First Years of the Re-establishment of Estonia’s Naval Defence

Abstract

The Navy and the fleet had been very important to Estonia during the War of Independence of 1918–1920. The British fleet that arrived at the roadstead in Tallinn in December fended off the threat of the Soviet Russia’s Baltic Fleet and guaranteed supply channels for weapons, volunteers and other aid to be brought to Estonia.

History and historians played an important role in the restoration of Estonian naval defence: the Estonian Academic Military History Society was founded in the Maritime Museum in 1988, and the Guild of Estonians Who Served in the Finnish Navy during World War II was established in autumn 1991. The submarine ‘Lembit’, which had been launched in 1937, once belonged to Estonia and was reclaimed from the Baltic Fleet in early 1992, became the first vessel of the Estonian Navy. The first naval units of the Defence League were also restored in 1992 and they took over a number of patrol boats of the Soviet border guard.

The naval defence of Estonia was built up in the cooperation and competition of several institutions – the Defence Forces, the Border Guards and the Estonian Maritime Administration. The establishment of maritime border guard units was considered of primary importance. Estonia received ships and boats from the Nordic countries, Germany and the US, and some Soviet vessels were also in working order.

Structuring the Naval Forces of the Estonian Defence Forces started later and the Commander of the Navy was appointed in February 1994. There were five officers, five non-commissioned officers and five conscripts serving in the Navy at the time. The Estonian flag was hoisted on the Estonian Naval Base at the Mine Harbour in Tallinn in September 1994. In the same year, Estonian seamen participated in the first major international naval exercise BALTopS ’94