%0 Journal Article
%T THE HEROIC SAGAS OF THE KOMI£¿A FISHERMEN
%A Bo£¿ani£¿
%A Jo£¿ko
%J -
%D 1983
%X Sa£¿etak Komi£¿a, located on the island of Vis, has for centuries been the fishing center on the Adriatic Sea. This small comunity, which never had more then 3500 inhabitants, at one time had up to 1000 fishermen. Fishermen from Komi£¿a were noted for traveling great distances to more productive fishing areas ¨C noteably Palagru£¿a. The fishermen from Komi£¿a had constructed and developed their own type of fishing boat called £¿gajeta ¡ª falku£¿a£¿. It is an open boat, 26 to 29 feet long, nearly 9 feet wide, with sails up to 120 square meters of surface. With such boats the Komi£¿ians, under favourable conditions, made up to 42 miles distance between Komi£¿a and Palagru£¿a in less than five hours. Komi£¿a fishermen departed for Palagru£¿a in regattes. The cannon shot from the fortress of Komi£¿a was the signal for the start of the regatte in which there were up to 70 fishing boats ¡ª £¿gajeta ¡ª falku£¿a£¿. When there was no wind, the crew had to row these big, heavy wooden boats which were loaded with fishing gear and provisions to the far goal on the open sea. The men had to row an average of 13 hours to Palagru£¿a competing in speed so as to get a better place primary objective of fishing the Palagru£¿a area as to catch and salt sardines. For 20 days the boats remained in the Palagru£¿a area fishing and salting sardines, often working 24 hours a day. It was not unusual to catch and salt up to 6 tons of sardines per gajeta with a five men crew. It was possible to achieve this only by hard labor. More than that ¡ª it was a great struggle with nature. In the depths of the sea, in the dark night, the eyes of the experienced fisherman watched patiently for the phosphprous sparks created by the moving fish. He was able to recognize the kind, the quantity and the depth of the school. On the fisherman¡¯s evaluation depended how much fish would be in the nets. After the nets had been pulled into the gajeta then each fish had to be taken out from the mesh salted in wooden barrels. In 1920 when Palagru£¿a belonged to Italy in the Rapall agreement, it was stated that Komi£¿a in the following 60 years could fish around Palagru£¿a with 60 boats. In the period between the two World Wars the Italian fishermen who were fishing around Palagru£¿a acquired much knowledge from the Komi£¿ians. Also, at this time Greek and Italian cargo ships were coming to Komi£¿a and purchasing tons of fresh and salted fish. Komi£¿a which had for centuries developed and elaborated two ways of fishing sardines with gill nets and a type of purse seine was too much attached with this tradition to accept quickly new
%U https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=197120