NincompooperyToo: The Naval Museum in Tivat Montenegro

Tivat, Montenegro is an interesting place. It started as a quiet seaside town that was focused on fishing until the 1900s.

Starting in the early 1900s, it grew into a ship repair facility, first for Austria-Hungary and later for Italy. After WWI, Montenegro was incorporated into Yugoslavia and the ship repair business was supported by Italy, Britain, and Germany.

After WWII, it was the main shipbuilding site for Yugoslavia until the breakup of the nation.

Since its independence from Serbia in 2006, Tivat has become home to superyachts and very upscale customers. It grew quickly into an area where rich Russians, Western Europeans, Ukrainians, and Americans could buy homes and live. Tivat was mainly the home base for the Russian population.

Since the Ukrainian-Russian war, Russian visitors and home ownership have collapsed. Montenegro is part of NATO, and hence, Russian embargoes. FYI, the locals miss the Russians because the Ukrainians don't tip. But all that is beside the point of this post. In Tivat is the Yugoslavian Naval Museum, which includes access to an old Yugoslavian submarine you can go on.

It was pretty interesting inside the museum. They had old subs, including this two-man sub. (!) It obviously wasn't built for two large men.

Gareth is next to the two-man sub. Eddie on the far side :-)

This was the old sub we went on.

Torpedo installations, tubes, and a military escape suite

This was pretty weird for me. I knew it was tiny and cramped, and only had enough bunks for about 1/2 of the crew at any time.

But if you look at the torpedo tubes in the top left, you see a torpedo in one and an empty tube in the other. Okay, if the sailors had to evacuate, they had to get into those Spider-Man-ish suits in the lower right picture. Then they would get into that top torpedo tube, 3 at a time. They would flood the tube, the three would exit, and the next three would go in.

Someone had to fill the tube with water, so at least one person would have to go down with the ship. It should have been the Captain, but since this never occurred we don't know.

Then, there was the question of where the submarines would be based to be safe.

Yugoslavia built Submarine bays into a sparsely populated peninsula in Kotor Bay. They disguised them, and today you can boat right into them.