The long journey of the U4 dive bell

While being a fairly keen collector of Austro-Hungarian Empire stamps for almost fifty years I have also dabbled in several more specialist areas including Austrian stamps used in Hungary, the Salzkammergut, the first four issues of Hungary and almost all ‘back of the book’ material up to 1921. However for the past 5 years – since visiting Dubrovnik and Kotor (formerly Cattaro) – I have become quite fixated with almost any material to do with the Bay of Cattaro prior to 1919, whether it be stamps, postcards, general covers, ship’s letters, maps, etc.

Whilst this remote southernmost area of the old Austria province of Dalmatia (now part of Montenegro) is almost unknown in the UK, it was of course a major base for the Austro-Hungarian navy right up to the end of the first world war. The ‘Bocche di Cattarro’, as it was known to the Austrians at that time, comprises three distinct bays with interlinking narrow passage and as such was practically impregnable to enemy forces. From the bay’s entrance off the Adriatic Sea it extends some 28km to the