in 1976 Liberia acquired a small number of naval ships during its early history. In 1892 the steel
gunboat Gorronomah, built in Ireland, became its first ship, and in 1894 it acquired the gunboat
Rocktown, built in the Netherlands. They were both out of service by 1900. In 1916 the
auxiliary schooner President Howard was acquired from Germany and was the only ship in the Liberian Navy, but it was sunk in April 1918 by the German submarine . The Liberian National Coast Guard, was established in 1959. Throughout the Tubman period the coastguard was little more than a few sometimes unserviceable patrol craft crewed by ill-trained personnel, though its training improved in the 1980s to the point where it was considered the best trained of the armed services. Under
Samuel Doe the Coast Guard was retitled the Liberian Navy in 1986 through the passage of The Liberian Navy Act of 1986. However, as a result of the
First and
Second Liberian civil wars, the navy lost control of its bases and was reduced to an insignificant force. A
United States Coast Guard officer is now serving at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia supporting efforts to reestablish the Liberian Coast Guard. A detachment from
SeaBee Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 7, based at
Naval Station Rota, Spain, constructed a
United States Africa Command-funded boat ramp and concrete perimeter wall for the Coast Guard, which was handed over in December 2010. In February 2011, the United States turned over two donated
USCG Defender class boats to the Coast Guard. ==Fleet==