The Ferries of Croatia, Montenegro and Yugoslavia covers the vessels operating down the Adriatic coastline, an area popular with tourists seeking the Mediterranean sun. The authors, Bruce Peter and Matthew Murtland, first travelled to the area in the early 21st century and their joint interest in the extensive ferry fleet has drawn them back on numerous occasions since then.
In this book, the authors have started by looking at the services which began operating on the Dalmatian Coast in the early 1870s. These coastal steamships worked out of the Italian port of Trieste and were often British built. Over the years the ferry services have been operated using a fascinatingly diverse range of passenger vessels, cargo carriers, ferries and cruise ships, which have served the towns and villages along the length of the eastern side of the Adriatic, linking the many offshore islands and providing connections to and from the main Italian ports.
Vessels used on the services have previously hailed from a variety of countries including the UK, Japan, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. These have flown the Austro-Hungarian, Italian, Yugoslavian, Croatian and Montenegrin flags, among others, and their changing status reflected the region’s often turbulent politics. The consequences of the rise and fall of communist Yugoslavia, and of the Balkans War and the Croatian War of Independence, on the provision of ferry services are recounted, as is the subsequent development of the modern Jadrolinija fleet and also those of its competitors. The book is illustrated with numerous photographs of the many vessels employed, the majority of which have never previously been published.
219 colour and 68 black & white photographs. 5 x colour maps of Adriatic ferry routes and 25 x colour images of promotional material. 184 pages