Romania - Navy - Early History
Like anywhere else in the world, navigation has been an important part of the Romanian geographic area, the land surrounded by the Carpathians, the Danube and the Black Sea, "our entire past being governed by waters", as our great historian Nicolae Iorga said: Ever since ancient times the Danube and the Black Sea have represented a major attraction for the intrepid sailors, who originally made use of rudimentary boats and later on steam-propelled ships. In order to sail along the Danube and on interior rivers, the Dacians used rafts and the so-called dugout canoe, which often stood for a "fighting weapon".
From the Antiquity to the Modern Age, Phoenician ships, Greek triremes, Roman galleys, Byzantine dromons, Venetian and Genovese caravels, Moldavian sailing ships and Walachian kayiks sailed on the Danube. On the Black Sea shore, the three Greek colonies established between the 7th and the 6th cent. BC – Histria, Tomis and Callatis – became prosperous ports and commercial areas, the last two of which later on developing into the nowadays Constanta and Mangalia ports.
As a result of Burebista’s military campaigns these colonies became part of the kingdom of this great Dacian king, called by Acornion of Dionisopolis "the first and the most powerful king of Tracia". Thus, the maritime coast of the Dacian kingdom, which during Burebista’s times reached its maximum territorial width, lay between Olbia (located at the river Bug mouth) and Apolonia (the nowadays city of Sozopol in Bulgaria).
In the 1st century AC, the expansionist intentions of the Roman Empire targeted at the left bank of the Danube, became real during Trajan’s ruling, through the two Dacian-Roman wars. During these wars, the battles between the Dacians under the great king Decebal and the Roman troops took place not only on land but also on the Danube and the Black Sea.
After Dacia was conquered and turned into a Roman province, the defense of the limes along the Danube and the Black Sea coast became part of the Roman fleets’ mission, stationed in Dacia: Classis Flavia Moesica, the Roman military fleet on the Danube and Classis Pontica, the Roman military fleet on the Black Sea.
Several centuries later, the Byzantine Empire imposed its power over the Danube and the Black Sea through its fleet, which had forts, real naval stations, specially created for the Danubian limes, like the isle of "Pacuiul lui Soare", erected in the 10th century.
After the crystallization of Romanian feudal states in the 14th century, their rulers were mainly interested in the Lower Danube, the Danube’s mouths and the Black Sea shore (from the North of Chilia arm to the South of Varna), where adequate military structures had been created. Mircea cel Batrân, the ruler of Tara Româneasca, united Dobrudja, including Silistra, with Walachia in 1388-1389 for the first time, becoming "ruler over the two banks of the Danube, and allover Podunavia, up to the large sea" – as he used to name himself in any issued document – and the founder of our maritime fleet.
In 1456, Iancu de Hunedoara, the ruler of Transylvania, took part in the great naval battle of Belgrade, thus contributing, alongside the other Christian forces, to the defeat of the Ottoman fleet. In Moldavia, the organization of a maritime fleet had started ever since the time of Roman I and Alexandru cel Bun, who, in the officially issued documents, named themselves "rulers of Moldavia from the mountains to the sea". It was Stefan cel Mare who continued their naval policy and carried through the organization of the Navy by endowing it with vessels (Moldavian sailing ships called pânzare) built in Chilia and Cetatea Alba naval shipyards. These vessels sailed across the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, under the well known red flag bearing the symbol of the Moldavian bullhead. Concerned with the safety of navigation, the ruler of Moldavia built a tower – a place for lookout, probably a lighthouse, used for orientation at sea, as the inscription at the Zografu Monastery on the Mount Athos states.
For military purposes and especially for lookout over the Danube, cannon-armed kayiks were used. These were built between the 17th and 18th century during Constantin Brâncoveanu’s ruling. During the Phanariot era, especially under Alexandru Moruzzi, a fleet was organized in Walachia for the first time and its vessels were used both for military and merchant purposes.
The Union of the Romanian Principalities in 1859 resulted in the union of the flotillas of the two sister principalities on October 22, 1860, whereas the new Navy was named the "Flotilla Corps". By the Decree signed by Alexandru Ioan Cuza on the permanent union of the flotillas along the Danube, Colonel Nicolae Steriade was appointed Commander-in-chief of the Flotilla Corps. The Headquarters were initially located in Ismail, where the first Romanian War Flotilla Headquarters was to function. This was founded under the Law on the Training of the Army of the United Romanian Principalities (May 13, 1860). Along with the union of flotillas, a single flag was chosen, bearing both the colors and the symbols of the Moldavian and Walachian flags. The process of updating the Flotilla’s uniforms started in 1861 by introducing the dark blue color.
Endowing the Navy with new ships claimed the existence of well-trained Navy personnel and staff. Therefore, by the Ministerial Resolution of November 17, 1872, the first Special School was founded in Galati for the officers and petty officers in the Flotilla Corps, the first of its kind in Romania. In 1873 the gunboat Fulgerul was commissioned to sail on the river and at sea. Built at Toulon, Fulgerul was the first military ship of Modern Age Romania which hoisted the national flag at its mast and sailed across the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. In 1875, the Flotilla was endowed with the torpedo motorboat Rândunica built at "Yarrow" Naval Shipyard in London.
With these ships, the small-sized Romanian Flotilla wrote history during the Independence War. The Romanian sailors’ missions during the Independence War were as follows: they participated alongside the Russian fluvial forces in setting barrages in Reni – the Prut mouth and the Siret mouth, at Ghecet on the Valciu arm, by the Isle of Gâsca Mare; they attacked the Turkish vessels on the Macin Channel – May 12/13, 1877; the ships Fulgerul, Rândunica and Xenia launched the attack on the enemy ships in Hârsova (June 8); the Romanian sailors supported the Russian troops to breach the Danube barricade (June 9/10 in Braila - Galati; June 14/16 in Zimnicea) by providing the necessary means and defending them through their land artillery; the sailors equipped eight artillery batteries in Calafat under the command of Lieutenant-Commander N.D. Maican and accomplished a number of important missions; they also built and defended the Silistioara-Magura bridge and laid the mine barrage of Nedeia (15 km from Rahova); they sank the Podgorita monitor (November 7) and rescued the Russian ship "Ada"; transports for the front were also provided.
Along with its Independence and therefore its free access to the Black Sea, the Romanian Navy, endowed in 1880 with its first sea-going ship – the gunboat Grivita benefited until WWI from 3 navigational aids endowment programs: in 1883 – 1885, in 1886 – 1888 and in 1906 – 1908. The 4th program, meant for 1912 – 1913 was never carried out at that particular moment, the ships commissioned abroad having been requisitioned as WWI broke out in 1914. As a result of these programs the Romanian Navy was endowed in 1881 with the brig Mircea, a steam-powered sailing ship built in London, three gunboats, one mine-laying torpedo boat, two torpedo boats, police motor boats (in the 1st program), one cruiser, three fluvial gunboats and three fluvial torpedo boats (in the 2nd program), four monitors and eight patrol boats (in the 3rd program).
Among these ships, an utmost important role for training the military staff was played by the training ship Mircea which on her 31 training voyages (out of which 17 on the Black Sea, 12 on the Mediterranean Sea and 2 on the Atlantic Ocean) trained almost 40 classes of Navy officers and petty officers. A significant role in the maritime fleet was held by the cruiser Elisabeta built in Newcastle and launched on December 13, 1887.
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