On Wednesday, while the ship was moored in the port of Bar, the school ship of the Croatian Navy, the sailing ship "Jadran", suffered a serious accident - the main (thick) cross on the front mast of the ship was broken. The wooden cross used to crucify the sails, the so-called beehives and fatteners, it weighs several hundred kilograms and as "Vijesti" has unofficially learned, it broke due to the poor material it was made of and previous damage that was recorded on it in the previous period.
Fortunately, during the shooting, the thick cross did not fall on the deck of the ship, but it remained broken and deformed, standing by the front mast, fixed to the so-called with a hat, thus avoiding injuries and possible human casualties among the ship's crew, who then found themselves on the maneuvering deck of the sailboat.
"Although this kind of damage to the ship and its equipment is something that by its nature belongs to the so-called "extraordinary event" which according to the "rule of service" must be reported to the superior command, the Ministry of Defense was not informed by the Navy Command of the Croatian Republic of the extraordinary event on the training ship "Jadran". Allegedly, no one wanted to "bitter" the first working day of the newly appointed Minister Raško Konjević (SDP), who was on the job for the first time in that position on Wednesday", claims a well-informed source of "Vijesti" from the Navy.
A day after the incident, the broken thick cross was removed from the front mast of "Jadran" on Thursday, so that passers-by walking in the marina in Bar near the operational shore of the passenger terminal where the sailing vessel is moored would not see it visibly deformed on the ship's rigging. This is also confirmed by the photos that "Vijesti" readers took yesterday in Bar.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Defense did not respond to the questions of "Vijesti" regarding the incident and the damage suffered by the school ship "Jadran" - whether they were officially notified of this by the MVCG Command, and what was done to determine the cause of the accident and the responsibility for it . Namely, the broken log cross is a relatively new wooden element of the "Adriatic" tackle, which was made by a Croatian company and delivered for installation on the sailing ship during its last overhaul, which was carried out in the former Adriatic shipyard of Bijela.
That overhaul, which cost the Ministry of Defense (MOD) nearly 1,7 million euros, was carried out during the mandate of Milica Pejanović-Đurišić (DPS) and Predrag Bošković (DPS) at the head of that ministry, and it was rather poor quality. That is why the MoD last year, while it was led by former minister Olivera Injac, announced that it would review the work of the members of the Supervisory Board, which was formed to monitor and accept works during the general overhaul of the school ship of the Croatian Navy, the sailing ship "Jadran" in Bijela, which was carried out from autumn 2013 to spring 2017.
In March of last year, "Vijesti" was told by the Ministry of Defense that part of the works, worth a total of around 1,7 million euros, on the ship, which is the pride of the Croatian Navy, was performed very poorly, and some newly installed systems never even functioned properly. This primarily refers to the newly installed air conditioning system of the ship, which never worked as planned and designed, that is, to the installed newly made wooden elements of the "Adriatic" tackle, which were then made by a Croatian company from Bakr.
The expensively paid wooden extensions of the masts and halyards, i.e. the crosses on the masts, turned out to be of much lower quality than those specified in the order, and they were made of spruce wood that was still quite green and had not "aged" enough, so deformations, cracks and even rotting on parts of the newly installed wooden elements of the equipment. Although only less than four years have passed since the general overhaul of the ship, the rigging of the sailing ship MCG was already in such a bad condition last year that "Jadran" was not able to sail safely without the risk that under the stress of the raised sails and the wind in them, some of the wooden elements manage to burst and perhaps collapse on the deck. On Wednesday, that's exactly what happened in Bar, at a moment when the thick cross of the ship was not at all burdened with a stretched sail because "Jadran", commanded by the corvette captain Ivan Laković, has been tied to the coast for a long time and almost never sails to sea.
The Ministry of Defense previously told "Vijesta" that the department concluded a contract with the then Jadran Shipyard in Bijela on January 29, 2013, on the performance of overhaul and docking services for the school ship "Jadran" according to the accepted technical specification. "The contract was completed on November 29, 2017, with the preparation of the Record of Receipt of Repair Works, which lists all the deficiencies observed during the handover. For the monitoring and implementation of contracted works, a Supervisory Authority was established by the Ministry of Defense. During the implementation of the contract, the contracted technical specification had several concluded annexes and seven agreements", said the Ministry of Defense.
Due to the non-fulfillment of the contractual obligations in terms of the deadline for the performance of the service and the quality of the work performed, the MoD, as they stated, on December 15, 2015, filed a claim in the amount of 221.174,25 euros before the Commercial Court in Podgorica for the production of new elements of wooden fixtures and penalty amount of 92.628,57 euros.
"By the verdict of the Supreme Court of Montenegro on October 10, 2019, this procedure was completed, as the claim was partially accepted in the part of the claim due to the delay in completing the overhaul, while the claim in the part of making new elements of the equipment was rejected as unfounded. In any case, the Ministry will investigate the work of the supervisory authority and call to account the persons who participated in this project", they told "Vijesta" last year from the department that was then headed by Minister Olivera Injac.
Unofficially, the company from Croatia, which was hired for the production of new wooden tackle elements for the Adriatic, was founded shortly before the tender for the overhaul of that ship, which was announced by the Montenegrin Ministry of Defense, and which was then led by the Minister Milica Pejanović-Đurišić, and was shut down immediately after. "work done" on the school ship MVCG.
The Ministry of Defense, which is now headed by the leader of the SDP, Raško Konjević, did not answer the questions of "Vijesti" about whether the latest accident that happened on the ship in Bar and the fact that "Jadran" has not been able to sail for a long time, nor the ship sails from that port at all, confirms that Montenegro is not able to adequately maintain and service this valuable, but for maintenance and exploitation very demanding ship, which will reach its 90th birthday next year.
The Ministry of Defense did not even answer the question regarding what the department will undertake to repair, maintain and use the school ship "Jadran" in an adequate manner, considering the exceptional technical, historical and cultural value of that ship and its importance for the maritime tradition of all former Yugoslav republics.
Bonus video:
