89th Anniversary of the Sinking of “Baron Gautsch”
###
The Town Authorities of Rovinj and the Rovinj Tourist Association in cooperation with the Diver Sport Center, organized yesterday, on August 13, eighty-nine years to the day when the Austro-Hungarian steam ship “Baron Gautsch&rdqu
###
The Town Authorities of Rovinj and the Rovinj Tourist Association in cooperation with the Diver Sport Center, organized yesterday, on August 13, eighty-nine years to the day when the Austro-Hungarian steam ship “Baron Gautsch” suffered a severe damage and sank, a memorial dive and laying of laurels on the shipwreck. The memorial event took place six nautical miles south-west of St. John’s Lighthouse out in the open sea where the steamship turned into the minefield and sank eighty-nine years ago. The celebration was preceded by a press conference attended by the representatives of the Tourist Association, the Town Authorities and the Diver Sport Center together with the employees of the Port Authority Office and Jadranko Antulovic, assistant to the Ministry of Culture.
Dario Cinic, director of the Tourist Association, gave the introductory speech. Further on, the word was given to Davor Mandic, the head of Pula History Museum, who brought out more information about the unfortunate fate of the ship and its passengers. He highlighted the fact that “Baron Gautsch” was one of the top-of-the-art ships of the Austrian Lloyd’s register. Together with its twin ship “Prince Hohenlohe” it was used to connect the northern and southern Adriatic Sea on the Trieste – Kotor line. The ship sank in 1914 as the first victim of war operations of the 1st World War in the Adriatic Sea. Although the statistics are not precise, it is estimated that 240 passengers and 34 members of the crew had died, and that 179 people had been saved.
Laurels of white lilies, blessed by the Rovinj parish priest Milan Zgrablic, were laid at the place were the ship sank. The director of the Diver Sport Center Drazen Valerijev and Dario Cinic had the honor to lay the laurels on the shipwreck. The memorial dive brought together numerous sport divers from Croatia and from across the world. Ana Karla and Mika Maric, the well-known Croatian free (breath-holding) divers also participated in the honorable event.
