In all, the Rog spent 150 days – almost half a year—on the open seas during its maiden voyage. The ship was scrapped in 1966, while Captain Podgornik went on to represent the Slovenian shipping company in Japan. He died in 1989. But both the ship and its captain live on in memory; the Rog was recently the subject of an exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary History in Ljubljana – and even graced a series of postage stamps. Foto: arhiv Pomorskega muzeja Piran
In all, the Rog spent 150 days – almost half a year—on the open seas during its maiden voyage. The ship was scrapped in 1966, while Captain Podgornik went on to represent the Slovenian shipping company in Japan. He died in 1989. But both the ship and its captain live on in memory; the Rog was recently the subject of an exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary History in Ljubljana – and even graced a series of postage stamps. Foto: arhiv Pomorskega muzeja Piran

The Rog, a Liberty-class vessel, had been built in Canada during World War II and it quickly became the pride of the new shipping company’s fleet. In fact, the company, Splošna Plovba, had wanted to buy a new ship, but because it was short on cash, it had to settle for a used vessel that turned out to be much bigger than planned. The captain, Baldomir Podgornik, was selected for the historic maiden voyage. He was an experienced seaman; during World War II, the ship he was on was torpedoed, but he managed to survive the sinking of the vessel.

In 1955, the Rog, with 43 crew members aboard, made its way around the horn of Africa without major issues; it stopped in several ports along the way. But in the Pacific Ocean, it sailed directly into a typhoon.

It soon encountered extreme weather conditions. A helmsman named Joško D'Alise Urbančič went to repair a light and was swept overboard. Turning the ship around to rescue him was impossible because it would have made the ship vulnerable to waves coming from the side. Still, the crew of the Rog was lucky; several ships around it were sunk by the typhoon. The ship had even received their desperate radio calls for help. The Rog ultimately made it out of the storm with substantial damage, and when it landed in Japan, it was even exhibited as a warning to others before it was repaired.

The Rog also made diplomatic waves. At the time, Mao’s China was closed off to most of the world, but the crew from Communist Yugoslavia was greeted warmly in the port of Qingdao. The crew members got to observe folk performances and were treated to a gourmet feast.

In all, the Rog spent 150 days – almost half a year—on the open seas during its maiden voyage. The ship was scrapped in 1966, while Captain Podgornik went on to represent the Slovenian shipping company in Japan. He died in 1989. But both the ship and its captain live on in memory; the Rog was recently the subject of an exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary History in Ljubljana – and even graced a series of postage stamps.