The steamship Varese started life as the SS Winestead, named after a village East of Hull. She was an iron screw steamer built in 1871 by Humphrys & Pearson in Hull (UK).

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She ran cargo services between Hull (UK) and the Baltic ports of¬†Cronstadt (St. Petersburg’s main seaport, Russia),¬†Reval (Tallinn, capital of Estland),¬†Memel (East Prussia, named Klaipƒóda at present and located in Lithuania) under the Bailey and Leetham ownership between 1871 and 1883. Hull’s second biggest fleet, Bailey and Leetham began in 1854 and operated 27 vessels by 1874 from Hull, London and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with services to the Baltic states and the Mediterranean. They owned 94 ships in 1903 when the company and its fleet was acquired by the Wilson Line.

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Between 1883 and 1895, the SS Winestead sailed between Gravesend or Newport (UK) and the Adriatic ports of Messina, Venice and Fiume, with occasional trips to Reval and St. Petersburg (Russia).

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Around 1880-1890, international competition was becoming more severe, especially from German and Danish shipowners, with a rapid alteration of booms and slumps. In these circumstances, Bailey and Leetham found it expedient to dispose of older tonnage when a market could be found. They sold the SS Winestead to Italian owners in 1895 who renamed her SS Varese, after the Italian town of Varese. Bailey and Leetham sold a total of 19 ships for further service between 1888 and 1899.

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A small side story links the SS Winestead to one of the murders by the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper. A ship’s fireman (stoker) named James Thomas Sadler was accused of murdering Frances Coles on February 13, 1891 and even of being Jack the Ripper himself. He spent most of the two days before Frances died in her company. They had argued and had both drunk heavily during the time they were together. However, in due course it was shown that Sadler’s story of his movements was true and that it was highly unlikely that he was the man responsible for taking France Coles’s life. He was able to prove that he had been at sea on the S.S. Winestead when four of the supposed Ripper victims had been killed. As a result, he was discharged on 3 March, to loud cheers from his supporters.

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At the outbreak of the Italo-Turkish War (September 29, 1911, to October 18, 1912), the SS Varese was in the Black Sea and had to remain there until the conclusion of the Treaty of Ouchy in 1912 (also known as the First Treaty of Lausanne (1912). Although minor, the Italo-Turkish War  was a significant precursor of the First World War as it sparked nationalism in the Balkan states.

A couple of years later, on January 19, 1915, the then 44 year old SS Varese was on route with a cargo of phosphates from Sfax (Tunisia) to Venice (Italy). One day before arrival, she encountered strong Bora winds from the NE and then diverted close to the east coast of the Adriatic Sea to get some lee. Finally, Captain Mortola decided to enter in the port of Pula (or pass very close to it) to avoid further damages to his small vessel. There is no confirmation of what really happened before the explosion, we can say that due to the extreme weather conditions, the ship was not maneuvering at her best and consequently hit a mine and foundered 6 miles west of Banjole, a small fishing village near Pola. The blast destroyed the bow and the Varese sank rapidly. There was no time to launch a lifeboat. A steamer arrived on site an hour later, rescued Livorno Alfieri Vidali, and recovered a body. The other 19 crew members were lost at sea.

The minefield around Pula already had caused other victims: the most significant was the Baron Gautsch (Austrian passenger ship), which was struck by a mine in the 1914 summer. This is to point out that the Pula minefield was definitely managed in poor operational conditions (both for strategy and communications aspects).

Nominally allied with the Central Powers of the German Empire and the Empire of Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance, the Kingdom of Italy refused to join them when the war started in August 1914. Italy was still neutral in January 1915 when the SS Varese sank, but the Great War was already ravaging Europe. At that time, war was declared by France, UK and Russia against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy was still “neutral”, even if the general feelings against Austria were very strong and everybody knew that Italy would have entered in war soon anyway.

The SS Varese was one of the oldest ships in the Italian merchant marine at that time and became the first Italian victim lost in the First World War. But since Italy was not yet at war with Austria, consequently, the tragic episode can be considered an “accident” and not an act of war between the two countries. On May 23 1915, almost a year after the war’s commencement, after a period of wavering and after secret negotiations with France and Great Britain in which Italy negotiated for territory if victorious, Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies.

Italy fought mostly against Austria-Hungary along the northern border, including high up in the now-Italian Alps and along the Isonzo River. The war was initially a failure for Italy despite being numerically superior to Austria-Hungary. The Italian army repeatedly attacked Austria, making little progress and suffering heavy losses, and then being routed in 1917 by a German-Austrian counteroffensive after Russia left the war allowing the Central Powers to move reinforcements to the Italian Front from the Eastern Front. In October 1918, as civil unrest increased in Austria-Hungary, the Italians attacked again. The Austrian army broke, and the Italians drove deep into Austrian territory. Fighting ended on 3 November 1918. Italy and the Allies had been victorious.

Kingston upon Hull, or just Hull as it is usually called, is a city in Yorkshire on the northern bank of the Humber Estuary.
Hull owes its very being to its proximity to water. During the late 12th century when the monks of Meaux needed a port to export wool from their estates they chose a spot at the junction of the rivers Hull and Humber to build a quay and named it Wyke on Hull.

In the late 13th century when Edward I looked for a port in the north east of England through which he could supply his battling troops in Scotland he acquired Hull which then became known as Kingston (King’s Town) upon the Hull. The king set about enlarging Hull and built an exchange where merchants could buy and sell goods.

Hull’s importance as a port, and in its early years as an arsenal, at one time second only to London’s arsenal, caused walls with battlements and towers to be initiated in 1327, blockhouses on the east bank of the River Hull in 1542 and a citadel, again on the east bank, in 1681. Although all these have long gone, their imprint on the old town along with the subsequent docks, can still be appreciated.

