In the Carpathian-Danube-Pontic geographical space navigation and sailing are millennia old activities. The Danube, the inland rivers and also the Western coast of the Black Sea, make up a rich and well-structured network of waters, which allowed for the development of sailing. Throughout the centuries it was practiced by the locals, even though the maritime and river routes were sometimes controlled by the Greeks, Romans, Italians, Byzantines, Ottomans, the latter from the end of the fifteenth century until 1878. During this long period of history, the Romanians had their own navigation, as proven by Moldavian sail ships during the reign of Steven the Great (Ștefan cel Mare), the “bolozan” and “șaică” types of ships. These ships were mentioned by a document (“Hrisov”) in Wallachia being used on the Danube and forming in 1793 the first commercial state-owned fleet. Other examples include the “Caique” ships of Constantin Brâncoveanu. The Romanian commercial fleet was crystalized at the end of the nineteenth century, with the creation of the two state-owned services (companies), on for the maritime and the other for riverine shipping, and it expanded considerably during the twentieth century. In the first half of the last century, the Romanian commercial fleet was led via the NFR (the Romanian Riverine Navigation) and the SMR (the Romanian Maritime Service), created in 1890 and 1895 respectively. During the second half of the twentieth century Romanian transport ships were administrated by a new company, NAVROM, a maritime and riverine navigation enterprise, founded in 1955. In the 90’s the company called Enterprise for the Exploitation of the NAVROM Maritime Fleet (IEFM NAVROM) was divided into three structures (all of them state-owned): “Petromin”, “Navrom” and “Romline”, based in Constanta. Until the end of the 80’s alongside IEFM Navrom Constanta, there were also two other companies involved in the shipping industry: ICE Navlomar Bucharest—state-capital company, dealing with foreign trade, and the mixt joined Romanian-Libyan company, “Roliship”. These two companies combined owned around 4.5% of the number of ships and 4.17% of transport tonnage. One important feature in the evolution of the Romanian commercial fleet (especially true when in regards to its maritime component), was the fact that for more than half a century since its inception, the endowment with ships was done exclusively with foreign built vessels. Before World War II they came from industrialized nations, such as Italy, England, France, Denmark and Germany. After the last great war, as the country was industrialized, the national shipyards and their industry were subsidized the state. At the end of the 80’s the Romanian commercial navy had reached its peak, the country being the owner of one of the largest maritime and riverine transport fleets in the world. Another key issue was the training of specialized personnel. In the early years of the commercial shipping companies, they had to rely to some extent on the expertise of Navy officers. This was because at the time the only schools for the training of senior naval personnel were those of the Navy, including the Naval School (today called the “Mircea cel Bătrân” Naval Academy).
The History of Naval Transports
History Mechanism, Machine
2023-09-22
14 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
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