A Boka nobleman who created a business empire out of nothing in Britain

In the northern part of section "R" of Cathay Cemetery, one of the main cemeteries in Cardiff, the capital of Wales in Great Britain, the distinctive coat of arms of a noble family of Boca del Cattaro is carved on a large stone cross.

On the upper field of the shield, which is the base of the coat of arms, there is a dove with an olive branch in its beak and below it an arch with an arrow. This is a family feature of the Luković family and it is very strange that it is so far from the home of this family - Prčanje (Preganzo) in the Bay of Kotor. Near the cross with the coat of arms of the Luković family in Cardiff, however, there is a tomb on whose stone slab in Latin script it says that in 1860 "Count Petar Antonov Luković from Kotor, neither in life nor in death forgotten".

​

Apparently, it is the grave of a descendant of Count Anton Tripun Luković (1832-1911), a famous Boka-Bay shipowner and one of the most important and wealthy Boka-Bay magnates of the second half of the nineteenth century, who left an indelible memory in the economic history of Cardiff. Petar (Pietro) was one of his sons who unfortunately died in his earliest childhood, a few years after his father moved from Kotor Bay to Wales and started a family there.

​

Although he was a very successful and wealthy businessman and an important shipowner who made an international career, very little was written about Anton Luković in national sources. For today's audience in Kotor, he is more than known for the fact that from 1897 until his death on May 18, 1911, he was admiral of the Boka Navy and for 14 years led this former organization of Boka sailors and took over the leadership from his brother, Marko Luković, who was admiral of the Boka Navy from 1878 to 1897, than for reports of its economic and maritime successes.

​

Anton Luković was born in Kotor in 1832 in the family of the famous lawyer, Earl Tripun Ivan Pavle Luković and his wife Ana Pauleta di Cattaro. In addition to Anton, the couple had three other sons: Marko, Vicenzo and Pierre-Anton Lukovic. The Luković family has held the title of nobility since March 27, 1773, when the naval captain Marko Luković of Prčanj received the title of Count/Earl for himself and his descendants for his services in war and for peace by decree of the Venetian Senate and the Doge Alvis IV of Mochenigo.

 

In his historical monograph "Prčanj" of 1937, the famous historian and cultural worker of Boka, the priest Don Niko Luković, wrote that Anton Luković graduated from the Gymnasium of Kotor and had received his high school diploma as a future cleric. However, he was not attracted to the priestly vocation, so it was decided that the young Anton would continue his studies at the famous University of Padua and study law like his father. However, his restless spirit drove him to go to sea instead of studying in Italy, so in 1848 Anton climbed the 247-ton deck of the "Slavomir" in Prcanj and embarked on uncertainty and adventure. After several months of sailing on the Slavomir, a sailboat of Filip Luković and Pavle Verona from Prčani, the young Anton Luković left the ship in the British port of Cardiff in Wales with only five pounds sterling in his pocket. He began working here in a variety of jobs and showed exceptional entrepreneurial talent and risk-taking. He quickly acquired the first major capital, which he continued to invest in the shipping agency and metal trade and the main Welsh export product - the famous Cardiff coal. In the following years, Luković became the owner of several Welsh mines.

​

His business partner in this company was his brother Marko, who organized the second part of the chain - in Kotor and the Dalmatian coast and in the main Austrian ports, Trieste and Venice, as well as in some other ports in Europe. Anton expanded the company by buying and building even more ships that sailed under the Austrian flag. In addition to his own goods, which he exported from Wales, these ships also carried other goods, but also passengers around the world.

 

According to the Maritime Directory (Anuario Marittimo) of the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Central Maritime Authority in Trieste, Count Anton Luković alone or co-owned up to 12 sailboats: the boats "Count Arturo L.", "Count Oscar L.", "Count Iginio L.", "Kavaliersboot", "Isabella" and "Iskra", the schooners "Lucovich AT", "Nettuno", "Favorito", "Peppina B" and "Ljubica" and the brigantine "Andrić". Some of the ships were named after members of his family: sons Oscar, Iginio and Arthur, and his wife Isabella.

​

In Cardiff, Count Anton married Isabella Maud Dawkin, a descendant of the noble Dawkin family, who once owned large estates in this part of Wales. By the time the young entrepreneur married her, however, Isabella's family had already lost most of their belongings. This did not disturb the happiness of the young couple so much, so Antonio and Isabella had seven children during their life together, apparently including little Peter from the beginning of this story, who unfortunately died in infancy.

 

Anton's business flourished in the second half of the nineteenth century - he sold coal and metal from Britain throughout Europe, his ships transported his cargo and those of other companies, and some of them, such as the Count Oscar L., brought the first immigrants from the Dalmatian region to distant Australia. It was found that the boat "Isabella" alone brought its owner 30,000 gold francs net profit during two Atlantic crossings on the Europe-West Indies route. By way of comparison, at that time, the cost of building a brand-new sailboat with a carrying capacity of 600 tons was 50,000 francs...

​

Count Anton mainly employed captains and crews from Boka Bay and the region, and he helped his homeland with frequent charitable actions. He donated his large estate in Tivat on the coast between Cape Seljanovo and Pina to the Austro-Hungarian Navy so that they could build up a naval arsenal there. Tivat, a small fishing and farming town, was thus transformed into an industrial center where "the local population gets bark bread," as the decision of the Tivat City Council at the time puts it.

​

Count Anton Lukovic was so important to the economy of Cardiff and Wales that he was elected vice-president of the London-based British Chamber of Commerce. He retired from the shipowner's business in 1899 when he sold his last ship, the "Isabella", Prčanj's last long-distance sailing ship. In 1909, when he was already old, he left all his belongings to one of his sons. However, Lukovic's business empire in the UK did not last long, as his seemingly rather naïve descendant was deceived by one of his business partners, who fled with most of the company money, so that the company of entrepreneur Anton Lukovics went bankrupt. However, he did not wait for this disgraceful end, as he died on 18 May 1911 in Cardiff, where he was buried. Anton's descendants still live in Britain, Australia, France and the United States.

​

SHIPS OWNED OR CO-OWNED BY COUNT ANTON LUKOVIĆ:

- Brick "Ljubica" of 315 tons, built in Rijeka in 1852, sold in 1871 and publicly auctioned in England.

- Brick "Andrić" of 238 tons, built in 1858 in Rijeka, in 1874 the category of shipping on the coast was reduced.

- The 240-ton "Lucovich AT" barge, built in Chioggia, Italy, in 1865, sank near Jaffa in present-day Israel on November 14, 1875.

- The 367-ton "Nettuno", built in Rijeka in 1867, sank in September 1876 at the mouth of the Gironde river in France.

- Brick "Favorito" of 244 tons, built in 1858 in Rijeka, sold in November 1881 in Alexandria.

- Brick "Peppina B" of 345 tons, built in 1856 in Bakar, sold on July 14, 1881.

- The 478-ton "Iskra" barge, built in 1856 in Sunderland, Great Britain, was sold in 1887 to the Kamenarović and Radoničić families from Dobrota.

​