MONGOLIA
In the 13th Century, the Mongolian Navy was the largest in the world. It lost that fleet during two failed invasions of Japan. Since that time, it shrank down to nothing. In the 1930s, the Mongolian Navy was reborn under the auspices of the Soviet Union. It received one boat, the Sukhbaatar, to patrol Lake Hovsgal. The Soviet-made vessel was dragged overland to that lake. The ship was named after Damdiny Sukhbaatar, the Mongolian leader who drove China out in the 1920s. It, and its successor, the Sukhbaatar II, eventually sank. But as of 2001, one vessel remains -- the tugboat Sukhbaatar III. It's manned by seven men, only one of whom knows how to swim. The ship is homeported at Khatgal, and it continues its regular patrols of Lake Hovsgal. But due to financial constraints, the Mongolian government privatized its navy in 1997. So now the Sukhbaatar III supplements its income by hauling freight across the lake.
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