First maritime experiences by the Piran students

*Sensu:

 

Terčon, Nadja: Sava & Jolanda: the first Slovenian and Yugoslav female mariners: women and the sea, and the first entry by Slovenian women into the male’s world of maritime profession. Piran: Maritime Museum – Museo del mare "Sergej Mašera" Piran - Pirano, 2020. 

The first two-generation students of the Slovenian Maritime Trade Academy (SPTA, later the Maritime Technicum) carried out their compulsory school practice aboard the ships Viševica, Jadran and later Lavsa. During practice, they gained their first practical maritime knowledge, even though this practice could not be collated with the work and life on ocean-going ships, on which they completed their probation period training after completing their basic education. However, as there was no surplus of ships, and as young students and the personnel had to be trained to perform their chosen profession, the school cooperated with the Agmarit Shipping Agency and the Jugolinija Shipping Company Rijeka. The students who were the WTO citizens also accomplished a short school practice on the ship Vida, leased by the Piran-based company Agmarit, while Slovenian students did so on Jugolinija’s ships.

 

 

They made their first trip with the ship Viševica, and the second aboard the ship Jadran. They had obtained their uniforms for the school voyage already on the Viševica, for it was most important that the school and future Slovenian mariners presented themselves in the best possible way, including as far as their personal appearance was concerned, during their voyage along the Yugoslav Adriatic coast. One of the major purposes of the voyage was to present the Slovenian maritime school to the whole Yugoslav coast, which is the reason why they paid great attention to effective propaganda. Consequently, they joined other Yugoslav maritime schools (technicums) from Bakar and Dubrovnik, which organized professional excursions, training aboard ships, took part in work brigades, etc. The school voyage added a practical context to the theoretical school lessons.

 

 

The first monthly compulsory practice was accomplished from 15 August to 15 September 1948 on the motor sailing ship Viševica, which was lent to the school for free use by the Jadranska linijska plovidba (Line Shipping Company) from Rijeka (Jadrolinija). The ship Viševica, with its professorial and student crew from the maritime school, embarked on its first voyage in Koper with a ceremonial departure on 16 August 1948. During the voyage, every student kept a diary. From the surviving diary written by Jolanda Gruden about the school trip and the events on the ship Viševica, one can read what their first maritime experiences were like.

 

 

After leaving Rab Island for home, they carried on with practical lessons on board the ship and learning how to react during dangerous situations at sea. They used different warning signals for this purpose, and this quite frequently, at different times of the day and on very different occasions. "Man in the water! Fire on the ship! Leak of water on board!” were the cries that could be heard during the so-called exercises. The students were confused and did not do the exercises as they should. Jolanda wrote: "Utter chaos here."

 

On 8 and 11 September, they had two very unpleasant inconveniences. On arrival at the port of Rijeka on 8 September, they called a doctor, as they had a patient on board. In the evening, a doctor came aboard. "By chance we ran into the inspector of all doctors, who scolded us, 1) because it was not such an urgent case to call him in the evening, and 2) because we did not have a thermometer in the ship. I will remember this for the rest of my life."

 

On 11 September, the students were startled by a night alarm. "At 1:00 in the morning, naval inspector responsible for our territory arrived in a car. He raised the alarem (sic) "fire at the stern". Complete disaster! The alarem lasted at least for half an hour. Nobody woke up, and this was also since the alarem was not given together with the bell, nor by someone shouting or whistling. No such thing. Instead, the duty sailor woke each person individually, whispering "alarem" in their ears. (…) After the exercise, Prof. Lenarčič rebuked us, saying that it was partly our fault, because we did not get up quickly, or did not get up completely, and this was because:

 

 

The duty sailor should have first informed the principal and only then raise the alarem on the principal’s order.

 

Because the alarem was not raised by a bell, nor by a whistle or a piercing shriek.

 

Because we have never had a single alarem at night, and this was the first one.”

 

 

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