The most attractive wreck of the Bay of Kotor rests on a keel, slightly sloping to the right, on the sandy seabed. The beauty of its construction, overgrown with different types of colorful sponges and surrounded by fish, is enjoyed by divers who can dive to a depth of 40 meters.
The uniqueness of the diving experience is the rather good preservation and presence of the ship's equipment such as a winch for lifting cargo, two anchors on the bow and anchor winch, auxiliary anchors, telegraph on the command bridge, steering device and the remains of the ship's toilet.
In order to see all its beauty and details, tourists dive on this boat several times, which is an important resource of Boka's tourist offer.SS Tihany (Tihany) began construction in 1907 at the shipyard in Trieste, and the following year it was launched under the Austro-Hungarian flag with its home port on the island of Unije.
A typical cargo steamer of its time, with two masts and one chimney, was 45 meters long and about six meters wide. It is named after the Tihany Peninsula on Lake Balaton in Hungary. He sailed on the route Kotor - Bar, transporting coal that was used as fuel for ships. On his last voyage on February 12, 1917, he ran aground between Cape Arza and Cape Veslo due to a navigation error. Soon help arrived and SS Tihani started filling up with water. The crew threw coal into the sea in vain to relieve the ship, which sank shortly afterwards, near the island of Mamula. The hull of the ship still has a visible scar of damage that led to the sinking.
Over a hundred years old, the wreck of the steamer SS Tihani is automatically protected by the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage from 2001, to which Montenegro is a signatory. It is expected that this pearl of the Boka submarine will soon be granted the status of a cultural asset by the Directorate for Cultural Heritage, which would legally prevent devastation by unscrupulous divers who have been collecting souvenirs for years.
Literature
Gačević, D., 2012, Podmorje Crne Gore, Matica crnogorska, Herceg Novi.
Darko Kovačević, expert associate for underwater cultural heritage and diving tourism /
source Boka News
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