Counting Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan as landlocked countries (both have borders on the Caspian Sea, and both have navies, but neither borders the world ocean) it is true that Uzbekistan is “doubly landlocked”. However, Liechtenstein is in the same boat. (Okay, sorry…um, same geographic state.)
Also, the army of Burundi includes “naval and air units” (the former on Lake Tanganikya, I presume) and the armed forces of Rwanda include a navy; the country’s border includes a stretch of coastline on Lake Kivu. Man, these guys are everywhere! They should form a new international organization; the League of Landlocked Naval Powers or something. (The coastless countries which only have merchant marines could be associate members.) And Liechtenstein or Uzbekistan should clearly form a navy, just to say “up yours” to a heartless and uncaring geographical universe. The Uzbeks could at least sail around on the Aral Sea, at least until it dries up completely. The Liechtensteiners have a border on the Rhine they could float a gunboat or two on. Plus, they could sell commissions, and add to their existing philatelic revenue. I mean, lots of people would probably shell out a few bucks to be a Captain of the Liechtensteiner Navy.
Oddly enough, Liechtenstein has signed the Law of the Sea Treaty; God knows why. However, they haven’t ratified it. Perhaps the Diet simply felt the rest of the world was just rubbing salt in the wounds to have even brought it up.
Yeah, but Liechtenstein borders Italy, which is not landlocked by my definition, nor is Germany really landlocked by my definition either. I’ve always understood landlocked to mean not having access to the ocean, but most European countries qualify as long as they border a sea which connects directly to the ocean (since you can essentially look at that sea as an extension of the ocean.) So rivers connecting to oceans don’t count, but seas do…
I was once told that Paraguay does have a navy. It has 1 boat and 12 admirals. Each admiral gets to take a turn commanding the boat for 1 month a year.
Oh my, I cannot believe I’ve made such a stupid geographical error. Urgh! And I’ve driven through it before, too… For some reason I thought it bordered Italy or Germany but, alas, that is not the case. I stand corrected.
They don’t seem to have acquired anything major since '85 and have allowed attrition of their pre-1932 stuff. But since the site does not list combatants under 100T nor auxiliaries under 500T, they may be decently equipped with small river-patrol craft and it would not show up. For that same reason the Bolivian, Ugandan, Rwandan, etc. naval services are not listed at all at HazeGray. But seriously, for these countries, SAR and smuggling patrol on the inland waterways is the real need, not surface combatants. Even for some who do have a seacoast but get more out of the rivers, e.g. both Congos.
Anyway the gag ElvisL1ves quoted would not have been too darn far off the mark back when Stroessner ran Paraguay from the 50s thru late 80s – overall a stereotypical 3rd World dictatorship with an absurd number of Flag/General officers relative to organizational need. Heck, look at the link provided by Darwin’s Finch: in 1988 they had “eight divisions of infantry” and the total Army size was… 12,500. Hey, you had to give all those generals a suitable command to keep them happy… and no troops with which to rise up.
I did a report on Liechtenstein in 6th grade, and I seem to recall that they had one boat that patrolled their section of the Rhine. Couldn’t find any evidence that this is still the case.
John Biggins wrote two historical novels about life in Austria’s WWI navy, “Sailor of Austria,” “The Emperor’s Coloured Coat,” and a sequel about its air force, “The Two-headed Eagle.”
Nothing to add to the OP, just thought I’d stop in and plug a few books.
About ten years ago The Wall Street Journal ran a front page article on the Bolivian Navy. An admiral was quoted as saying that the service was useful in drug interdiction programs as it cruised rivers, and added that it was also important to maintain on the chance that Bolivia had a coastline in the future.
Not that it is really pertinent, but I recall that the legislature of the State of Nebraska, when wishing to bestow an honor on a public servant, will name him or her an Admiral in the state navy.
There is a famous story that William Jennings Bryan, while Secretary of State, mistakenly sent an invitation to the Swiss Navy to participate in a meeting.
If you think that’s odd there’s the case of fellow Austro-Hungarian navy officer Miklós Horthy, not only was he an admiral in country without a navy he was also Regent of a kingdom that lacked a king.
