page_title: Portuguese Navy
section_title: National Maritime Authority
hierarchical_section_title: Portuguese Navy / National Maritime Authority
caption_attribution_description: English: Ship NRP Escorpiao at Madeira Island's shore, heading to Porto Santo. Português: Navio NRP Escorpião ao largo da Ilha da Madeira, em direcção a Porto Santo.
context_page_description: The Portuguese Navy is the naval branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in cooperation and integrated with the other branches of the Portuguese military, is charged with the military defense of Portugal.
  On 12 December 2017, the Portuguese Navy commemorated the 700th anniversary of its official creation by King Denis of Portugal. Tracing its origins back to the 12th century, it is the oldest continuously serving navy in the world.
  The Navy played a key role at the beginning and during the great voyages of the Age of Discoveries in the 15th and 16th centuries. The resulting of this technical and scientific discoveries led Portugal to develop advanced ships, including the caravel, new and more sophisticated types of carracks for interoceanic travel and the oceanic galleon, and to find the sea route to the East and routes to South America and Northern North America.
  Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa and Vasco da Gama reached India, linking Europe and Asia for the first time by ocean route, as well as the Atlantic and the Indian oceans.
context_section_description: The National Maritime Authority (Autoridade Marítima Nacional) or AMN is the public body responsible for most of the coast guard type activities in Portugal, including the security, safety, life-guard, lighthouses and pollution fighting at sea. For hundreds of years and until 2014, the maritime authority role in Portugal was performed by the Navy, with the AMN constituting a branch of it. However, due to the constitutional issues of having a branch of the Armed Forces performing an internal security role, the AMN was separated from the Navy in 2014, being now formally an entire separate organization. However, although legally separate, the AMN and the Navy organizations still override in many aspects. So, a single person has the double hat of being  the head of the Navy (with the title of "Chief of Staff of the Navy") and the head of the AMN (with the title of "National Maritime Authority"). The same happens with other persons that have double hats (e.g. the Navy's maritime zone commanders are also the AMN heads of maritime departments, which territorial jurisdictions coincides). Besides this, the Navy continues provide naval and other assets to the service of the AMN and continues to staff with its personnel a number of bodies of the AMN.
  The term "National Maritime Authority" has a double meaning, referring both to an entity and to an organization. As an entity, AMN is the person responsible for the administration and coordination of the organization, who inherently is the admiral that has the role of Chief of Staff of the Navy. This person is frequently referred as "Admiral AMN" to distinguish him/her from the AMN organization. As an organization, AMN it is the structure that includes the Directorate-General of the Maritime Authority (DGAM) and the Maritime Police (PM). Among other bodies, the DGAM includes itself the Life Guard Institute, the Directorate of Lighthouses, the maritime departments, captaincies of the ports and maritime delegations, the Sea Pollution Fighting Service and the Maritime Authority School.
  The National Maritime Authority is part of the Maritime Authority System, which includes other public agencies that also perform authority duties at the sea.
caption: The patrol boat NRP Escorpião, one of the naval assets regularly placed at the disposal of the AMN by the Portuguese Navy
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