Bozidar Tripkovic

Bozidar Tripkovich also known as Diodato Tripcovich (Serbian Cyrillic: Божидар Трипковић; Dobrota, Montenegro, Austria-Hungary, 29 September 1862 - Trieste, Italy, 25 September 1925) was a Trieste shipowner, originally from Dobrota.
==Biography==
Antonije Tripković was the first Tripković of the latter generation to set foot in Trieste, but it was his son Božidar Tripković who left the deepest mark in the city. Božidar Tripković was born on 29 September 1862 in Dobrota. His mother's name was Angelica Dabinović, who married Antonije Bogdanov Tripković in Trieste in December 1856.
Antonije was attracted by the unstoppable increase in steam merchant shipping, a development in which, among all the Austro-Hungarian ports, Trieste was the greatest pole of attraction due to its position, existing equipment result of the Industrial Revolution and the great possibilities and opportunities afforded there. The family lived in via Felice Veneziano, although Antonije kept the old residence in Kotor. Božidar soon learned the fundamental rules of the Tripković family: study languages ​​and respect the sailors who bring news and valuable goods from the rest of the world; take care of friendships even those apparently less important, preserve them and possibly expand them; do your own business but be grateful to those who have helped you by repaying them with the same coin. In Trieste, around that time, there flourished the houses of such prominent Boka Kotorska families as List of admirals of Croatia, Verona, Radoničić, Ivan Visin, Dabčević, Tripković..
On 23 September 1882 after having completed nautical schools, at the age of 20, Božidar Tripcović obtained from the Imperial Royal Maritime Government the decree of qualification as a lieutenant in the merchant navy, which meant "being able to command ships at the widest limit of large coastal navigation." He immediately started his seafaring activity on the Boritelj ship owned by his uncle Luka Tripković and his son Petar Tripković. The family was very united and Božidar retained a charisma that the brothers Pavle (Paolo) and Stefan (Stefano) and the sisters Maria, Nina and Anna recognized in him without distinction. In 1886 he was hired by the Austrian Lloyd Ship Management Lloyd and began his naval career at a high level. On board the ships he met traders and entrepreneurs who travelled all over the Mediterranean and, loyal to the family rules, consolidated knowledge that came in handy over time.
In September 1892 Božidar was retired due to illness by Lloyd, but in reality he took his leave to work freely with his friend Matija Polić, who ran a ship brokerage firm and a consortium of charities in Rijeka. With the dowry of his wife Ermenegilda of Republic of Ragusa, Božidar bought several ships belonging to consortia of Ragusa and golfo di Lussimpiccolo (an Austrian military base), and became the owner, while his younger brother, Stefan died during a shipwreck near Ajaccio.
In August 1895, upon the expiry of his contract with Polić, Božidar founded his first real company, Diodato Tripcovich or "D. Tripcovich - Armament Company and Shipping Agency". In 1899, Božidarhttps://www.google.ca/books/edition/Le_Monde_slave/nF83mv9PEVkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22Bozidar+Tripkovic%22+-wikipedia&dq=%22Bozidar+Tripkovic%22+-wikipedia&printsec=frontcoverjoined forces with Lovro Kosović of Dobrota, who was related to Tomo Kosović, founder of a shipping company in 1888.
On 21 March 1903, the other brother of Božidar, Pavle (Paolo), together with a group of 16 passionate sailors gathered at the L'Hotel de Ville (City Hall), founded the "Yacht Club Adriaco", the oldest and most glorious sailing company in the Adriatic. In 1908 at the height of the immigration wave to North America and South America, Božidar and his cousin Vladimir Tripković purchased a passanger ship Soko with the capacity for that oversea travel.https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Razvitak_turizma_u_Dubrovniku_i_okolici/UlgdAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22Bozidar+Tripkovic%22+-wikipedia&dq=%22Bozidar+Tripkovic%22+-wikipedia&printsec=frontcover
At the end of 1912 Božidar also founded the "D. Tripcovich Società Anonima di Navigazioni e Salvataggi" to also carry out the maritime towing and rescue activity, very profitable in an era of frequent shipwrecks.A good 173 shareholders participate in the foundation of the company, whose best-known figures are Trieste traders and professionals such as brothers Filippo Brunner, Rodolfo Brunner, Augusto Cavallar, Riccardo Albori, Carlo Arch, Arrigo Artelli and others. On the eve of the Great War, the Tripcovich fleet, after the Austrian Lloyd and the Austro-American fleet, was the largest in the empire of Austria-Hungary. When the war broke out, Božidar (now Diodato) transfered his company, the cash register and all the employees to Graz under the orders of his brother Pavle (Paolo) accompanied by his wife. His children Mario, Oliviero and Maria (future wife of Goffredo de Banfield) also by left with them to protect them from the dangers and hardships of war. Diodato (Božidar), however, remained in Trieste, near his ships.
The recovery after the war was not easy, but for Božidar 1921 began in the shade of orange blossoms with the marriage, in London, of his daughter Maria to a World War I flying ace Gottfried Freiherr von Banfield. Božidar took advantage of the occasion to enter into a partnership contract with two of his former Kotorian acquaintances: Ilija Radoničić (nephew of the late Bishop Trifon Radoničić of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kotor) operating as a shipping agent and broker in Glasgow and shipowner Božidar "Božo" Banac, (Vane Ivanović's stepfather) active in London.
In Trieste the family settled in Piazza della Stazione 4, now Piazza della Libertà, in a very large apartment rented by the Parisi family, although during the summer they all moved to the splendid villa in Gretta, purchased in 1902 by the Springers. Božidar died there on 25 September 1925, at the age of 63. The helm passed to his sons Mario and Oliviero, and to the brother-in-law Gottfried Freiherr von Banfield.https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Naval_Policy_of_Austria_Hungary_1867/O8xHL01QG8cC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Diodato+Tripcovich&pg=PA374&printsec=frontcover Despite the deep mourning, a fruitful period began for the family. Mario entered the right political circle, he frequented key men of the fascist government, artists and writers (including Svevo and Joyce), until he was received by Mussolini himself in Palazzo Venezia. In 1929 Oliviero Tripcovich, the most joyful of the brothers, married his latest flame, the American Elisabeth Brockway Crispin in New York, scion of a wealthy English family who had settled in Pennsylvania in 1681.
Close to the Second World War, the family photos show Maria and Goffredo de Banfield with their children Raffaello and Maria Luisa-Pinky, Oliviero without his wife Betty (who in 1939, in the first winds of the war, jumped on the last ship destined for the USA), Mario who married Silivia Mordo and whose daughter Maria who married Count Orsino Orsi Mangelli during the bombing in 1941.
At the end of the conflict the Tripcovich fleet was decimated: of the fifteen merchant ships only three were saved, of those used for rescue and towing two out of nine. Unspecified the number of dead in service. The activities resumed around the concessions of the trailer service, but in 1958 Oliviero died, and in 1963 Mario also disappeared. With them the males of the Tripcovich family became extinct. Of the sons of Diodato (Božidar) only the daughter Maria remained, married to Goffredo de Banfield, and her son Raffaello de Banfield Tripcovich.https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Jewish_Journey/RqCLDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Diodato+Tripcovich&pg=PT186&printsec=frontcover
Category:1862 births
Category:1925 deaths
Category:Ship owners