Black Sea Shipyard

The Black Sea Shipyard (Ukrainian: Чорноморський суднобудівельний завод; Russian: Черноморский судостроительный завод) is located in Mykolaiv, Ukraine and is the largest shipyard with near direct access to the Black Sea. It is most often referred to as the Nikolayev South Shipyard and was known as Soviet Shipyard No. 444.

The shipyard constructed the Moskva-class helicopter ships, Kiev-class and Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrying cruisers, naval auxiliaries, commercial ships, and submarines.^[1] They also began construction on the legendary Stalingrad battlecruiser but was canceled after Stalin's death in 1953.^[2]

Today, the shipyard is a major enterprise consisting of shipbuilding, machine-building, and metallurgy. The shipyard has its own design center with a qualified engineering staff and modern computer equipment. Their integrated shipbuilding system (FORAN) includes computer-aided design (CAD), engineering (CAE), and manufacturing (CAM) of vessels.^[3]

History

On August 27, 1789, Prince Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin signed an order to construct a shipyard at the mouth of the river Inhul. The shipyard, simply called New Shipyard on the Ingul river, was to serve for the repair of the Russian Navy ships in the Russo-Turkish war.

Later Potemkin ordered the shipyard to be named Nikolaev, to commemorate the fall of the Turkish fortress Achi-Kale^[4] to the Russian troops under his command on December 6, 1788, close to the day of Saint Nicholas (patron saint of seafarers)–which is December 19, in the Russian Orthodox Church.^[5]

In 1897, the shipyard was established as the Nikolayev Shipbuilding, Mechanical, and Iron Works––a Belgian-owned enterprise. By 1898, it was constructing ships including the battleship Potemkin.^[1]

Early in the Soviet era, the shipyard was renamed to the Andre Marti (South) Yard (Shipyard No. 198).^[2] During these early years, the yard constructed surface warships and Dekabrist-class submarines.

In January 1938, the Chairman of the People’s Commissar Council, declared the following:^[6]

Our mighty Soviet power must have such sea and ocean fleet that would comply with her interests and would be worthy of our great mission.

—V.M. Molotov

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.^[6]

On October 19, 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 warships building. However, the completion of ships of various classes, laid before, continued. On the whole, the Soviet shipbuilding was once again re-directed for submarines and light surface ships construction. Nevertheless,^[6] By the 1950s, an estimated 65 Whiskey-class submarines, the Sverdlov-class light cruisers,^[1] and the Stalingrad-class battlecruiser were built.^[2]

During the 1960s, the Moskva-class helicopter carriers and the Kiev-class VSTOL aircraft carrying cruisers were constructed.^[1] The Kiev-class Admiral Gorshkov was launched in 1982 and later in 1985 the Admiral Kuznetsov was launched. The Kuznetsov's hull design is based on the Admiral Gorshkov but is larger with a full load displacement, 58,500 tons as compared to Gorshkov's 40,400 tons.^[7] KH-11 satellite photographs of the construction of the Kuznetsov were leaked to Jane's Defense 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.^[1] In the late 1970s, the shipyard constructed two large trawlers for the State Committee of Fisheries of Ukraine.^[8]

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.^[8] The enterprise has built and exported vessels to Sweden, Bulgaria, Norway, Romania, Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, Kuwait, India and Greece.^[3]

The shipyard has two main areas covering 500 acres (2.0 km²). The first slipway (No.0) has end-launch building ways and blocking docks. The second is a horizontal building slip (No.1) with a covered launch.^[3]

The largest slipway (No.0) is capable of constructing tankers, bulk carriers, supply vessels, and roll-on/roll-off ships.^[8] There is also a high-capacity pre-slipway area of 14,000 square meters (150,000 sq ft), where blocks up to 1,500 metric tons (1,500 long tons; 1,700 short tons) can be assembled.^[3]

The second slipway (No.1) is a flow-position line, which is located in the sheltered slipway and is actually a closed-loop autonomous production line. Launching of vessels is effected with the help of the floating dock. The final fitting-out is performed near the South outfitting quay which is 546 meters (1,791 ft).^[3]

The shipyard consists of several work-shops to include: the slipway work-shop, assembly and welding work-shop, plating work-shop, and an outfitting work-shop.^[8] The assembly and welding work-shop is capable of manufacturing flat and volumetric sections up to 180 metric tons (180 long tons; 200 short tons).^[8]

According to their public website, the shipyard also includes:^[3]

• Specialized services to include the manufacturing of propeller shafts with length up to 30 meters (98 ft) and the manufacturing of unit-cast and welded anchor chains.
• A multi-branch network of 43 kilometers (27 mi) of railways and 29 kilometers (18 mi) of roads.
• Tug boats capable of 60 ton bollard pull which can provide escort services to tankers up to 70,000 DWT in the narrow waters.

Notable Vessels

There were many notable vessels constructed in this Shipyard. The table below lists many of these vessels to include when they were laid and launched.

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. The table uses the following shipbuilding terms:

• Laid - in shipbuilding refers to when construction began on the keel. The keel is generally the first part of a ship's hull to be constructed, and laying the keel, or placing the keel in the cradle in which the ship will be built, is often a momentous event in a ship's construction—so much so that the event is often marked with a ceremony, and the term lay the keel has entered the language as a phrase meaning the beginning of any significant undertaking.

• Launched - refers to when a new ship is conveyed from the building site to water. There are three principal methods of conveyance but only two of which are called "launching." Oldest, most familiar, and most widely used is the end-on launch, in which the vessel slides, usually stern first, down an inclined slipway. The second method is the side (or horizontal) launch, whereby the ship enters the water broadside. The third method is float-out, used for ships that are built in basins or dry docks and then floated by admitting water into the dock. Now days, the shipyard is capable launching from slipway No.0 and doing a float-out from slipway No.1.

See also

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

References

External links

• Chernomorsky Plant, Federation of American Scientists Website
• Shipbuilding, Online Report/Publication (Accessed 6/5/2008), Embassy of Ukraine to the United States