The National Navy of Uruguay () is a branch of the Armed Forces of Uruguay under the direction of the Ministry of National Defense and the commander in chief of the Navy (Comandante en Jefe de la Armada or COMAR).
History
Independence
Under the late Spanish Empire, Montevideo became the main naval base (Real Apostadero de Marina) for the South Atlantic, with authority over the Argentine coast, Fernando Po, and the Falklands. The arrival of 100 ships under Viceroy Pedro de Cevallos in 1777 was the beginning of the city's prosperity.
The Uruguayan navy, however, dates its origin from General Artigas's letter of marque on 15 November 1817, which authorized his forces to plunder Portuguese shipping wherever they found it. Portuguese forces from Brazil had invaded Uruguay (then known as Banda Oriental) in August 1816. Under the nominal leadership of the Pedro Campbell, the Irish "Gaucho Admiral", around 50 privateer schooners and brigs (including República Oriental, Fortuna, Valiente, Temerario, and Intrépido) were able to capture more than 200 enemy vessels as far off as Madagascar, Spain, and the Antilles.
Early Republic
Following independence, a navy was established under Colonel Pablo Zufriategui, a veteran of Artigas's campaigns and the 33 Easterners. As Captain of Ports (Capitán General de Puertos), he fought smuggling and in 1832 Zufriategui led the first sovereign engagement when the schooner Aguila chased off the pirate ship Exquisit from Uruguayan waters.
Although the force remained too small to play a decisive role in the Great War, it is notable that command of the small fleet was personally assumed by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who captured Colonia del Sacramento, Isla Martín García, and Gualeguaychú. The flagship during this period was the corvette Sarandí, named after an important battle in the war for independence.
The first specially fitted warships were the gunboats General Rivera, General Artigas, and General Suárez. The first was assembled in Uruguay by the Academy of Arts & Crafts (Escuela de Artes y Oficios) and commissioned in April 1884; the second was constructed in Trieste, then part of Austria-Hungary, and commissioned in December 1884; the last was the 23-year-old French gunboat Tactique, acquired in 1886. General Rivera was the first ship of the Navy to pass the Strait of Magellan.
Modern era
Just prior to World War One, President Williman devoted considerable effort and expense to modernizing the navy, viewing it as demanded for Uruguay's "sovereignty and honor." After false starts in 1817, 1863, and 1874, the Naval Academy (Escuela Naval) was eventually established in December 1907. New ships included the gunboat Dieciocho de Julio (constructed in the UK in 1889), the cruiser Montevideo (the ex-Italian cruiser ), the transport Maldonado (constructed in Germany in 1886 and soon renamed Barón de Río Branco for its tasks for the Commission on the Limits of the Merín Lagoon), the steamer Vanguardia, and the courier Oriental. The torpedo gunboat Uruguay was constructed to order in Germany and commissioned August 1910. Also in 1910, the government acquired the Cibils-Jackson shipyard, renaming it the National Dock. These advances were then sabotaged by funding cutbacks throughout the 1920s that left the navy poorly maintained.
In June 1916, the tug Instituto de Pesca Nº1 - manned by Navy servicemen - led the second failed attempt to rescue the men of Shackleton's expedition from Elephant Island.
In 1925, the Fleet Aeronautics Service (Servicio de Aeronáutica de la Armada) was created under Captain Atilio Frigerio, the first Uruguayan pilot to obtain the brevet of Military Pilot (Aviano, Italy, 1912). The first planes, however, did not arrive until 1930.
In 1934, the first Naval Act (Ley Orgánica de la Armada) created the Inspectorate of the Navy (Inspección General de Marina), freeing the Navy from direct subordination to the Army. The next year, three patrol boats ordered from Cantieri Navali Riuniti in Genoa arrived. The Paysandú, Salto, and Río Negro having served for about 30 years, were decommissioned, and then were brought back into service in the 1990s.
World War II
In December 1939, the Río de la Plata saw the first major naval engagement of World War II when the German pocket battleship faced the cruisers , , and and then fled into Montevideo harbor during the Battle of the River Plate. Although Uruguay was officially neutral, her pro-British sentiment allowed the Royal Navy to carry out a highly successful disinformation campaign that ended in the German scuttling of the ship.