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Haitian Navy
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The Haitian Navy, officially the Haitian National Navy (French: Marine Nationale d'Haiti; Haitian Creole: Lamarin Nasyonal d'Ayiti), also known as the "Marine Haïtienne" or "Lamarin Ayisyèn", is the naval branch of the armed forces of Haiti. The constitutional duty of the Navy is to protect the maritime sovereignty of Haiti: It is to secure and defend Haitian waters that include the Atlantic ocean (northern Haiti) and the Caribbean Sea which embraces the remainder of the Haiti's coastline. The Navy is responsible with securing the lakes inside the country, and land areas under its direct area of command.
Like the rest of the armed forces, it was reinstated by the late-President Jovenel Moïse in 2017 after being disbanded in 1995 by executive order, by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.[1]
As of July 2025, the Haitian Navy has a strength of a dozen personnel, all officers and non-commissioned officers who graduated from the Escuela Naval Militar of the Argentine Navy. The Colombian Navy will be training 250 recruits[2] starting late 2025.
The acronym "MH", (French: Marine Haïtienne) is used as the ship prefix for all Haitian Navy ships. The acronym "MARNAT" is scheduled to be used for internal administrative use and to identify non-water based vehicles and infrastructure.
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History
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1860–1915
The Haitian Navy was established in 1860.[3]
By the early 1900s Haiti had the largest fleet of any Caribbean country, though its ships were crewed by foreigners and it mostly consisted of outdated gunboats.[3][4] The largest vessel in the Haitian navy was the Italian cruiser Umbria, which was purchased in 1910 but it sank in less than a year because of the crew's inexperience.[5]
The crown jewel of the Haitian navy, the Crête-à-Pierrot, sunk during the Markomannia incident when the SMS Panther (1901) shot it down after Admiral Hammerton Killick blew the aft magazines to avoid capture. He would die in that attack as he chose to go down with his ship, along with 4 crew members. When the U.S. occupation in 1915, almost all of the navy's ships were sold. After 1915, only two unarmed schooners were kept. They would become part of the Haitian coast guard within the Gendarmerie of Haiti, and later the Garde d'Haïti.[5]
Before 1915 the fleet included the following:[5]
- Ex-Italian cruiser Umbria (1910–1911) renamed Consul Gostrück
- gunboat Crête-à-Pierrot (1896–1902)
- gunboat Liberté (1910–1911)
- gunboat 22 Decebre 1804 (1860–1912)
- gunboat 1804 (1875–1912)
- gunboat Dessalines (1883–1915)
- gunboat Toussaint-Louverture (1886–1915)
- gunboat Capois La Mort (1893–1915)
- gunboat Alexander Petion (1893–1915)
- Two auxiliary schooners
1970–1995
On April 21, 1970,[6] three units — La Crête-à-Pierrot, Vertières (both 100-ton coast cutters) and the Jean-Jacques Dessalines (formally the USS Tonawanda (AN-89)) — mutinied and shelled the Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince. They were driven off by fighter aircraft and then interred themselves in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The US disarmed the vessels and relocated them initially to Puerto Rico and then back to Haiti. Duvalier celebrated this event by renaming the Coast Guard the "Haitian Navy" (La Marine Haitienne).
In 1973, Duvalier attempted to expand this with the purchase of up to 24 small boats, allegedly to include PT boats, but these plans came to naught.
In 1976, the Haitian Navy purchased five small patrol craft from Sewart Seacraft of Berwick, Louisiana. The Dessalines was returned to the United States, while the Admiral Killick, Artibonite and the Savannah and the six 83-foot cutters were stricken.
In 1978, the USS Samoset, a Sotoyomo-class tugboat, was acquired and recommissioned as the Henri Christophe. The planned sale of a sister ship fell through.
After the armed forces were disbanded in 1995, the ships from were handed over to the Haitian Coast Guard, this time within the Haitian National Police.
The Haitian Navy in the late 1980s and early 1990s included the following ships, along with 165 servicemen:[7][8][9]
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Organization
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Mission
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Culture
Haitian Navy Day is September 6, corresponding to the day of Admiral Killick's heroic death in battle against a foreign enemy force.
Budget
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Personnel
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Officers
NCOs and Enlisted
Training and Formation
Haitian Ambassador to Argentina, Dr. Vilbert Bélizaire, secured scolarships with the Escuela Naval Militar of the Argentine Navy, an initiative in collaboration with the Haitian Ministry of defense with the objective of reinforcing the Haitian Armed Forces. Haitian cadets have attended and graduated from the officer school, the NCO school, and the professionals program,[10][11] as part of a interinstitutional agreement signed between both countries.[12][13] A handful of cadets are still in Argentina receiving military education and training.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20]
As part of defense cooperation signed between the governments of Haiti and Colombia,[21] the Colombian Navy will be training 250 Haitian sailors. Colombian minister of Defense Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez announce the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Haiti, Lieutenant general Derby Guerrier, will travel with the designated commander of the Haitian Navy to Colombia[22] to assess, observe the training grounds and set the timeline to begin basic training. The training will done on Colombian soil, likely in Barranquilla. The cost of this training will be covered mostly by Colombia, via the Agencia de la Presidencia para la Cooperación Internacional. International partners line the United States, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the Dominican Republic, may also contribute to this project. The training is anticipated to cost USD $2.5 million along with the other branches being trained.
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Equipment
The Haitian government plans on acquiring ships from Miami, including three 110-foot Island class patrol boat, to reinforce its maritime capacities in the defense of the bay and port of Port-au-Prince, and fight piracy activities along the metropolitan coastline.[23]
A delegation of military officers and staffers of the Ministry of Defense traveled to Rio de Janeiro,Brazil, to attend LAAD Defence & Security 2025. They met Colombian Shipyard COTECMAR, who confirmed they were in talks to provide for Haiti's naval needs.[24]
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Uniform
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Notable Sailors
References
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