Croatian pirates

[ByteRat]

Greetings all!

I see many interesting topics on this sub-forum so as a fan of history I would like to share a bit of information about pirates from my area. The place in question is Adriatic sea and Croatian pirates. The pirating age started a bit earlier here, around 1645.
Adriatic sea was very important to Croatians, ever since they came here in 7th century. As we shared sea with great naval powers like Venetian republic and other, many conflicts arisen.

Our greatest (non-pirate) naval power was Respublica Ragusina (or on Croatian; Dubrovačka Republika) which was almost completely orientated on commerce and trade. They even treaded as far as American soil which is quite far for one, small city-state.
They were very famous for their naval skill and even battle skills when needed.

As for Croatian piracy, well as you can imagine, Adriatic sea is not big and it has many, many islands, bays, etc. so big ships were out of question for this kind of business. Pirates raided foreign naval powers that were hostile to Croatia such as Venetian Republic or Turks. Sometimes they operated on their own and sometimes they were empowered by Croatian leaders to disrupt enemy transports and supplies. They used small ships that could easily outmaneuver big, slow ships and so that they can escape them in shallow waters. I also heard(don't know if it is true) that in one period they used ships with mechanism that allowed them to sink their own ships when in danger, without destroying them, and in that way hide them under water and later drag them out and use them again.
Most famous Croatian pirates were Sinjski Uskoci that operated in small groups and raided into enemy territory, mostly Turks - hence their name (uskoci=raiders). They operated on land and sea.
Also there are pirates of island Omiš (Omish). They were fearsome pirate power in their time, on Adriatic sea. Here is quote from one Croatian web page about them.
"In this period the Omiš Pirate was the most feared along the Adriatic coast and trade republics, like Venice or Dubrovnik, made non attacking agreements with them, for which Omiš Pirates paid high taxes. The Republic of Venice and the Pope tried to put an end to the Omiš pirates by sending the crusaders, defeated by the Pirates the very first time, but in a second attempt they managed to put an end to the Pirate of Omiš."

I know my knowledge isn't that big, I'm much better at other parts of history like Roman Empire or WW II. So if anyone has something to add I would like to discuss it here and hear what others think. Also I believe that here are quite some people from the Balkan that play this game so they also can share they insights.

[ByteRat]

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