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Show ARGOSIES GOT NAME FROM ADRIATIC PORT Preparing recently for a vialt from the Italian fleet the port of Ragusa in southern Jugoslavia could recall earlier and more fateful fate-ful visits of ships from Italy. Nine hundred years ago Venice sent fleets there, which were the first to challenge Ragusa's Independence. Inde-pendence. "Dubrovnik Is the Jugoslav name used since 191 for the 2500-year-old port of Ragusa," aaya the National Geographic society. "But the name Ragusa lingers in the English language In the form of 'argosy,' the full-sailed galleon in which Raguaan merchants trana-ahipped trana-ahipped their treasures from th east to all the ports of Europe, and finally to the new world. This walled city on a rocky promontory prom-ontory overlooking the Adriatic was for centuries an independent city-republic, a vest pocket sea power of ship owners and sailors. Instead of fighting stronger powers. pow-ers. It paid tribute or became an ally, and enjoyed a virtual monopoly monop-oly of Mediterranean shipping while larger nations fought over It - |