Pietro Querini

Who is Pietro Querini?

Pietro Querini was a 15th-century sailing captain from the Republic of Venice.

He is known for being shipwrecked in Røst, in northern Norway, in the winter of 1432, and subsequently returning to Venice, where he wrote a report of his travels for the senate. He is also credited with popularizing Stockfish in the Veneto region, where it is prepared as Bacalà alla Vicentina.

Bound for Bruges in Flanders in 1431, his merchant ship encountered a terrible storm off the western coast of France. The storm ravaged the ship, and the sailors had to go in the lifeboats. They fought the storm and cold for weeks. Many men drowned or died of starvation and fatigue when, left to their own fates, drifted on the Gulf Stream far across the North sea. Just after the new year, in January 1432, the survivors stranded on an island amid the skerries near Røst, in Lofoten. Only eleven men, of a crew that totaled 68, made it. They were found by local fishermen, after nearly a month, and eventually spent more than three months together with the Røst inhabitants.

This dramatic incident was the origin of trade between northern Norway and Italy, that made possible - among other beneficial outcomes - the combination of Norwegian stockfish and Italian cooking