In 1779, the Portuguese Minister of the Navy, Melo e Castro, created the Royal Naval Academy in Lisbon, whose purpose was the academic training of naval and merchant naval officers. The academy’s teaching was essentially oriented towards subjects of a theoretical nature, without any component of military training. As this educational establishment was not sufficient to develop the proper military integration of future naval officers, Queen Maria I of Portugal re-established a naval military force, the Companhia dos Guardas-Marinhas, by ecree on 14 December 17821. The decree promulgated by the Queen stated that: “it is much in the interest of my royal service [...] that in the Navy there be skilful and educated officials to serve usefully in that exercise.”2
On 1 April 1796, Queen Maria I of Portugal created the Academia Real dos Guardas-Marinhas (Royal Naval Officers Academy), which integrated the Companhia dos Guardas-Marinhas, also providing the scientific training previously carried out by the Royal Naval Academy. Years later, the founding diploma of the Polytechnic School of Lisbon, from 1837, refers to a future reorganisation of naval education, and establishes a connection between the Naval Academy and the Polytechnic School through the subject of spherical trigonometry and navigation, theory and practice. The following years were marked by a lively debate between the defenders of the “polytechnic”, who wanted to keep the monopoly on technical education at all costs, retaining control over the training of future navy officers, and those linked to the sea, who argued that higher mathematics, geometry and other academic disciplines were of little or no use to those who had the tasks of leadership and command on a warship.
It was the report of a commission, created with the aim of making naval
education independent, that led to the publication of a legal charter on 23 April 1845, creating the Escola Naval (Naval Academy), and the decree on 19 May of the same year, which regulated this new institution. Thus, by decree of Queen Maria II of Portugal3, the Academia Real dos Guardas-Marinhas came to be known as the Escola Naval, whose facilities would remain on the Terreiro do Paço, on the old Ribeira das Naus, a symbolic location associated with the Portuguese discoveries.
The Escola Naval is presently located in Alfeite, to where it was relocated in 1946, and continues, today as it did 175 years ago, to fulfil its mission, training future naval officers, under the motto that guides all those who have served in it, Talant de bien faire (the will to do good).
