“Pietro Querini was a nobleman and merchant from Venice. He is known from his own account of the voyage in January 1432 when he drifted ashore off Røst in Lofoten, probably on the uninhabited Sandøya island.
The fully loaded ship with 68 men on board had sailed from Crete on 25 April the previous year. Instead of reaching Flanders, a heavy storm took them off course and the crew went into the two lifeboats on 17 December. One with 47 men on board drifted ashore with 29 survivors, of whom only 11 eventually made it back to Italy.
On Røst, they were found by fishermen, and the local priest acted as interpreter. After three or four months of care from the locals, they travelled south as guests on a yacht loaded with stockfish, with stops in Trondheim, Vadstena in Sweden and London. Querini’s account of their journey and stay on Røst has provided valuable cultural-historical knowledge about a northern Norwegian fishing and farming community in the Middle Ages.”
