The Black Sea Shipyard (; ) was a shipbuilding facility in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on the southern tip of the Mykolaiv peninsula. It was founded in 1895 by Belgian interests and began building warships in 1901. At the beginning of World War I in 1914, it was one of the largest industrial facilities in the Russian Empire. The shipyard was moribund in the first decades of the Soviet Union until the Soviets began building up their fleet in the 1930s and it began building surface warships as well as submarines. The yard was badly damaged during World War II and took several years to be rebuilt. Surface warship construction temporarily ended in the mid-1950s before being revived in the mid-1960s and submarines were last built in the yard in late 1950s. The Black Sea Shipyard built all of the aircraft carrying ships of the USSR and Russia and continued before it was liquidated by the economic court of Mykolaiv Oblast on June 25, 2021.

History In 1895, the shipyard was established as the Association of Shipyards and Foundry Works (Russian: Obshchestvo sudostroitel'nykh i liteinykh zavodov)––a Belgian-owned company and began building warships in 1901. It was merged with the Black Sea Mechanical and Foundry Works (Russian: Chernomorskii mekhanicheskii i liteinyi zavod) in 1908 and was renamed Associated Nikolaev Shipbuilding, Mechanical and Iron Works (Russian: Nikolaevskoe obshchestvo sudostroitel'nykh, mekhanicheskikh i liteinykh zavodov) in 1908. It came under the control of Share Society Nikolaev Works and Shipyards (Russian: Aktsionernoe obshchstvo Nikolaevskikh zavodov i verfei (ONZiV)) in 1911 and was nicknamed the "Naval Shipyard". Around this time it was supported by the British armaments company of Vickers Limited. By 1914 the shipyard employed some 10,400 workers, which made it one of the largest industrial firms in Russia.Harrison, et al.Breyer, pp. 147–48Polmar & Noor, p. 326

After the war, it was renamed the Black Sea Shipbuilding Works (Russian: Chernomorskii sudostroitel'nyi zavod) when it came under the control of the Bolsheviks. During the 1930s it was renamed in honor of André Marti and became the Marti (South) Yard. On 30 December 1936, the yard was redesignated as Shipyard No. 198 (named for Marti). During these early years, the yard constructed surface warships and Dekabrist-class submarines.

In January 1938, Vyacheslav Molotov, the Chairman of the People’s Commissar Council, declared the following:The Soviet Navy at the Outbreak and During the Great Patriotic War: Introduction, RusNavy.com Online (Retrieved 6/9/2008)

It was then the government introduced the 10-year Big Shipbuilding Program. The plan included the construction of battleships and heavy cruisers which would represent the ocean might and strength of the country.

On 19 October 1940, the government decided to terminate battleship and heavy cruiser construction. It was ordered to concentrate all their efforts on small-size and medium-size warship construction. However, the completion of ships of various previously laid down classes continued. On the whole, the Soviet shipbuilding was once again re-directed for submarine and light surface ship construction. Nevertheless, by the 1950s, an estimated 65 Whiskey-class submarines, Sverdlov-class light cruisers,Polmar, pp. 405–06 and the Stalingrad-class battlecruiser were built.

During the 1960s, the Moskva-class helicopter carriers and the Kiev-class VSTOL aircraft carrying cruisers were constructed. The fourth Kiev-class, Admiral Gorshkov, was launched in 1982 and later, in 1985, the first Kuznetsov-class, Admiral Kuznetsov, was launched. The Admiral Kuznetsovs hull design is based on the Admiral Gorshkov but is larger with a full load displacement, 58,500 tons as compared to Admiral Gorshkovs 40,400 tons.Kuznetsov Class (Type 1143.5) Heavy Aircraft Carrying Cruiser, Russia, Naval-technology.com, (Accessed 6/4/2008), SPG Media PLC KH-11 satellite photographs of the construction of the Admiral Kuznetsov were leaked to Jane's Defence Weekly in 1985 by Samuel Loring Morison, a naval intelligence analyst with the U.S. Navy.

Commercial ships and naval auxiliaries were, and continue to be constructed there. Commercial ships are primarily dry-cargo ships, fish-factory ships, and large trawlers. In the late 1970s, the shipyard constructed two large trawlers for the State Committee of Fisheries of Ukraine.Chernomorsky Plant, GlobalSecurity.org Website, (Accessed 6/4/2008)

Facilities and services

The State joint stock company Chernomorsudoproekt is one of the leading ship design firms in Ukraine. The firm was founded in 1956 around the design personnel of Nikolayev shipbuilding enterprises. The enterprise has built and exported vessels to Sweden, Bulgaria, Norway, Romania, Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, Kuwait, India and Greece.

