East Adriatic Sailing Ships Trade in the 19th Century – Peak and Decline (IsTraJ19)

Istočnojadranska trgovina na jedrenjacima u 19. stoljeću – vrhunac i pad (IsTraJ19)

University of Zadar

IsTraJ19 is a two-year project of the University of Zadar that focuses on a crucial period in the maritime history of the eastern Adriatic when the transition from sailing to steam navigation occurs. This transition is significant from technical, technological, economic, social, political, and psychological perspectives. The specified period marks the peak of millennia-old sailing trade on a global scale, overlapping in time with the increasing presence of steamships and their technological advancement. Eastern Adriatic sailing trade is not confined to that region; it is integrated into the global maritime trade system, thus being present in the Mediterranean and most oceans. In this way, the qualification "Eastern Adriatic" only denotes the spatial origin of sailboats, shipowners, captains, and sailors, rather than exclusive navigation and trade territory. Reflecting global maritime trends at the local level and involving local forces in global movements are fundamental hypotheses in conceiving this project.

IsTraJ19 is focused on the research of the peak and decline of the Austrian Empire (from 1867 Austria-Hungary) sailing ships' trade during the 19th and early 20th century. The principal aim of the project is to understand the scope of the Austrian global maritime trade on the sailing ships that reached its peak in late 70s and early 80s, followed by the sharp decline in years after, ending just before the First World War.

IsTraJ19 Database

In order to understand the scope of the trade it was important to aggregate the data of the sailing ships using the publications of the Austrian Lloyd Annuario Marittimo (1848-1913) and Annuario Marittimo Ungarico (1891-1918) that published yearly lists of active sailing ships with basic information including owners, captains, crew numbers, ship tonnage, ship types and other. Other relevant lists include yearly shipbuilding, ship losses, shipmasters and shipmates who passed the mandatory exams and the dictionary with basic terminology. The IsTraJ19 database allows the wide possibility or research of the general and particular information. It is possible to search for a particular vessel, particular owner, captain and their active service in maritime trade. It provides a complex insight into the Austrian Empire sailing ships development and its destiny towards the period when sailing ships were losing their dominance against the rising number of steamships.

The aggregation of the data is done by six members project team (Mateo Bratanić PI, Sanda Uglešić, Zrinka Podhraški Čizmek, Marin Banović, Ivana Protrka, and Krste Gašperov) while Josip Kalebić, an IT specialist of the Microbit firm, designed a software and website to make the data available online for research.

At this point the 70% of the data is extracted and made available online while the rest would be done in the next year.

Any questions concerning the IsTraJ19 database you may direct at e-mail: bratanic@unizd.hr

All the data in this database are available for research and education.

When using this data and quoting in research papers please use this reference:

• The data collected from IsTraj19 database website: www.istraj19.unizd.hr