While I was chatting with some of the researchers at the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, they mentioned the wreck of the Stefano – an interesting case in the long history of Australian-Croatian relations.

The Stefano was an 875-ton barque built in Fiume (the Italian name for Rijeka) on the northern Croatian coast, in what was then part of Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was given a Dubrovnik flag and then sailed the world delivering bulk goods.

At 2am, 27 October 1875, with a hold full of Welsh coal to be delivered to Hong Kong, she ran onto a coral reef off Australia’s extremely remote north-west coast. Of her 17 Dalmatian-Croatian crew, 10 struggled ashore.

“The vessel was sailing with all sails set going at the rate of 9 knots,steering by compass N by E, and ran on the reef without warning. Directly she struck the sea swept the deck and the crew took to the masts to wait for daylight. About 2 hours after she struck the masts fell overboard. I, the Captain, the mate and another managed to get into the gig.”

Gathering on the beach, the young sailors decided to walk towards the mouth of the Gascoyne River which they believed was not too far to the south. Local Baijungu and Jinigudira aborigines tried to convince them otherwise but the sailors didn’t trust these black ‘cannibals’.

So on 1 November, the little group of survivors set out on the journey southward. A week later they reached Cape Farquhar, where other aborigines gave them water. They then continued into desolate country further south, suffering through 38deg.C+ days.

By 6 January 1876, having lived through a cyclone, running out of water and eating just rock oysters, only two were still alive – 16-year-old midshipman Miho Baccich and 19-year-old crewman Ivan Jurich (pictured above).

Ironically, the two were further driven to cannibalism (of their dead shipmates) and were were finally rescued by the aborigines they had initially mistrusted. Over time the gentle ways of the aborigines and their ability to survive in such as difficult environment made an impression on the two young Croats. For 3 months the tribe slowly moved northward to Exmouth Gulf with the hope of making contact with Europeans.

Finally in April 1876 Baccich and Jurich were rescued by the pearling cutter Jessie . (The votive painting above of the rescue scene was commissioned and donated to the Church of Our Lady of Mercy in Dubrovnik, where it hangs today.)

The arrival of the two sailors in Fremantle, some 6 months after the wreck of the Stefano, caused considerable excitement in Western Australia. Re-enactment plays were performed to raise money for the two youngsters.

Baccich and Jurich eventually made it back to their homeland, where Ivan Jurich died at an old age, never returning to the sea. Baccich, after gaining his captain’s license, sailed to New Orleans, where he left his ship, settled and raised a large family.

For the full story look for The Wreck of the Barque Stefano off the North West Cape of Australia in 1875, written by Gustave Rathe, the grandson of Miho Baccich.

The final resting place of the Stefano was discovered by members of the Western Australian Maritime Museum in April 1997.

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