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The main export from Hull was wool, along with some salt, grain and hides whilst the chief import into Hull was wine together with wood, iron, furs, wax, seeds for oils and pitch. By the early 17th century there was a ship building industry in Hull and by the end of the century trade in goods was booming. This caused problems as River Hull was unable to cope with the volume of traffic and there were problems with it silting up. This eventually resulted in the development of a dozen new docks in the 18th century.

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Hull has made a significant contribution to the history of steam-propelled vessels with first attempts as early as 1781. The first regular steam-powered boat on the Humber entered service in 1814. Several other small river packets quickly followed, many both built and owned by Pearson’s of Thorne. The Kingston, a wooden paddle steamer, was built in 1821, and was the first sea-going steam vessel to be built locally. She was put into the Hull-London trade. In 1823, the Kingston made her first North Sea voyage to Antwerp, whilst the Prince Frederick, launched at Pearson’s Yard (Thorne), entered service on the Hull-London run. All these craft were owned by Pearson’s under the name of Hull Steam Packet Company, and were managed by Weddle and Brownlow. Thomas Weddle departed for America in 1834 and Brownlow formed a new partnership that year with William Hunt Pearson, son of Richard Pearson (Thorne), to create the firm of Brownlow and Pearson.

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The Hull Steam Packet Company had enjoyed a clear field in the Hull-London trade for 12 years, but competition grew in the 1833-1837 period, and bigger ships were required to keep up like the 185 feet Victoria launched in June 1837 from Brownlow and Pearson’s Yard on the Humber Bank.

William Hunt Pearson died at the age of 43 in 1854 after suffering from diabetes. The use of the name Hull Steam Packet Company seems to have ceased after Pearson’s death. A number of links were established by marriage between the Pearsons and local mercantile and shipbuilding families. W.H. Pearson’s eldest daughter, Jane Emma Pearson, married in 1868 James Humphrys of Byrne. A new partnership was established in 1868 with his wife’s brother, Frank Henry Pearson (1844-1915), in the form of Humphrys and Pearson, Kingston Iron Works, shipbuilders, engineers and repairers.

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Humphrys and Pearson, Ltd was situated on the Humber Bank East of the Samuelson’s shipyard (Sammy’s Point). Samuelson’s Shipyard introduced iron shipbuilding in Hull and was later sold to the Humber Iron Works. Humphrys and Pearson’s Patent Slipway is shown on the 1890 Ordinance Survey map on this web page. Its Winding House is all that’s left today.

Humphrys & Pearson, Kingston Iron Works, launched 23 ships between 1869 and 1875, including the SS Winestead.

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Baileys & Leetham, the first owner of the SS Winestead, not only operated a shipping fleet. They also ran the Humber Iron Works and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd in the 1870’s. Looking at the construction records of both Humphrys & Pearson, and Baileys & Leetham, they supplied each other with ships, steam engines and various parts.

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Pula, formerly known as Pola, was the home port of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The naval port was called ‘Seearsenal’ (naval base) and took over the role of Venice, where the early Austrian Navy had been based.

Pola had major shipbuilding facilities. Its naval installations contained one of the largest floating drydocks in the Mediterranean. The city of Pola was also the site of the central church of the navy “Stella Maris”, the naval observatory, the military school of mechanical engineering and the naval military cemetery.
Subsequently, Pola grew from a fading provincial town into an industrial city. The famous island of Brioni (in Croatian renamed Brijuni) to the south of Pola became the summer vacation resort of Austria’s Habsburg royal family.

In World War I, the port was the main base for Austro-Hungarian dreadnoughts and other naval forces of the Empire. During this period many inhabitants were Italian speaking. The 1910 Austrian census recorded a city population of 58,562 (45.8% Italian speaking; 15.2% Slavic).

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The Austro-Hungarian Navy is not as well known as navies of other big countries involved in World War I. The Austro-Hungarian Navy (k.u.k. Kriegsmarine) was well organized and a very interesting navy. In the Navy there was a submarine flotilla and its submarines succeeded in keeping enemy (i.e. the Allied) warships out of Austro-Hungarian waters, as much as possible. In the beginning of the war there was also a German Navy Mediterranean submarine flotilla based in Pola. Once when Germany declared war to Italy, on 28th August 1916, the submarines mainly returned under German flag. Their original serial numbers were returned as well. Because of some reasons, some of the submarines continued with operations under Austro-Hungarian flag and serial numbers.

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The Austro-Hungarian coast was on the east side of the Adriatic Sea, from Trieste to Kotor (Cattaro). Also, the Austro-Hungarian Navy charted the whole Adriatic. Their ships (cruisers) even went on very distant voyages to China and Japan, for example. The Navy also had a lot of naval hydroplanes. And there were also some unofficial improvements, very important to naval history, like the invention of the torpedo (By Fregattenkapitan Ivan Lupis ‚Äî a Croat which served in the Austro-Hungarian Navy at Pula‚Äî In the beginning the name of the new weapon was “Minenschiff”, but soon the name was changed to its current name “torpedo”, after the fish named “electric ray”, or Torpedo marmorata in the Latin language.)

So the Navy consisted of a strong fleet, modern naval aviation, excellent naval schools, shipyard etc. By 1915 a total of 33,735 naval personnel served in the k.u.k. Kriegsmarine. Fortifications around main naval base Pula were strong and, for the period, modern. The fortifications still exist and are a testament of the presence of a strong navy one hundred years ago.

After World War I Austria and Hungary were deprived of their coasts and their navy was confiscated. Their former ports on the Adriatic Sea, such as Trieste, Pola, Fiume and Ragusa, became parts of Italy and Yugoslavia (today, what had been the Yugoslavia coast is split among Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro).

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