Dalmat (yacht)

The Dalmat was a yacht of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Royal Yugoslav Navy, Regia Marina and the Yugoslav Navy. Built as Ossero in Trieste in 1896 she was transferred to the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1899 and in 1901 renamed Dalmat. In 1914 she helped transport Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria to Sarajevo. After Ferdinand's assassination she carried his body back to Trieste. Dalmat was transferred to the Royal Yugoslav Navy in 1920 following the Dissolution of Austria-Hungary. She was captured by the Axis in 1941 and served the Italians as Fata. The vessel reverted to the Yugoslav Navy in 1943 following the Armistice of Cassibile and was renamed Vila. She remained in service under the communist government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, being renamed Orjen in 1945 and Istranka in 1954. Sometime after 1972 she was decommissioned and became a floating restaurant. She was put up for sale in 1998 but lay derelict in a Croatian shipyard until purchased and restored by Italian politician Gianfranco Cozzi. Cozzi was denied permission to sail the vessel from Croatia in 2003. The vessel remains in Split harbour where it has twice sunk due to lack of maintenance.