The Albanien was built in the Trieste shipyard in 1910 as a modern iron ship for the transport of cargo and passengers. At the beginning of the WWI it was leased from the merchant navy for the local transport of military material along the Adriatic coast.
Sailing was mostly carried out under the cover of night, so as to protect the ships from enemy reconnaissance aircraft and submarines. At that time, Italian submarines often set up ambushes in the places where the Austro-Hungarian ships had to pass, and one such place was along the west coast of the island of Pag, where the ships had to pass by on their way from Trieste towards the Dalmatian ports and vice versa. On the night of 4th June 1916 the Italian submarine the Atropo above water slowly approached the coast of Pag, in order to set up an ambush for Austro-Hungarian ships. Before daybreak on the horizon there appeared a cloud of smoke, and it was the steamship Albanien on the way to Zelenika (Montenegro) with a cargo of hay.
At 05.45 two explosions reverberated, both at the stern of the ship. The steamship Albanien stopped and began to increasingly sink at the stern, while the crew began to abandon the ship.
The wreck lies upright on the sandy seabed at the depth of 70 metres. The exact spot of the sinking of the ship Albanien was confirmed by Italian technical divers in 1998 and 1999 during the search for ships sunk during the Second World War.
