69
for melting pitch which he could not take with him, and
was forced to leave behind in the house in which he was
staying. This was probably the same man who attempted
to unsuccessfully organize his first plundering campaign
from Murter. News of the site also made its way to some
Belgian divers, who were already caught stealing ampho-
rae in 1965, and despite this they did not hesitate to ex-
tract items from the shipwreck at Gnalić two years later.
After the site’s exact position was pinpointed on 13 Sep-
tember, teams from Zadar and Šibenik joined forces to
rapidly extract the finds from the surface layer. The work
lasted from 7 to 10 October 1967 under the supervision
of Ksenija Radulić, a conservation expert in the Cultural
Monument ProtectionDepartment inZadar and the dep-
uty to the then director Grga Oštrić, and Ivo Petricioli, an
art history professor at the Faculty of Philosophy inZadar.
Also participating in the work were archaeologist Zdenko
Brusić and conservation expert Božidar Vilhar from the
Archaeological Museum in Zadar, art historian Sofija
Petricioli from the National Museum in Zadar, archae-
ologist Zlatko Gunjača from the Šibenik City Museum,
and divers from the Kornati Recreational Diving Club,
among them the already mentioned Dalibor Martinović,
and divers JerkoDomančić andDubravko Balenović, and
members of the Split Naval District Command stationed
in Šibenik. The three military vessels that the Command
placed at their disposal helped in the completion of the
assignment as conceived, although the site suffered con-
siderably in the process. Having no foreknowledge nor
awareness of the sensitivity of the cultural heritage before
them, the members of the Yugoslav Navy handled the
finds with no caution whatsoever, which unfortunately
resulted in considerable damage done to fragile objects
and the wooden remains of the ship itself.
At the time, the media closely followed the removal of
the ship’s gear and cargo, while experts tried to find the
most appropriate way possible to come to terms with the
insufficiently experienced divers, the demanding equip-
ment required for undersea research and the organization
of undersea work. It was also necessary to deal with the
problem of illicit removal of artefacts, which was record-
ed in published texts and the preserved documentation.
In an unbelievable four days, almost without any under-
water documentation, eight cannons, two iron anchors,
the aforementioned iron-bound chest, an enormous
quantity of glass, parts of brass candelabras and a small
quantity of metal materials were raised to the surface.The
iron-bound chest naturally drew the most attention, as it
gave the impression of being the ship’s treasury. From a
letter sent to the University Library in Zagreb, we learned
that its opening was scheduled for 14 October 1967 at
4 p.m. The curious crowd which attentively watched on
in the National Museum in Zadar was generally disap-
pointed with the black mud from which Ksenija Radulić
removed some apparently unimpressive items.
To those who expected gold coins or jewels, the objects
profesora povijesti umjetnosti na Filozofskom fakultetu
u Zadru. U njoj su sudjelovali arheolog Zdenko Brusić i
konzervator Božidar Vilhar iz Arheološkog muzeja u Za-
dru, povjesničarka umjetnosti Sofija Petricioli iz Narod-
nog muzeja u Zadru, arheolog Zlatko Gunjača iz Muzeja
grada Šibenika, ronioci Kluba sportskih ronilaca
Kornati
,
među kojima i već spomenuti DaliborMartinović, ronioci
Jerko Domančić i Dubravko Balenović, te pripadnici rat-
ne mornarice Komande Splitske vojnopomorske oblasti,
stacionirani u Šibeniku. Tri ratna broda koja je Komanda
stavila na raspolaganje pomogla su da se obavi zamišljeni
zadatak, ali je pri tome nalazište uvelike stradalo. Nema-
jući nikakvog predznanja niti osjećaja za osjetljivost kul-
turne baštine s kojom su se susretali, pripadnici Jugosla-
venske ratne mornarice rukovali su nalazima bez ikakvog
opreza, što je rezultiralo mnogim oštećenjima osjetljivijih
predmeta i drvenih ostataka samoga broda.
Mediji su tada pozorno pratili vađenje brodske opreme i
tereta, a stručnjaci se trudili na čim primjereniji način iza-
ći na kraj s nedovoljno iskusnim roniocima, zahtjevnom
opremomza podmorska istraživanja i organizacijompod-
morskog rada. Valjalo se, osim toga, nositi s problemom
otuđivanja predmeta o kojemu doznajemo kako iz objav-
ljenih tekstova tako i iz očuvane dokumentacije.
U nevjerojatna četiri dana, gotovo bez ikakve podmorske
dokumentacije, na površinu je izvađeno osam topova, dva
željezna sidra, spomenuta okovana škrinja, velika količina
stakla, dijelovi mjedenih svijećnjaka i manja količina me-
talnih sirovina. Pozornost je, naravno, privukla prije svega
okovana škrinja koja je odavala dojam brodske blagajne.
Iz dopisa upućenog Sveučilišnoj knjižnici u Zagrebu sa-
znajemo kako je njezino otvaranje bilo predviđeno za 14.
listopada 1967. u 16:00 sati. Znatiželjno mnoštvo koje je
u Narodnom muzeju u Zadru budnim okom pratilo taj
čin uglavnom je ostalo razočarano crnimmuljem iz kojeg
je rukama Ksenije Radulić izašla skupina naizgled nezani-
mljivih predmeta.
Onima koji su očekivali zlatnike ili dragulje sigurno se
izvađeni predmeti nisu učinili nimalo privlačnima, no po-
mnim pregledom pokazalo se kako upravo oni predstav-
ljaju pravo kulturno-povijesno blago. Iz škrinje su, naime,
izvučene tri lanene košulje, osam vunenih kapa, drvena
kutijica s utezima i preciznom vagom i čak 54 m luksu-
znog damasta. Riječ je o svilenom damastu ukrašenom
cvjetnim uzorkom i obojenom purpurnom bojom.
Istoga dana kada je otvorena škrinja Grga Oštrić uputio
je dopis Klubu sportskih ronilaca
Kornati
, kojim se nje-
govim članovima obratio sljedećim riječima: “Nakon svr-
šetka prve faze radova na vađenju tereta iz broda XVI st.
potonulog u Pašmanskom kanalu želimo vam zahvaliti na
vrlo uspješnoj suradnji. Posebno cijenimo činjenicu što
ste pristali na nju i bez honorara i time zapravo omogućili
čitavu akciju. Izvršeni posao je i za nas i za vas prvi takve
vrsti i razumljivo je što ni mi ni vi nismo bili sasvim pri-
premni. Odjek koji je akcija imala u javnosti ima izgleda
da urodi dobrim plodom, podmorska arheologija prestaje
