Did you know that the idea for the design of the torpedo, today a standard part of the naval arsenal, is believed to have come from Croatian inventor Ivan Blaž Luppis Vukić? During his service in the Austro-Hungarian Navy, he conceived the idea of building a remotely steered unmanned boat carrying explosives, to be used to sink enemy ships, in order to protect the Dalmatian coast. The Salvacoste (“Coastsaver”), as Luppis nicknamed it, is considered a forerunner of the torpedo.

The Austro-Hungarian court repeatedly refused to accept the new defence weapon. In 1864, in order to develop the invention further, Luppis entered into a collaboration with British engineer and technical manager of the Rijeka Technical Institute (Stabilimento tecnico Fiumano), Robert Whitehead. After the collaboration ended due to a difference of opinion, Whitehead launched the production of an underwater projectile similar to the modern torpedo in his factory. The factory in Rijeka thus became the first torpedo factory in the world, and the new weapon was named “the Luppis-Whitehead torpedo”.

For his work, Luppis was awarded the Imperial Order of the Iron Crown (3rd degree) and given the noble title of von Rammer, with its own coat of arms.