sea with a strong crash, in which the ship unplanned. The sailing ship tilted to starboard, and with a great screeching and scraping, came to an abrupt stop.
The feeling that the ship was in extreme danger filled the crew with terror, but also with adrenaline to rush to carry out all the captain's orders. Miloslavić, in fact, thought that they might be able to get away from the reef, so they unfurled all the sails and tightened them to the wind, hoping that this would free the "Stefano" from its predicament. However, the coral reef held its prey tightly and all the crew's efforts and efforts were completely in vain. The damaged ship's hull began to take on the sea, and all attempts to pump out the water to reduce the ingress of water soon failed because the pumps no longer worked. However, the wind was constantly getting stronger, and the storm waves were hitting the ship with all their might. "Stefano" was shaking all over, hitting its sides against the sharp rocks. The ship began to fall apart, it leaned to the starboard side, the deck and plating cracked, and the masts began to collapse.
There was no more hope, so Miloslavić ordered the ship to be abandoned. With superhuman efforts, they began to lower the first lifeboat into the sea, filled with supplies of water, food, and clothing. In accordance with maritime regulations, they first loaded an English boy, Henry Grois. As soon as they began to lower the first boat, a huge wave crashed over the main deck of the “Stefan”. In an instant, a giant wall of water lifted the boat and threw it with immense force back onto the side of the ship, shattering both the boat and the unfortunate English boy on board into thousands of pieces. They tried to lower the remaining, smaller lifeboat from the stern, but it was overturned by the raging sea, and several crew members were “washed” by the waves and carried off the deck of the dying sailing ship.
Ten hours of fighting the sea
The storm separated them, some drowned right there, near the stranded ship, while others were swept away by the waves in different directions. Cadet Baćič was lucky to be washed up near the overturned lifeboat, which he had grabbed onto. When sailor Tomo Dediol soon appeared nearby, the two of them managed to turn the overturned boat around and get into it. On that terrible night, six of the 17 people on the “Stefan” drowned. After ten hours of struggling with the sea, the castaways were carried by the current and waves and gradually thrown onto the deserted, sandy shore of Ningaloo.
Their luck in reaching land was so great that at first they did not even think about what awaited them on that barren shore, without food or water. None of them knew their exact position, only the surviving first officer Carlo Costa guessed that they were somewhere in the northwest of Australia. Their actual position was about 22°48' south of the equator and 113°37' east of Greenwich, near Point Cloates.
The waves were also throwing various debris and material from the “Stefan” onto the nearby sandy beaches, so the castaways, as soon as they had recovered from the cold by burying themselves in the warm beach sand to warm themselves, began to collect anything that might be of use to them. Eight survivors initially gathered on the shore. They soon found another one who was unconscious.
They found a considerable amount of food in buckets and cans - flour, oil, fat, wine, beans and other things. Having dragged this precious catch to dry land, the surviving shipwrecked men quickly opened a bottle of wine and refreshed themselves with a good drink, and shared the things they had found among themselves. At the moment when they were about to head towards the place they had chosen to spend the night, they saw another of their comrades among the wreckage of the "Stefano", which the waves were still washing ashore. He lay motionless, but he was alive. They recognized him as Božo Vulović. He was the last man to emerge alive from the shipwreck of the "Stefano". Since Vulović could not get up and walk, his comrades left him to rest, while they set about collecting sea crabs that were crawling on the sand. It was their first meal in more than 40 hours.
Wandering further along the coast, they found two more barrels of wine, and soon after, the greatest treasure they could imagine and wish for - a large barrel full of water. This was the beginning of their months-long drama and struggle for survival in one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet... From the wooden remains of the ship that the sea had washed ashore, they made an improvised shelter because in the sandy plain with only the occasional tuft of grass that formed the hinterland of the coast where they had surfaced, the castaways had found no other natural shelter.
They were thinking about how to reach the nearest civilization and, assuming that they were north of the mouth of the Gascoigne River where there might be some permanent inhabitants, they prepared to slowly walk along the coast towards the south. Before they set off, on the fourth day after the shipwreck, a group of about fifty Aboriginal natives came to their improvised camp. Fearing that the natives might attack them, the castaways were at first distrustful of the Aboriginals with whom they had difficulty communicating. However, in the speech of the natives they could recognize here and there an English word, which the latter had evidently learned from the white pearl traders who occasionally visited these shores.
Friendly Aborigines
The Aborigines were friendly to the unknown white men who spoke to each other in a language that the natives had never heard before. They realized that these strangers were in a difficult situation, so they helped them by giving them food and water. The Aborigines also brought them the remains of a geographical map of that part of the Australian coast, which itself seemed to have been washed up on those beaches from one of the ships that had previously been wrecked here. According to this map, the castaways from the “Stefan” were about 120 miles from the mouth of the Gascoigne River, and this strengthened their intention to try to reach there on foot.
