79
procure on the spot. It is precisely this fact which expla-
ins the different origin of the ship’s armaments. Additio-
nally, Odoardo’s brother Domenico was given the task of
ordering two new cannons in the foundry of the famed
Venetian metal-casting family Alberghetti, which were
installed on the ship when it arrived in Venice in 1582.
It is believed that the da Gagliano family was originally
fromRagusa, and was initially involved in banking in that
city in the early sixteenth century. Antonio da Gagliano
settled in Pera, the European merchant section of Con-
stantinople. His son Benedetto remained there, while his
other son Domenico moved to Venice. Benedetto’s son
Odoardo remained in Pera, while his brother Domenico
joined his uncle of the same name. Thanks to the stra-
tegically located family members, ships named
Gaglia-
na
played a dual game, occasionally appearing Venetian
even though there were no legal grounds for this. Perhaps
today we would know nothing of this if an incident had
not occurred in 1581, when Tuscan corsairs captured a
ship named
Gagliana Turiglia
. Having no right to attack
Venetian ships, the Tuscan authorities were asked to re-
turn the seized property. A thorough investigation was
conducted at the request of the grand duke of Tuscany,
so with time it came to light that the ship-owner was not
Domenico from Venice as initially thought, but rather
his nephew Odoardo from Constantinople, and that the-
re were thus no grounds to confirm the ship’s Venetian
origin. Learning from their experience with the Tuscan
corsairs, the members of the da Gagliano family were qu-
ite aware of the need for high-quality weaponry on ships,
which may have influenced the decision to purchase two
new cannons, designated with the year 1582.
Whatever the case may have been, the ship
Gagliana gro-
ssa
set off at the end of October toward the eastern Adria-
tic coast. It is likely that a representative of the so-called
Istrian pilots (Venet.
pedoti d’Istria
) went with it; his sole
task would have been to guide the ship into Istrian waters,
and then disembark and leave it to further independent
sailing across Kvarner and the Dalmatian coastline. The
ship was commanded by Captain Alvise Finardi, an expe-
rienced sailor aged 65 at the time, who had already expe-
rienced shipwrecks twice in his seafaring career, and du-
ring these years had come into conflict with the Venetian
authorities for attempting to avoid an order issued in the
midst of the Ottoman-VenetianWar (1570-1573). He was
even sentenced to death.The sentence –much to his good
fortune –was overturned in time. Finardi experienced his
first shipwreck in Spanish waters near Gibraltar, and the
second one at the island of Brusnik, west of Vis.
Who knows whether the experienced captain foresaw
what awaited him on the very eve of the winter season
sailing moratorium in Dalmatian waters. We similarly
do not know what threatened the heavily laden ship on
its oversea voyage, but it is certain that already on 9 No-
vember the heralds of the Venetian Republic declared
from the Piazza di Rialto, in the vicinity of the famed
se da je brod (nosivosti 1000 bačava) bio izgrađen u mle-
tačkom brodogradilištu za potrebe trgovine s istočnim
Mediteranom, a u more je porinut u rujnu 1569. godine.
Njegovi prvi vlasnici bili su Benedetto da Lezze, Piero Ba-
sadonna i Lazzaro Mocenigo. Godine 1570. za potrebe
Mletačke Republike preveo je trupe na Cipar. Već sljede-
će godine pao je u osmanlijske ruke, a 1581. otkupio ga
je u Carigradu Odoardo da Gagliano. Brod je zasigurno
bio u lošem stanju i lišen originalnog naoružanja, pa ga
je novi vlasnik popravio i opremio topovima koje je uspio
pribaviti na licu mjesta. Upravo ta činjenica najbolje nam
objašnjava raznoliko podrijetlo brodskog naoružanja.
Osim toga, vjerojatno je Odoardov brat Domenico dobio
zadatak naručiti dva nova topa u ljevaonici slavne mletač-
ke ljevačke obitelji Alberghetti, koja su na brod ukrcana po
njegovom prispijeću u Veneciju 1582. godine.
Neki su autori pretpostavili dubrovačko podrijetlo obite-
lji da Gagliano koja se, navodno, početkom 16. st. bavila
bankarstvom. Antonio da Gagliano nastanio se u Peri, eu-
ropskom trgovačkom dijelu Carigrada. Sin mu Benedetto
ostao je u Carigradu, a drugi sin Domenico odselio je u
Veneciju. Benedettov sin Odoardo ostao je u Peri, a brat
mu Domenico pridružio se istoimenom stricu. Zahva-
ljujući strateški raspoređenim članovima obitelji, brodovi
imenom
Gagliana
igrali su dvostruke igre, figurirajući po-
vremeno kao mletački iako za to nisu imali pravih osno-
va. Možda danas o tome ne bismo ništa znali da se 1581.
godine nije dogodio incident u kojem su toskanski gusari
zarobili brod imenom
Gagliana Turiglia
. Nemajući pravo
napadati mletačke brodove, toskanske su vlasti umoljene
vratiti zaplijenjenu imovinu. Na zahtjev velikog toskan-
skog vojvode provedena je temeljita istraga, pa se s vreme-
nompokazalo da brodovlasnik nije Domenico iz Venecije
kako se u početku činilo, već njegov nećak Odoardo iz
Carigrada, i da se mletačko podrijetlo broda stoga nema
čime potvrditi. Poučeni iskustvoms toskanskimgusarima,
članovi obitelji da Gagliano bili su itekako svjesni potrebe
za kvalitetnim brodskim naoružanjem, što je moglo uvje-
tovati i odluku o nabavci dvaju novih topova, označenih
godinom 1582.
Bilo kako bilo, brod
Gagliana grossa
zaplovio je krajem
listopada prema istočnoj jadranskoj obali. Vjerojatno je s
njime na put krenuo i jedan predstavnik tzv. istarskih pe-
ljara (mlet.
pedoti d’Istria
) čiji je jedini zadatak bio preve-
sti brod u istarske vode, a potom ga napustiti i prepustiti
daljnjoj samostalnoj plovidbi preko Kvarnera i duž dalma-
tinske obale. Brodom je upravljao kapetan Alvise Finardi,
iskusan pomorac u dobi od 65 godina, koji je već dva puta
u svojoj pomorskoj karijeri doživio brodolom, a tih je go-
dina zbog lukavstva kojim je nastojao izbjeći naredbu iz-
danu u osvit Ciparskog rata (1570. – 1573.) došao u sukob
i s mletačkom vlašću, pa čak bio i osuđen na smrt. Kazna
je, na njegovu sreću, na vrijeme povučena. Prvi brodolom
Finardi je preživio u španjolskim vodama u blizini Gibral-
tara, a drugi kod otoka Brusnika zapadno od Visa.
Tko zna je li iskusni kapetan slutio što ga čeka na pragu
