City of Ragusa of Liverpool was a 20-foot (6 m) yawl (in 19th-century terms),[2][3] owned by Nikola Primorac, which twice crossed the Atlantic in the early days of 19th-century small-boat ocean-adventuring.

The 1870 east-west trip between Ireland and the United States was crewed by John Charles Buckley, a middle-aged Irishman with seagoing experience, and Primorac, a Croatian and tobacconist.

The crew on the west–east return trip of 1871 were Primorac and a "lad" called Edwin Richard William Hayter from New Zealand, who had been a steward on the steamer City of Limerick of the Inman Line.

Following each trip, the ship and crew were the subject of much international public attention, and President Grant viewed the City of Ragusa after she reached America.

"[2] She was double-floored and had a ballast of 3,360 lb (1,524.1 kg) of iron, a condenser for distilling drinking water from saltwater, and there was coal on board, although cooking was done with a spirit lamp.

[7] The 1870 yawl conversion (in 19th-century terms) was undertaken in Liverpool under the supervision of J.C. Buckley,[7] who received much local support in the form of victualling for the expedition.

According to the Cork Daily Herald in June 1871, "She is yawl rigged, and returns to Ireland just as she left it, except that a gaff topsail is added, and that her sails have been enlarged.

When lowering the ship to allow visitor boarding, the jackscrew holding the stern gave way, and the keel fell on Primorac's leg, causing a compound fracture.

"[10] On 22 July 1875 "a small boat with red bottom and two top strakes painted white, name on stern City of Ragusa, Liverpool," was picked up by Captain Hewett of the schooner Success, 15 nmi (27.8 km) off Douglas Head.

[6][12] On 2 June 1870 the City of Ragusa, crewed by Captain John Charles Buckley and Nikola Primorac, left Liverpool for New York.

"[14][15] They stopped en route between 12 and 16 June at Queenstown due to the stuffing box of the prop shaft leaking, and they probably removed the windmill gear from above decks at that point.

[2] Buckley did not mind the attention, but Primorac tended to lose patience, "and for all the visitors knew might have more than once consigned them to all sorts of future pains and sufferings.

"[17] The Cork Constitution reported that:[16] All things considered, she made a capital voyage across the Atlantic, and became the admiration of the nautical men of New York.

[22] In 1878 Hayter wrote to The Times to say,[23] The City of Ragusa was visited in America by President Grant and all the State officials of Boston and by the Governor and ex-Governor of Rhode Island, and was seen by Admiral Northcott and many other officers of Her Majesty's Navy and over 400,000 persons at the Crystal Palace.

[16] The Cork Daily Herald gives another view of those events:[3] [Buckley's] retirement elevated his crew Primorez – to the position of captain, and this brave man spent the entire spring in cruising about New York and up the Hudson, and to the principal cities on that part of the coast, where extreme anxiety existed amongst the people for a glimpse at the extraordinary craft.

No better idea of her apparent sea going powers could be gleaned from anything than the fact that four experienced sailors who were successively engaged to work her under the directions of Capt.

[16] The Illustrated Police News reported:[25] Bad weather set in off the banks of Newfoundland, and for ten days a series of gales tossed them about in a terrific sea.

From the beginning to the end of the passage the captain saw the sun rise and set only once, and during the remaining days the weather was too thick to permit him to make observations ... off Fastnet ... they amused themselves with catching a young shark.

"[16] The Irish Daily Telegraph was one of those spectators:[27] We saw the little thing at Queenstown, but 19 feet long, and [1.75] tons measurement, rocking to every wave of the passing stream, bending to every puff of wind, which scarcely stirred the flags of her sisters around her; we looked in wonder at her, and very few could realise that she had made two long voyages across the Atlantic; had ridden out, off the coast of Newfoundland, two severe storms; had seen large vessels dismasted, and herself surrounded with the debris, which was more dangerous to her than the contending elements.

The owner and master, a quiet looking man, with no sign of the hero about him – with nothing to shew that patient, invincible courage, which he must possess to brave many dangers for so long a time ...

"[22] The Illustrated London News reported in 1870:[2] He formerly served in the army of the Papal Government and was taken prisoner, in 1860, during the short campaign of Castelfidardo and Spoleto, by the invading forces of King Victor Emmanuel.

[2]At Trafalgar Square, London, on 12 January 1859 the Humane Society awarded J. Buckley of the Royal Limerick Militia a silver medal "for saving the lives of Sergeant M. Mahony and Private J. Bastow of the same corps ... who went to bathe in the sea, and venturing out too far would no doubt have met a watery grave, had not Buckley, after the most desperate exertions, succeeded in bringing both of them ashore.

The trip involved running before the gale, with water sweeping the decks, hands lashed at the pumps, lifelines in use, and two men at the wheel.

[31] Nikola Primorac (Dubrovnik 27 July 1840 – Liverpool 1 March 1886)[2][6] (anglicised as Nicholas Primovez), otherwise known as Pietro di Costa, was a tobacconist and stationer by trade.

The dog was described by the Illustrated Police News as a "splendid brindled Bull Terrier which bore all the suffering of the long journey with as much fortitude as his fellow passengers."

His name was found to be Nicholas Primoraz, tobacconist and stationer, carrying on business at 56, Duke-street, and with considerable difficulty he was secured and locked up.

Primoraz is the man who a few years ago sailed across the Atlantic in a tiny boat named the City of Ragusa, his only companion being a dog.

[37] The Cork Daily Herald said of him, "Heyter ... is a fine young man, a native of New Zealand but of English parentage, and during his time he has been almost in every part of the world.