On the way, the survivors from the "Stefan" were in an increasingly difficult situation and after seven days of walking, wounded by thorns in the thicket that were breaking through and burned by the tropical sun, they were left without water. They were again saved by the unexpected encounter with Aborigines who first gave water and fed the exhausted and thirsty sailors, and then took them to the nearby Burbarli and Varura native wells. There, they unexpectedly came across another of their friends who they were sure had drowned with the "Stefan" - sailor Josip Perančić.
It turned out that the sea had carried him quite a distance and washed him ashore, where, after three days of wandering, Perančić encountered natives who accepted him into their tribe, fed him, and brought him back to life.
The invigorated castaways decided to continue south, but even after another eight days of strenuous hiking, increasingly short of food and water, they realized that where they had hoped to find traces of civilization, there was nothing that could help them. They were greeted by even worse terrain, with even less available food and almost no water. They therefore decided to return to the vicinity of the Burbarli and Varura aboriginal wells, where they soon found a spacious cave near the beach in which they settled. Hoping that a ship would pass by the sea near them and they would manage to divert its attention, the survivors from the "Stefan" entered a daily routine that included going to the well to get water, collecting food and constantly observing the open sea in search of the silhouette of a passing ship that could save them.
They got fire as the natives had taught them - by striking a spark from a stone and setting fire to dry grass. They ate whatever they could find or catch, from birds and lizards, shells and crabs from the beach, to eggs laid by turtles in the sand, and some red-black berries from the stunted vegetation in the hinterland of the coast, which the natives had shown them were edible. The kind-hearted Aborigines even taught them to make abrum (bait) from crushed crabs collected on the coastal rocks that would attract larger fish to the shallows, and to then catch these fish with a spear that the natives had given them. Soon, however, they noticed that their unexpectedly rescued comrade Perančić was increasingly losing his mind in these difficult circumstances and deprivation. In the end, he separated from them and fled into the forest during a major storm, on Christmas Day, December 24, 1875.
Most of the others, with the exception of Vulović, who had previously seriously injured his leg while fishing on the sharp coastal rocks and was having difficulty moving, went to look for him. The helpless Vulović was left in the cave with the task of keeping the fire going. During the terrible storm that followed, the other sailors also got separated and with great difficulty finally returned to their cave. However, they did not find the wounded sailor from Dobrota there. Vulović disappeared, just like Perančić, who had gone mad a little earlier. After the storm calmed down, they went out to search again and found Perančić's lifeless body not far from the cave. His skull was broken because he had probably fallen and hit his head on the rocks while fleeing the storm. However, there was no trace of Vulović.
Death in a merciless storm
In such sad circumstances, the shipwrecked people welcomed the New Year, 1876. In search of food, they had to go further and further from their shelter, and on January 4, in a dense undergrowth, they came across the already half-decomposed body of Božidar Vulović. The unfortunate sailor from Dobrota, apparently left alone in the cave that fateful night, although wounded, set out after his comrades, but instead of them, exhausted and weakened, he met his death in a merciless storm. They buried Vulović in the place where they found his body.
They returned to the cave and continued their daily routine of increasingly difficult survival - there was less and less food in the area, exhaustion and illness were catching up with them, they could hardly even go out to get water. They died one after the other, first the first officer Karlo Kosta died, which was especially hard for them because they saw him as the most capable and the most authoritative among them, and then gradually six more sailors, including the ship's cook, Mato Zanetović from Kotor.
Only two castaways from the "Stefan" survived, thanks to their youth and strength - cadet Miho Bačić from Dubrovnik and 20-year-old sailor Ivan Jurić. However, due to hunger, exhaustion and thirst, their lives were almost over when another group of Aborigines came upon their cave.
Seeing the two white men dying, the kind-hearted natives did everything they could to help Bačić and Jurić, they fed them, gave them water, and bandaged their wounds, and took them with them to their village where they kept them as their own family members for the next three months, ensuring that the last two survivors of the "Stefan" fully recovered.
The Aborigines then took Bačić and Jurčić to the Northwest Cape, or rather the Bundegi Beach cove, where they knew that white people - pearl traders - occasionally stopped by.
"I will never forget the attention, love and care of the natives," Bačić wrote in his diary.
"Who knows, if we had joined the natives earlier, perhaps many of our comrades would still be alive now. Remember, Jurić, as I remember! We will tell the cultured white people about the humanity and love of the "uncultured" natives!"
On April 18, 1876, a small cutter, the “Jessie,” sailed into Bundegi Beach Bay, commanded by its owner, captain and pearl collector Charles Tuckey from the small Australian town of Mandurah. His crew, from the warm-hearted natives on the coast who were very happy to finally be able to hand over their two unexpected guests to the white people close to them, took Bačić and Jurić and took them to the nearest major port, Fremantle, where the two sole survivors from the “Stefan” disembarked on May 5, 1876.
In Fremantle, Bačić and Jurić were warmly welcomed by the local community of people of our origin, immigrants from the then Austro-Hungarian Empire who had settled in that distant Australian city. From there, the families of the two surviving shipwrecked people were finally informed by telegram that they had been rescued and would return to their homes, where everyone had already mourned them in the meantime. Australian newspapers wrote about the incredible odyssey of the two sailors from the “Stefan” and the sad fate of their shipmates, especially emphasizing the extraordinary kindness and humanity that the Aborigines showed towards the shipwrecked people on several occasions.
