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| The view of the Galeb from our balcony |
For several weeks, Adam and I have been complaining to ourselves about this ugly, rusting hulk of a ship parked in the harbor (photo, left), marring our view of the sea. When we first moved here, a very clean, white modern Jadrolinija passenger ferry was docked in that same spot. Last night, though, we had the kids' "drama coach" over for dinner and we commented on the ugly boat. To our complete surprise, he told us that this ship was Marshall Tito's famous "Presidential Yacht," and that it used to be one of the most glamorous yachts in the world. It's now a museum.
So this afternoon, the kids and I went to have a closer look, and what we found was a slightly moldy, raw, utterly fascinating time capsule from about 1955. I could picture Don Draper having a martini on the avocado green upholstered couches with the kidney shaped coffee table.
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| Midcentury modern stateroom |
As it turned out, this ship has had a fascinating history. Built by the Italians (and most of Rijeka was part of Italy at that time) in Genoa to transport refrigerated bananas from Italian east Africa to Europe, it was originally called the RAMB III. The boat never transported bananas, though, because WWII broke out. It was captured by Germany in 1943, renamed the Kiebitz, and was put to work laying 5,000 mines, one of which was actually detonated by the RAMB III off Ancona, Italy (I guess this is a form of friendly fire), but the ship hobbled back to Rijeka and was repaired in time to be completely sunk by the Allies in 1944 while in the Rijeka harbor.
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| Ship guts |
In 1948, a Split company pulled it up from the bottom of the harbor and sent it to Pula, where it was cleaned up and resurrected as the Golub (Croatian for seagull) for the Yugoslav Navy. Tito used the ship from 1952 until his death in 1980 for parties, diplomacy and foreign visitors. In Tito's time, the ship sailed up the Thames and met Winston Churchill for the first visit to Britain by a communist head of state. Throughout its years of service, over 102 world statesmen were on board (like Queen Elizabeth II, Nehru, Nasser, lots of non-aligned movement folks), and even some actors like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were entertained on board.
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| Entrance |
The Montenegrins got the boat after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, and it was in legal purgatory for years until 2009, when the city of Rijeka won the right to buy the boat with the intention of turning it into a floating museum. The current exhibit came from the Marinko Sudac Collection, described as the largest collection of historical avant garde, neo avant garde, and post avant garde expressions in eastern European region and beyond. (Here you say "okay" very slowly, like a question.) This particular exhibit deals with the destruction of the untouchable. I'm a bit too linear for that kind of art, but the kids were fascinated by a video installation featuring a a very happy nude man and woman on a beach, looking sort of1960ish, getting dressed in completely clear vinyl knee-length raincoats, diving into the water. I haven't figured out yet how this relates to the destruction of the untouchable, but I'm sure someone less INTJish than I could figure that out.
With the 1950s glamor peeping through layers of rust and mold and water-damaged wood, you know this ship has seen better days. It reminded me a bit of Rijeka itself, battered and slightly crumbling but with a very layered, fascinating history.
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| A yachter |
