Jadran (training ship)

Jadran in Tivat harbour
History
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Name	Jadran
Namesake	Adriatic Sea
Ordered	4 September 1930
Builder	H. C. Stülcken Sohn, Hamburg
Cost	8,407,030 dinars
Laid down	1930
Launched	25 June 1931
Commissioned	19 August 1933
Fate	Captured by Italians in April 1941
Kingdom of Italy
Name	Marco Polo
Namesake	Marco Polo
Acquired	1941
Fate	Captured by Nazi Germany in September 1943
Nazi Germany
Acquired	September 1943
Commissioned	1944
Out of service	1945
Fate	Returned to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
SFR Yugoslavia
Commissioned	1947
Out of service	1992
Fate	Passed to FRY Navy
FR Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro
Commissioned	1992
Out of service	2006
Fate	Passed to Montenegrin Navy
Montenegro
Owner	Montenegrin Navy
Identification	MMSI number: 262999000 Callsign: 4OMA
Status	In active service
General characteristics
Type	Topsail schooner or Barquentine
Displacement	720 long tons (730 t)
Length	60 m (196 ft 10 in) (oa)
Beam	8.90 m (29 ft 2 in)
Height	39.1 m (128 ft 3 in)
Draught	4.05 m (13 ft 3 in)
Speed	14.5 knots (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph) (sail alone) 8.5–9 kn (15.7–16.7 km/h; 9.8–10.4 mph) (engine alone)
Range	3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 9 kn (17 km/h; 10 mph) 4,600 nmi (8,500 km; 5,300 mi) at 6 kn (11 km/h; 6.9 mph)
Crew	156

Jadran is a sailing ship for basic naval training built for the Yugoslav Royal Navy and currently in Montenegrin Navy service. A three-mast topsail schooner or barquentine with an auxiliary engine, Jadran was built in Hamburg, Germany between 1930 and 1933, and commissioned on 19 August 1933. Prior to World War II she completed seven long training cruises with trainees from the Yugoslav Naval Academy, including one to North America. As Yugoslavia was neutral at the outbreak of World War II, Jadran was able to conduct short cruises in the Adriatic Sea. In April 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers, and Jadran was captured and renamed Marco Polo by the Italian Navy. She continued to be used as a training ship in the Adriatic, operating out of the Istrian port of Pola, and was featured in an Italian propaganda film.

During the Italian capitulation in September 1943 she was captured by the Germans while being refitted in Venice. Thereafter, the Germans utilised her as a stationary training ship and, in the final few months of the war, as a coal depot ship and floating bridge. Looted and dilapidated at the end of the war, she was returned to the new Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946 and rebuilt as Jadran between 1947 and 1949. Between 1949 and 1991, training was mainly conducted in the Adriatic, and she undertook only five long-distance cruises. In 1984 she undertook her first long-distance cruise in two decades.

At the time that the Yugoslav Wars commenced in 1991, Jadran was undergoing a refit at Tivat in the Bay of Kotor, having been transferred from her home port of Split. During the wars she came under the control of rump Yugoslavia. The new state of Croatia requested her return, but this was refused. Her first cruise with the rump Yugoslav Navy was to Greece in 1997. In 2006, Montenegro became independent, and Jadran became a ship of the Montenegrin Navy. She sailed to the UK in 2005 for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar celebrations, and to Barcelona, Spain in 2008 for the World Conservation Congress.

Jadran's ownership remains disputed between Montenegro and Croatia. In December 2021, the two countries agreed to form an inter-governmental commission to resolve her future status.