This led to a significant change in the attitude of most white settlers to Australia towards the authentic Aboriginal inhabitants, as settlers and colonizers were often very rude and mistreated the natives. The experiences of the castaways of the “Stefan” and their testimonies about the kindness and humane behavior of the Aborigines, who shared even the last grain of food with them, led to the colonial governor of Australia asking Bačić and Jurić to personally lead an expedition that would go by boat to Bundegi Beach and deliver to the Aborigines there gifts of food, clothing and other things that the residents and city authorities of Fremantle had sent them as a sign of gratitude for the rescue of the two sailors. The Australian government also awarded the captain of the cutter “Jessie”, Charles Tuckey, with a gold watch for the rescue of Bačić and Jurić.
Artifacts from "Stefan" in the museum
The sad odyssey of the barque “Stefano” and its crew is today reminded of by the book “I naufraghi del bark austro-ungarico “Stefano” alla costa Nord-Ovest dell'Australia”, which was written in Italian in 1876 by his friend, the Dubrovnik priest Stijepo Skurla, based on Bačić's diary and direct testimony. The 276 pages of this book also contain an Aboriginal-Italian dictionary, as Bačić and Jurić, having lived with the Australian natives for several months, managed to learn their language to a good extent.
In 1990, Miho Bačić's grandson, retired US Navy officer Gustav Rate, wrote the book “The Wreck of the Barque Stefano off the North West Cape of Australia in 1875” about his grandfather's incredible survival story. This book, told in the first person according to Miho Bačić's direct testimony, is considered the most accurate description of the six-month odyssey of the sailors from the “Stefan” on the Australian coast. It has been translated into seven languages and experts compare it to similar classic works of world literature such as Defoe's “Robinson Crusoe” and Stevenson's “Treasure Island”.
The leaders of the Aboriginal Yinikurtira - West Thalanyji tribe, whose members helped and rescued shipwrecked people in 1875, today recommend this book to all Australians as the best way for them to get acquainted with the traditional culture and true nature of the Aborigines as the authentic indigenous population of that continent. Interestingly, the cover of the first edition of Rate's book is illustrated with a painting depicting the shipwreck on a coral reef of a Boka brig ship - the "Pierino" in 1881 off the coast of Cuba. The author of this painting is our most famous marine painter, Vasilije (Basi) Ivanković, a native of Boka Kotorska.
Ivanković is also the author of a special votive painting that Miho Bačić, as a sign of gratitude for his salvation, donated to the sanctuary of Dubrovnik sailors, the Church of Our Lady of Mercy in Dubrovnik. The canvas titled “The Miraculous Rescue of Two Survivors from the Barque Stefano” was painted by Ivanković in 1878 and depicts the arrival of the cutter “Jessie” in the bay where its Aboriginal crew lined up the two sole survivors from the ill-fated Rijeka barque “Stefano”.
The remains of the wreck of the barque "Stefano" were discovered underwater near Point Cloates in 1997. Several artifacts were recovered from this legally protected hydroarchaeological site, some of which, such as a ship's bell, a navigation light on the starboard side of the ship, and others, are now kept at the Western Australian Museum in Fremantle.
Božo Vulević's story
In addition to performing regular duties, sailors spent their time at sea playing cards, talking, and occasionally fishing, occasionally catching tuna. Thus, on one occasion, while they were talking on deck with lit pipes in the shade of the sails, Božo Vulović from Dobrošća informed his comrades that one of his close relatives had perished at sea.
"He drowned somewhere off the coast of England. I was eight years old at the time. Of the entire crew of that ship, only two died: my cousin and a man from Lošinj," said a sailor from Dobrota.
When his comrades asked him to tell them the details, Vulović continued: “Poverty and misery were to blame for everything. A storm threw the ship onto a rock near the coast. The sailors cut the mast and pressed it to the land with one end. Thus, crawling over the fallen mast, they were saved, taking with them only what they were wearing. You probably know that when a ship goes down, shipowners do not worry about what will happen to the sailors. They only take care of how to send them home, but not to compensate them for the personal property lost on board, because such were the circumstances in the maritime shipping of that time. What do they care about how these people will go to sea again. Is it easy for a poor man to get new clothes and other sailor's equipment? My cousin had no peace. He was tormented by the thought that with the ship he had just left, all his miserable possessions would perish: his 'incerate' [raincoat], boots and a coat 'from Marseilles'. How could he get them again? So he and his friend decided to "...by the same mast through which they had escaped, to return to the stranded ship and to save what could be saved from the sailor's space under the bow. Their group from the shore watched with trepidation as these two waited for a suitable moment and went down to the ship. The others did not try to stop them. Their feat could have succeeded if the waves, immediately after these two returned to the badly damaged sailing ship, had not attacked again with all their might and pulled the ship into their depths," Vulović said, not suspecting that he himself would soon experience a very similar fate.
Bonus video:
