Abstract:

This article continues the current research on the Croatian-Venetian maritime relations, especially the role the Croats played in the Venetian naval forces during the early modern period. It is based on the sources preserved at the Archivio di Stato di Venezia (holdings of the state directorate for the naval forces – Provveditori all'Armar) and focuses on the penitentiary galley “Dolfino”, commanded from 1774-1778 by Dujam Franjo Zek Mišević (Doimo Francesco Zech Misevich) from Šibenik. The introductory part offers some basic data on Venetian penitentiary galleys, followed by a brief account on the Zek Mišević family from Šibenik and on Dujam Franjo himself, particularly in regard to his position in the naval forces. The central part of the article is an analysis of the crew of penitentiary galley “Dolfino”, with a particular emphasis on the rowers-convicts originating from the Eastern Adriatic. For the period 1774-1778, the documents list 36 of them. They mostly came from Dalmatia and Istria, and the reasons they ended on a galley included grave criminal offences (murder, robbery, rape, and various other forms of violence). Many among them must have been sentenced to death and rowing in chains on the galley was their only alternative. The author also indicates the differences in sentences among the individual convicts and offers an analysis of the institutions on various levels of state authority (central, regional, local) that issued the verdicts. Eventually, a list of crew members serving on the galley and a table of Croatian rowers-convicts are supplied.

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