Vlajki Mladen

Master Mariner Mladen Vlajki is the captain who was the first to dock in the Port of Koper on the day of its grand opening on 7 December 1958. During the preparations for this particular action it was decided that the first ship to be moored at the new Koper operational shore would be the ship Gorica owned by the shipping company Splošna plovba Piran. The ship was commanded by Master Mariner Mladen Vlajki. Before landing, however, a minor accident occurred, as the ship ran aground. In addition to the crew, his daughter Vesna was also on board the ship. Owing to the accident, which led to numerous anecdotes and subsequent years of teasing, the grand celebration was slightly delayed, but this significant day was embedded into people’s collective memory for all times.

Mladen Vlajki was born to father Ivo and mother Marija on 28 April 2013 at Zaton in Orošac, Dubrovnik County. Their family surname was Arbanac. The year 1452 is engraved on the house in which he was born. It is believed that this was the year when the Arbanac family fled from the village of Arbanac in Kosovo and took refuge at Zaton. Generations of mariners came from this family. Between the two wars and after the end of World War II, he sailed on f Yugoslav shipping companies’ ships (Yugoslav Lloyd, Jugolinija).

At the end of 1955, a decision was taken to decentralize the Yugoslav merchant navy; this was implemented in 1955. This meant that the newly established company Splošna plovba Piran was given the opportunity to strengthen its fleet with used ships by acquiring six ships from Jugolinija with its seat in Rijeka (Neretva, Kornat, Bihać, Ljubljana I, Gorica I, Dubrovnik). They also received the ship Gorica and the ship Neretva together with the experienced mariner Mladen Vlajki, who commanded it. Vlajki sailed with the ships of Splošna plovba Piran until retiring in 1978. He commanded numerous Splošna plovba Piran’s ships, some of them even more than once: Pohorje, Trbovlje, Bela Krajina, Zelengora, Krpan, Piran, Branik, Logatec, Vrhnika, etc. With his work, professionalism and appropriate austerity he remained in the memory of many seafarers as a "barba".

Upon taking a job at Splošna Plovba, he and his family, wife Olga and daughter Vesna, moved to Piran, and in 1967 to Lucija.

In 2018, the Maritime Museum acquired several Mladen Vlajki’s nautical booklets, plaques and awards, photos, working and teaching materials and other documentary material from his daughter Vesna Vlajki.

Prepared by Nadja Terčon

SOURCES:

Vesna Vlajki, personal communication, 24 October 2017

Museum photo documentation

Terčon, Nadja: Usidrali smo se na morje, Piran, 2015