Mayer Dušan

Dušan Mayer (Šoštanj, 1900 – Šoštanj, 1971)

Dušan Mayer was born in 1900 in Šoštanj, in a well-to-do family of Fran Mayer, a barrister, and Marija Mayer. He showed much interest in ships and navigation already at a young age, and as early as in 1916 enrolled at the four-year Royal Nautical School in Bakar. Considering that he had previously attended the Šentpavel monastic gymnasium (Stiftsgymnasium St. Paul) in Labodska dolina, he skipped the first two years and graduated before the end of   World War I. He was only the second Slovenian to complete his studies at the Nautical School in Bakar. After graduating in 1918, he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army for a short time, and after the end of the war continued his naval career in the Kingdom of SHS.  As a cadet, he sailed for the shipping company Atlantska plovidba Ivo Račić, then as an officer on ocean going cargo ships of Yugoslav Lloyd. He worked for this shipping company at the beginning of World War II, when he was entrusted command on the cargo steamer Zrinski. With the ships Izvor, Avala, Nemanja and Zrinski, he predominantly sailed to South America and in European waters, but was also sent to North America, Africa and Asia as far as Japan.

In March 1940, he temporarily suspended his navigational career. After the end of World War II, he initially worked for Jadranska plovidba Rijeka, later for the firm Oskrba brodova in Rijeka, in 1954 for the company Ribič Piran, and in 1956 joined the Slovenian shipowner Splošna plovba Piran, where he remained until 1963.

For the Splošna plovba Piran, he commanded the cargo steamships Gorica (II), Ljubljana, Neretva and the brand new motor ship Bela krajina. He sailed with the Neretva to Western and Northern Europe, with the Ljubljana to the Black Sea, with the Bela krajina to North America and Western Europe, and with the Gorica to China and Japan.

Bogdana Marinac