ARCHIVE MARINE OFFERS


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11.          GAVARRONE, DOMENICO 1856       

Miracle on board of the "Giulietta" for the sailor Prospero Malatesta

Watercolor on paper, cm 41x54 (inv. Costa n.25)

Signed: Domenico Gavarrone in Genova 29 8bre 1856

Known data:

   TYPE:                                                brig   
   YEAR OF CONSTRUCTION :      1852
   PLACE OF CONSTRUCTION:      Varazze
   SHIPOWNER:                                  G. Cignone 
   CAPTAIN:                                         G. Cignone  

Caption:

       Grace granted by Our Lady of the Boschetto to the seaman Prospero Malatesta of the Brig Giulietta, which as soon as it was come down from the Fore Mast, and carried to stern, it burst at that very moment a lightning that passed between the mainmast and the shrouds where it was, without that the same one came  seriously damaged, receiving only little burns on the legs. Wrote this on the 21th day of D.ber 1855 in the Gulf of Venice ".

Notes:

A brig '"Giulietta" is cited by Gio Bono Ferrari in the volume of 1935 "The City of the Thousand white Sailships. Camogli" (p.225) as being present in 1853 in the harbour of Costantinople under Captain Gio Bono Schiaffino. 

This indication let us deduce the  travels of the same ship, (previous to this in the Gulf of Venice and in farther lands), but it is extremely difficult to have the certainty because of the remarkable frequency of ships with the same name. 

Just Gio Bono Ferrari, in the cited volume (p. 238), showing the confusion possibilities, gave an example gained from the documents of the Direction Office of the Port of Genoa: the 20th day of January 1860 left from the port of Genoa, directed to Cadiz, the Camogliese Brig "Unione", Capt. G. De Gregori. 

The same day arrived in the port of Genoa another camogliese brig "Unione", under Captain R. Ferro, coming from Odessa with 2550 quintals of hard grain, which, as soon as unloaded, left again for the Levant. 

To evidence of the frequency of the same name he cited two offrings already dedicates to the Madonna of the Boschetto with protagonists in 1852 one bombard  "Union" (inv. Costa n.19) and, in 1853, a brick schooner "The Union" (file 50, inv. Costa n. 22). 

The doubts between ships identity can be obviously dispel when their images can be confronted, as in the case of the brig "Rosina" in the following card.
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY: G.B.R. Figari, "Captain Giacomo Razeto, Knight of the Legion of Honor (1811-1888)", in "The Madonna of the Boschetto", 1978 (4) pp.19-21; F. Simonetti in "The Sailor's Prayer", catalogue of the exibition, Rome 1992, p. 688.