STORY OF THE
SHIP 'KNIN'

The story of the ship 'Knin' is a story of a ship, that (the same as in the poem saying 'boats are the same as people....') lived to the decent age of 79 years old, resembling an old man full of life-scars and exciting reminiscences. It is the story of a ship that symbolically and mythologically connected regimes and social systems upon this geographical space, regimes and systems in which it served to its very last breath.
This marine saga started in the 80's of the 19th century in Mali Losinj on the island of Losinj, which was at that time the centre of ship-building in the east Adriatic, in the era in which steam boats overthrew the sailing boats' domination all over the world. In the year 1885, at the height of the maritime crisis, ship builder Nikola Martinolic begun constructing a steam boat in Mali Losinj. His first steam boat 'Flink' had a carrying capacity of bearly 100 tons.
In the year 1888, after the death of his father Nikola, his son Marko took over the shipyard direction. He proved to be an extraordinarily capable and enterprising shipbuilder. Under his direction Martinolic's shipyard found a lucrative job in constructing small coastal ships commissioned by the Hungarian-Croatian Steamship Society, an ardent concurrent of the Austrian Lloyd.
From 1890 to 1915, this relatively small and cramped shipyard in Mali Losinj, which was equipped with only the most necessary and not especially suitable machines, produced 79 steamships and other steam navigable vessels. 1907 was the most fruitful year of the shipyard during which the it produced 5 steamships with a total carrying capacity of 990 tons. Before the beginning of WWI, the last 6 ships constructed in this shipyard entered the maritime traffic. Those were 'Almadi', 'Fured', 'Kupa', 'Valona', 'Drava' and 'Knin'.

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With conditions imposed by the war, navigation came to be essentially reduced. Half of the ships stayed in the civil service, maintaining the remaining routes, while others were requested for various purposes (accompaniment, piloting, medicinal transport etc.). Other ships that were not requisited or rented were dismantled and after Italy entered the war on 23rd May, 1915, they were located in Novigrad Bay for a short period. Amongst them, together with 17 other ships, was also a ship named 'Knin'.
During the year 1914, the first year of the war, 'Knin' stayed out of the war actions that were unfolding in the southern Adriatic. It sailed its' regular travelling routes of the Hungarian - Croatian Steamship Society. After the Kingdom of Italy entered the war, the situation completely changed. The new opponent of the Austrian - Hungarian empire was the strong Italian navy and it could be resisted only if the entire naval potential became engaged. This included all the cargo and passenger ships, and of course, the war ships.
In the beginning of 1916, the Austrian war navy and terrestrial forces lead by Baron Stjepan Sarkotic Lovcengradski took over Monte Negro. In this period, the steamship 'Knin' sailed on the route between Boka and Bar as one of the military ships that was engaged for the needs of the war. Military historians register many combat actions of both navies that resulted in damage or loss of many cargo and passenger ships. In a surrounding that was filled with enemy aeroplanes, submarines, mines and ships, 'Knin' succeeded to get out with no damages or losses whatsoever.
From 11th April, 1917 'Knin' was located inside the water territories of Pula, while from May 22nd of the same year it was stationed around Sibenik. In February 1918 the Austro-Hungarian navy founded a special 'S' flotilla consisting of armed ships (equipped with hydrophones and depth bombs) for a submarine location. 'Knin' was amongst 6 ships that were required and equipped for this purpose.
According to the data collected by Vladimir Aichelburg in his book 'Die Handelsschiffe Osterreich - Ungarns im Weltkrieg 1914-1918', in the period from May to July 1918, 'Knin' was subsequently situated in Kvarner, in Fazana in Istria and in Porat. During this period it encountered Italian enemy submarines, but succeeded to get out undamaged.

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The WWI outcome gave birth to completely new relations and new state borders. The Austrian-Hungarian monarchy disintegrated, while the Adriatic coast became divided between the expanded Kingdom of Italy and the newly risen Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians. Demarcation between the two states was carried out by Contract of Rapal dating 20th November, 1920 and turned out to be quite disadvantageous for the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, i.e. for the Croatian people, since a considerable part of the Croatian ethnic and state space was given to Italy. Italy gained Istra, Zadar with its' surrounding, islands of Cres and Losinj with surrounding small islands, as well as the islands of Lastovo and Palagruza, while the city of Rijeka was proclaimed an independent state.
With the loss of Rijeka (and Zadar), Susak and Split became the two most important ports. By Trumbic - The Bertolini settlement, signed in Paris on 7th September, 1920, the Kingdom of SCS gained 138 ships which altogether had 117,162 gross register tons. 'Knin' happened to be amongst these ships. Through fusion of the pre-war navigation societies, in 1922 a new society emerged under the title 'Adriatic Navigation Ltd.' with a seat in Susak. Under this sign, 'Knin' continued to sail the coastal routes until the new war begun in 1941.

