The Naval Academy has its roots in the Flotila School established in the Danubian port of Galați in 1872. After the reorganization of the Romanian military education, naval higher education was assigned to the "School of Application for Marine Junior Officers", established in Galați in 1896 and transferred to Constanța in 1901. The school was reorganised in 1906 as the "Superior Naval School", only to be disbanded during World War I, due to the occupation of Dobruja by the Central Powers. A Naval School was reestablished in Constanța in 1920, with a "Section for Merchant Marine" established in 1938.