ZAGREB, August 21, 2018 – Montenegro is open to all its allies using the training ship “Jadran” but the vessel will stay in Montenegro and sail under its flag, it was said at a ceremony in the coastal town of Tivat on Monday which marked the 85th anniversary of the Montenegrin Navy’s most valuable and most beautiful ship.
“The Jadran became part of this town’s history 85 years ago and I’m confident that it will outlive us all and in the next 85 years continue to welcome new generations, new sailors and new visitors,” Defence Minister Predrag Bošković told numerous state officials, business people and other public figures attending the ceremony.
The Montenegrin government in 2013 gave significant funds for a major overhaul of the vessel so that it could continue to sail and be at everyone’s service, in Montenegro, Bošković said, adding that the government planned to open the ship to members of the public and tourists and noting that the vessel was viewed by close to 2,000 people during an open day event.
Tivat Mayor Siniša Kusovac recalled the Jadran’s decades-long ties with Tivat and the Bay of Kotor which, he said, started in 1933 when the then new sailing ship arrived in Tivat.
The ship’s captain, Lieutenant Commander Zoran Ivanovski, recalled its long history, noting that the Jadran was launched on 25 June 1931 and that its construction and final equipping was completed in June 1933, while on 16 July that same year it was welcomed with a big ceremony in Tivat, its home port then and now.
A subject of dispute between Montenegro and Croatia, the former Yugoslav Navy ship, now used by the Montenegrin Navy, was taken from its home port of Split, Croatia, in 1990 for overhaul at the Tivat shipyard, where it stayed due to the war in Croatia and was kept by Montenegrin authorities. Croatia now wants Montenegro to give it back.
Bošković has said on an earlier occasion that the ship is owned by the Montenegrin Navy.