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As early as the beginning of 1940, in an attempt to forestall the unbeneficial consequences of the war that had already started in Europe, the Union of ship owners of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in coordination with the general staff, composed a list of 58 coastal passenger ships that were not taken into consideration for military purposes and that were to be put away in both inland and foreign ports (ships were finally put away as late as 1941). Adriatic navigation ships, amongst which was also 'Knin', were thus evacuated in the bay of Silo on the island of Krk in the northern Adriatic. On the night of 5th April, their vents were opened, and the next day they sank to the bottom of the shallow bay.
War followed, together with the occupation of the entire Croatian coast by Italians that took over all the disposable ships. By decree dating 6th August, 1941 names of the ships previously belonging to Susak's Adriatic navigation were changed. ''Knin' was painted in the dominant black colour of the new 'Italian' flotilla and became 'Ugo Botti'.
Under its new name, 'Knin' carted off cargo and people for the needs of the Italian army, until February, 1943 when Italy capitulated and German aviation sunk the boat in Split's harbour. Capsized to its left, it remained there for more than a year.
After the liberation of Split in October 1944, 'Knin' was the first ship to be rescued and rendered usable by the specialised team of the Yugoslav War Navy, which was the predecessor of the future Split's 'Brodospas', an organisation for rescuing and repairing ships. 'Knin' also came to be one of the first ships that - still during the war - joined the navigation on free territory, transporting, of course, all that needed to be transported.
After WWII, the coastal 'white' fleet was decimated (in 1954 the fleet consisted of just 11 old steamships) and from March 1946, together with three other steamships, 'Knin' started sailing on the route Susak - Dubrovnik, at a speed of 10-12 knots, putting in many small ports on its' journey. With expansion of 'Jadrolinija' naval fleet, in the 50's, 'Knin' shortened its routes, navigating on the routes Split - Vis - Orebic and Rijeka - Zadar. It could transport 350 passengers, while its crew numbered 9 people plus the commander.
In the period between 1945 and 1962 'Knin' was probably the ship that got stranded the most in the entire 'Jadrolinija' white fleet. Chronicles register that it got stranded four times in that period; the first time during a tempest near Urinj in 1948. The most dramatic stranding occurred when, two years after in 1950, it ran aground on the promontory Tarej on the island of Cres, on which occasion one passenger lost his life. It was re-floated after 25 days and towed over for repair to the 'Viktor Lenac' shipyard in Rijeka and subsequently released again into navigation in April the following year. During navigation on the coastal and island routes in Southern Dalmatia, it got stranded in 1959 during a storm near Trpanj on the peninsula of Peljesac and in 1960 near Postire on the island of Brac.

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Due to their utterly worn-out state, 'Jadrolinija' ship-owner started to back out old ships from naval traffic. From 1960 to 1966, exactly 38 veteran ships were de-commissioned, amongst them was also 'Knin'.
While those sea veterans went to a breaker's yard on a massive scale, 'Knin' was assigned to a different role. Before it joined its fellow ships in St. Kaya, almost three decades later, 'Knin' served in the harbours of Opatija, Rijeka, Biograd, Pakostane and Vodice as a ship-restaurant, night-bar and discotheque, under the name 'Barba Rude'.
Legend says...
As early as 1963 in Opatija it was decided that the ex-passenger ship was to be transformed into our first floating sea-restaurant. A few months later, the shipyard 'Viktor Lenac' delivered the new-old ship, called 'Barba Rude'. Tied to its' berth in Rijeka, it became a genuine hit, the first ship-restaurant with night-club hostesses and a program of integral striptease, still a taboo in the time of socialist Yugoslavia.
Loved and hated, defamed and famous, during the 60s and 70s 'Barba Rude' meant much more than an ordinary adapted and renovated steamship.
Its' name became an equivalent for nightlife without limits, while simultaneously it denoted prohibition and immorality. It is a testimony of a time of breaking the limits of 'socialist values' and a time of revealing sexuality.... The book 'Barba Rude' will take us back to that time, which is conjured up with numerous and exclusive photos taken by legendary Rijeka photographers, documents, interviews, descriptions and testimonies.