Was there a comparable Vietnamese navy?

How did the Vietnamese navy compare with Chinese and Japanese navies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

It did not really exist as a comparable naval force in the period being discussed.

There was little that could be called a Vietnamese navy comparable with the Chinese and Japanese forces under discussion. The statement is a bounded comparison of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century institutional naval power, not a claim that Vietnam had no boats or maritime activity. It prevents the existence of coastal warfare from being mistaken automatically for a standing fleet of similar scale and organization. The exchange therefore sets a useful limit on comparisons among East and Southeast Asian navies.