Riverine Vessels Of Abkhazia

Riverine vessels is a catch-all term to describe brown-water navy vessels designed exclusively to operate on rivers and waterways. They are designed with shallow draughts so they can operate in the shallowest of water. They came to the fore during the mid-1800s with the Mexican-American War and then the American Civil War, as particularly in the latter war, both the Union and Confederate navies could be considered as predominantly “brown water”. Numerous monitors and other riverine vessels were designed and saw service and henceforth became a staple of many modern navies, particularly those of landlocked countries.

The Riverine vessels section on this website comprises gunboats and river monitors, as well as other very shallow draught boats designed for operations on waterways. Sometimes distinctions between different types of vessels aren’t clear, meaning some of the inclusions are probably debatable. The most recent example of river warfare was the Vietnam War, when the U.S. Navy operated a substantial “brown-water” navy against the North, with some vessels being modified to fire napalm. However, after 1970 the U.S. Navy disbanded its river fleet and gave them up to the South Vietnamese.

Many nations still operate these types of warships and Brazil, of particular interest operates the only remaining river monitor in the world and also one of the oldest commissioned warships still in service.