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The first inhabitants of Baska Voda were farmers (olive growers and grape cultivators) and fishermen. With the construction of the first steam boats, some of them became sailors even on transoceanic ships where voyages could last up to two or more years. Just before the First World War began, Franz Joseph, the Austrian emperor built the main wharf for boats (Veliki mul 1912) in Baska Voda, alongside other ports and harbours along the Adriatic coast, which stimulated the local inhabitants to build “Stella” sailing boats with a load capacity of up to 100,000 kg. These were used to transport cattle, cereals and other goods in trade between the islands of Brac, Hvar and Vis and the Biokovo hinterland reaching Duvno (Tomislavgrad) and Livno in Bosnia. With the appearance of phylloxera (a grapevine disease) and the collapse of viticulture in Italy, wine was transported as far as Trieste. When Yugoslavia fell and during the war crisis, instead of tourists, Baska Voda was inhabited by refugees from the Croatian war areas as well as from Bosnia and Herzegovina which sometimes outnumbered the local inhabitants by three to one during the major crisis.
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