The shipyard had two main areas covering . The first slipway (No. 0) had end-launch building ways and blocking docks. The second was a horizontal building slip (No. 1) with a covered launch.

Length Width Lifting Capacity Slipway No. 0 Two Kone(cranes) gantry cranes each capable of lifting up to 900 800 tons Slipway No. 1 Horizontal, launching effected with the help of floating dock Floating dock Up to 7,500 tons 3 quays total - Portal cranes with a lifting capacity of 25-40 tons

The largest slipway (No.0) was capable of constructing tankers, bulk carriers, supply vessels, and roll-on/roll-off ships. There was also a high-capacity pre-slipway area of , where blocks up to could be assembled.

The second slipway (No.1) was a flow-position line, located in the sheltered slipway and was actually a closed-loop autonomous production line. Launching of vessels was effected with the help of the floating dock. The final fitting-out was performed near the South outfitting quay which was .

The shipyard consisted of several workshops to include: the slipway workshop, assembly and welding workshop, plating workshop, and an outfitting workshop. The assembly and welding workshop was capable of manufacturing flat and volumetric sections up to .

According to their public website, the shipyard also included: Specialized services to include the manufacturing of propeller shafts with length up to and the manufacturing of unit-cast and welded anchor chains. A multi-branch network of of railways and of roads. Tug boats capable of 60 ton bollard pull which can provide escort services to tankers up to in the narrow waters.

As of 2008 the shipyard was a major enterprise consisting of shipbuilding, machine-building, and metallurgy. The shipyard had its own design center with a qualified engineering staff and modern computer equipment. Their integrated shipbuilding system (FORAN) included computer-aided design (CAD), engineering (CAE), and manufacturing (CAM) of vessels.Official Chernomorsky Shipbuilding Yard Website

Vessels

Vessels constructed in this shipyard were numerous. The table below lists many of these vessels to include when they were laid and launched.

+ Notable vesselsImperial Russian Navy (1696–1917) • Soviet Navy (1917–1991) Name Laid down Launched Class (NATO) Type Krab 1908? 1912 - Submarine minelayer Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya 1911 1914 Imperatritsa Mariya Battleship Bespokoiny 1912 1913 Derzky Destroyer Gnevny 1912 1913 Derzky 1913 1914 Pronzitelny 1913 1914 Imperator Nikolai I 1915 1916 Imperator Nikolai I Battleship Fidonisy 1915 1916 Fidonisy Destroyer Gadzhibey 1915 1916 Kaliakria 1915 1916 Kerch 1915 1916 Korfu 1916 1917 Levkas 1916 1917 Tserigo 1915 1916 Zante 1916 1917 Revolutsioner 1927 1929 Dekabrist Submarine Spartakovets 1927 1929 Yakobinets 1927 1929 Kharkov 1932 1934 Leningrad (Project 1) Destroyer Leader Moskva 1932 1934Bodry 1935 1936 Gnevnyy Destroyer Boyky 1935 1936 Bystry 1936 1936 Besposhchadny 1936 1936 Voroshilov 1936 1939 Kirov (Project 26) Light cruiser Molotov 1937 1939 Kirov (Project 26bis) Light cruiser Sovetskaya Ukraina 1938 Destroyed Sovetskiy Soyuz (Project 23) Battleship Kiev 1931 1941 Kiev (Project 48) Destroyer LeaderErevan 1931 1941Kuybyshev 1939 1950 Chapayev (Project 68) Light cruiserFrunze 1939 1950 Dzerzhinsky 1948 1950 Sverdlov (Project 68bis) Light cruiser Stalingrad 1949 Cancelled Stalingrad (Project 82) Battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov 1950 1951 Sverdlov (Project 68bis) Light cruiser Mikhail Kutuzov 1951 1952 Admiral Kornilov 1951 1954 Moskva 1962 1965 Moskva (CVHG) Helicopter carrier Leningrad 1962 1965 Akademik Sergei Korolev ? 1970 Korolev Space Control-Monitoring Kiev 1970 1972 Kiev Aircraft carrier Minsk 1972 1975 Novorossiysk 1975 1978 Admiral GorshkovOriginally Baku, later sold to India as 1978 1982 Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union N.G. KuznetsovOriginally Riga then renamed Leonid Brezhnev in 1990 1983 1985 Kuznetsov Varyagsold incomplete to the PRC, commissioned as Liaoning 1985 1988 Ulyanovsk 1988 Cancelled Ulyanovsk Notes: NATO class only shown if applicable; classes of vessels launched before 1949 are provided as originally designated. Most vessel names provided is the name given when launched–some ships may have since been renamed.

See also List of ships of Russia by project number List of Soviet and Russian submarine classes Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding

Notes

Bibliography

External links Chernomorsky Plant, Federation of American Scientists Website