Founder & President · Historic Ships Network
Tadija Miletić
Director · Dramaturge · Maritime Historian · Founder of HSN
Biography
Tadija Miletić is a Belgrade-based director, dramaturge, motivational speaker, and the founder and president of the Historic Ships Network™. In 2007, while pursuing his studies in Dramaturgy at the Academy of Arts in Belgrade, he created a small but meticulously researched collection of pages dedicated to the world's greatest transatlantic liners — an act that would, over the following two decades, grow into the world's most significant digital alliance for maritime heritage.
His approach to maritime history reflects the same discipline and attention to detail that defines his artistic work: exhaustive research, rigorous sourcing, and a deep commitment to accuracy. What began as a passion project became a global institution, today reaching over 13 million people during landmark maritime commemorations.
Beyond his maritime work, Tadija is an accomplished cultural figure. He is the founder of Kulturni element, an arts organization he established in 2011 alongside twenty young artists; the director of the Lazar Jovanović International Opera Competition, the largest opera competition in Serbia; and an Associate Professor at both the Faculty of Contemporary Arts and the Academy of Arts. He is also the author of the television series Prva tarifa (The First Fare), broadcast on Prva Televizija.
RMS Titanic & Olympic Class — Areas of Expertise
- Over 20 years of continuous research into RMS Titanic's design, construction, and loss
- Deep specialist knowledge of the Olympic-class sister ships: Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic
- Extensive study of Harland & Wolff shipbuilding records, deck plans, and original engineering drawings
- Unique insights into the human stories of Titanic's passengers, crew, and the rescue operation
- Broad expertise across the full golden age of ocean travel, from the 1880s through the 1970s
- Direct collaboration with leading maritime historians, museums, and academic institutions worldwide
The Network — A Two-Decade Journey
The journey from those first pages in 2007 to the Historic Ships Network of today is one of the most remarkable stories in digital cultural preservation. Starting with nearly 20 pages covering the world's most celebrated ocean liners, Tadija steadily built a community that attracted maritime enthusiasts, then experts, then institutions.
By 2015, his pages had become reference points for professional historians and museum curators. By 2017, they were reaching millions. And in 2021, recognizing that the Network had long since transcended social media, he undertook a complete reorganization — establishing the Historic Ships Network™ as a formal international alliance, with a website, a store, a member directory, and an editorial mission that no single platform could contain.
The 2024 milestone — 13 million people reached during Titanic Memorial Month and Lusitania Memorial Week — stands as the defining proof of what one person's vision, sustained over nearly two decades, can achieve.
Selected Career Highlights