Romanian Navy

Romanian Naval Forces Forțele Navale Române
The coat of arms and the flag
Founded	22 October 1860 as the Flotilla Corps
Country	Romania
Size	7150 regulars
Part of	Romanian Armed Forces
Command HQ	Statul Major al Forțelor Navale – Bucharest
Commanders
Commander-in-Chief of the Romanian Naval Forces Staff	Rear Admiral Alexandru MIRSU
Insignia
Roundel
Naval jack
Military colors

The Romanian Navy (Romanian: Forțele Navale Române) is the navy branch of the Romanian Armed Forces; it operates in the Black Sea and on the Danube. It traces its history back to 1860.

The Romanian Navy was founded in 1860 as a river flotilla on the Danube. After the unification of Wallachia and Moldavia, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the ruling Domnitor of the Romanian Principalities, decided on 22 October 1860 by order no. 173 to unify the navies into a single flotilla. The navy was French-trained and organized. Officers were initially sent to Brest Naval Training Centre in France, as the Military School in Bucharest did not have a naval section. The first Commander-in-chief of the navy was Colonel Nicolae Steriade. The base was first established in 1861 at Izmail, but it was later relocated in 1864 at Brăila and in 1867 at Galați. The equipment was modest at best, with 3 ships from Wallachia and 3 from Moldavia, manned by 275 sailors. The main goal of the navy was to organize, train and expand this small force.

The first seamen's training school was established in 1872 at Galați for officers, petty officers and sailors. The first acquisition of the Romanian Navy was the steamboat "Prințul Nicolae Conache Vogoride". The ship was purchased in 1861 and was later transformed into a warship at Meyer naval shipyard in Linz, being christened "România" when it was launched at Galați harbor. In 1867, the royal yacht "Ștefan cel Mare" (Stephen the Great) entered service. In October 1873, the Fulgerul gunboat, ordered by the Romanian state as the first purpose-built warship in the history of the Romanian Navy, was finished at the Toulon shipyard in France. However, the ship was unarmed, so she would be allowed passage through the Turkish straits. After arriving in Romania in April 1874, she was fitted with a Krupp cannon in a mild steel turret at the Galați shipyard. The next ship to enter service with the Romanian Navy was the spar torpedo boat "Rândunica" (The Swallow) in 1875. These ships represented the Romanian Flotilla during the War of Independence.