Free Batavian Navy
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| Active: | 1685 AN – 1687 AN |
| Allegiance: |  Unified Governorates
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| Personnel: | 150,800 active duty personnel |
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| Type: | Navy |
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| Nickname: | None yet |
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| Current Commander: | Admiral-General Isor Verion |
The Free Batavian Navy (Bat: Vrije Bataafsche Marine) was the naval component of the United Benacian Defence Force (Bat: Verenigde Benacische Weermacht) formed from those elements of the Iron Fleet stationed in Benacian harbours who had come over to the United Benacian Republic following the collapse of Gran Verionia in 1685 AN. Comprised of a near third of the Iron Fleet's former strength, the Free Batavian Navy represented - on paper - a potent force in being whose battle effectiveness had been amply demonstrated during the Verionian-Raspur War. In spite of this, the vulnerability of Navy's key ports of Chryse and Nieuw Ingelheim to land and air bombardment by the forces of the Raspur Pact, combined with the vast swathe of hostile, Raspurid held, continental shoreline separating the two ports, in large measure negated its good theoretical strengths.
As such it is the submarine arm, based out of Chryse, which is considered to be the most formidable threat to any opposing naval force, providing that those same submarines are able to slip out to sea undetcted.
In the years prior to the Verionian-Raspur War the Iron Company, funded by the corrupt Mackay government of Batavia, had built up a not inconsiderable armada of 108 surface combatant vessels of various types and 54 submarines. With the unravelling of Gran Verionia however only those vessels in Benacian ports, whose commanders heeded the call of Isor Verion remained in commission after the events of 1684-1685 AN.
On 24.IV.1685 Isor Verion received the Loyal Address of the loyalist Verionist officers in the garrison of the city of Chryse and acclamation of the crews of the ships of the Iron Fleet in its harbour, after which he accepted the title of Admiral-General of the Free Batavian Navy. With leadership and safe-harbour guaranteed in Chryse and the free sovereign territory of Lower Batavia, together combined in the United Benacian Republic, the remaining Batavian ships who had, by following the Verionist banner into various exiles, escaped falling into the clutches of the Franks following their takeover of the ancestral homeland, would now be able to reorganise.
As the operation of the vessels proved to be economically unsustainable, and the reliability of the crews could not be counted upon during the break-up of the United Benacian Republic, the entirety of the fleet was decommissioned after being taken into UGB custody following the reneging of Isor Isor of a complex land swap involving the Elwynn, the UBR, and the UGB. The ultimate fate of those vessels which remained, following an acrimonious contratemps with authorities in the port of Nieuw Ingelheim, was a one-way trip to the Ship-Breakers Shore. Those officers and naval ratings who had remained with the ships were permitted to return to Nieuw Ingelheim as the port passed under Batavian rule or else to emigrate to Chryse.
