Forsaken Albania

By Artan Lame
Albania in the 30-ties. There exists an Association in Albania which holds a record in terms of the longevity of its activity and that is the ADRIATICA Shipping Company, (Adriatica di Navigazione). It would be difficult to find an Albanian who has travelled regularly to and from Albania to Italy who has not used one of this company’s ferry services, however it would be equally difficult to find an Albanian who knows that these ferries have been dropping anchor in Albania since 1932, the year when the Durr쳭Bari line was inaugarated. In his description of his arrival in Durr쳠in his work, “Albania, as I saw it,” Faik Konica refers to the ferry of this shipping line. The line was fully operational up until 1943, the year when services had to be interrupted due to the War and the English submarines that patrolled the Adriatic. The official announcement of an interuption of this service issued from Rome said, “temporarily interrupted until the day of the final victory over the enemy.” However, the war was not won without first losing and the word “temporarily” stretched out into forty years, when in 1983 the ȡr袮i Government, in a protocol with the Andreoti Government approved the return of ADRIATICA, first of all the Durr쳭Trieste line and years later the Durr쳭Bari line. Whenever Italy has needed to deploy military forces on this side of the Adricatic, it took a short cut and issued the requistion of vessels belonging to the ADRIATICA company, solving the problem in this manner. This is what it did in the April of 1939, when on Mussolini’s orders these vessels were used to ship in the invasion expedition; this is what happened in 1991 when the PELIKAN Operation used ADRIATICA and this is what occured yet again in 1997 with the ALBA Operation. Today ADRIATICA continues to provide its services, but now, within the Italian state owned giant TIRRENIA.
In the larger photograph taken by the Marubi Studios, you can see a group of Albanians boarding the Adriatica ferry boat at the begining of the 30-ties.
The next picture shows the Company’s Agency in Shkodra. On its roof fly the Italian flag and the Company flag, bearing the Lion of St Mark against a white and red background. The office of the Agency was located on the right hand bak of the River Buna, on the hillside, across the bridge. The explanation behind the location of the agency office on the outskirts of the town, close to the river, has to do with the period of time when the Austrian Lloyd vessels navigated the waters of the river Buna and because they needed to carry out customs and border practices, they needed to have an agency easily accessible. After World War One Austria existed the scene, while the agency remained, waiting for the next major power to emerge which was Italy.
In the smaller photograph, Captain Stefano Antinori, a former Captain of the Company’s ferries and from 1992-2002 Adriatica’s representative in Albania. Antinori is one of the westerners with the longest connections with Albania in time. He first arrived here in 1983 and a quarter of a Century later he is still here. One other thing too…. He does not make an exception to the rule of the Italians of Albania either: he too had an Uncle who served as a soldier on the Albanian front during World War Two.