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Further Reading

Chernomorsky Plant

Chernomorsky Sudostroitelni Zavod 
(Black Sea Shipbuilding Yard) 
Chernomorsky State Machine-building Works  
Nikolayev [South]
Nosenko Shipyard
Sudostroitelniy Zavod 'I.I.Nosenko'
Andre Marti (South) Yard 
Shipyard No. 198

Mykolaiv, Ukraine 
Tel: +380 512 39-42-20 
Fax: +380 512 36-32-56

The Chernomorsky Shipbuilding Yard, founded in 1897, is one of the largest shipyards in Europe. The yard built a variety of vessels in its history, including cruisers, destroyers, submarines, ice breakers, tankers, cargoships, trawlers, research vessels and aircraft carriers. It built more than a thousand of different vessels and ships and installed with thousands of machines, mechanisms, boilers, shipboard equipment units also manufactured there. The shipyard's glory and pride were battleships and cruisers, the first in the world submarine mine-layer "Crab", which increased the strength of the Black Sea Fleet during the World War II.

The Chernomorsky [ie, Black Sea] shipyard was previously known as the Nikolayev South, Marti South and Nikolaeyev Marti shipyard. This shipyard was also known as the I.I. Nosenko Shipyard or Nikolaeyev-Nosenko in the 1960s, named after People's commissar of shipbuilding I.I. Nosenko. Stalin routinely greeted Commissar of Shipbuilding I.I. Nosenko (who was never arrested), with a cheerful, "Haven't they arrested you yet?"

The yard was built from 1895 to 1899 as the Nikolaeyev Shipbuilding, Mechanical, and Iron Works, owned by Belgian interests. The Nikolaev Shipbuilding Company yard began building ships for the Russian Navy in 1901. The Nikolaev Shipbuilding & Engineering Company works merged with the Company for Mechanized Production of South Russia in 1907.

On and after January 1, 1899, the headquarters of the Russian Admiralty of the Black Sea was at Nicolaiev. As a naval station, Nicolaiev had the advantage over Sebastopol of being situated in a perfectly safe position. It had a splendid dockyard belonging to the Russian Government, where several ironclads, a part of the Black Sea fleet, were built. It had also a private shipbuilding yard, with buildings which cover an area of about 70 acres. The entire plant of this yard, when completed, permitted the simultaneous construction of two first-class battle ships, three first-class cruisers, and some half dozen torpedo boats or torpedo-boat destroyers. The yard has also a very fine pontoon dock which was capable of accommodating a vessel of 5,000 tons.

The appliances of the Russian admiralty dockyard at Nicolaiev, as of 1898, were sufficient only for the simultaneous construction of two battle ships and several torpedo boats or destroyers; but they are capable of extension. The great importance of the new channel for the river Bug proposed in 1898 is best understood by the statement that the existing channel was too shallow to permit the passage of the new battle ships or cruisers, when completed with their armor plate and equipment, and it has been found necessary to send such ships to Sebastopol for completion. The new channel, however, obviated this.

The Andre Marti Shipyard (No.198) was once the largest private Russian shipyard on the Black Sea. Before the Bolshevik Revolution it built many warships, including two of four Russian Black Sea dreadnoughts. In the 1930s the Soviets initiated the construction here of such warships as cruisers of the Voroshilov and Frunze classes, work that culminated in the laying down in 1938 of the battleship Sovetskaya Ukraina of theS ovetskii Soyuz class and in 1939 of the battle cruiser Sevastopol. Work on thetwo capital ships stopped in October 1940 and never resumed. The Nikolaev yard was to witness in 1949 Stalin's capital-ship "swan song," when it started under direct orders of Stalin in 1949 the only Soviet postwar battle cruiser, the Stalingrad. The ship is said to have been about 60 percent complete and ready for launching when Stalin suddenly died in March 1953 and all work on the last Soviet dreadnought ceased.

Scientific and technological standards of military and civil shipbuilding contributed to high international prestige of the Chernomorsky shipyard. Its production has been exported to Sweden, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, Kuwait, Norway, and India. The main types are tankers of up to 45,000 dwt, smaller multi-purpose ships of 5,000 dwt and refrigerated trawlers.

Famous vessels, such as "Moskva", "Leningrad", "Kiev", "Minsk", "Novorossiysk", "Tbilisi", "Baku" and the most powerful fighting ship for the Russian Navy, i.e. the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser "Admiral Kuznetsov", were made by Chernomorsky Shipbuilding Yard. Dynamic development of construction of these heavy aircraft-carrying ships required new technologies that were developed by the Chernomorsky shipbuilding yard.

There are actually three shipyards located in Mykolaiv: Black Sea Shipyard, Okean Shipyard, and 61 Communards.The Black Sea Shipyard ( _ru. ???????????? ???????????????? ?????; _uk. ????????????? ???????????????? ?????) is located in Mykolaiv, Ukraine and is the largest shipyard on 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 VSTOL aircraft carriers, naval auxiliaries, commercial ships, and submarines.Norman Polmar, "Guide to the Soviet Navy", Fourth Edition (1986), United States Naval Institute, Annapolis Maryland, ISBN 0-87021-240-0] They also began construction on the legendary Stalingrad battlecruiser but was canceled after Stalin's death in 1953.Milan L. Hauner, "Stalin's big-fleet program" (Spring 2004), Naval War College Review, [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JIW/is_2_57/ai_n6112688/pg_12 Online] ] 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 ( [http://www.foransystem.com/FORAN/index.aspx FORAN] ) includes computer-aided design (CAD), engineering (CAE), and manufacturing (CAM) of vessels. [http://www.chsz.mksat.net/index.html?locale=en Official Chernomorsky Shipbuilding Yard Website] ] 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 [Later renamed _ru. Ochakov] 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. "Nikolaev [Mykolayiv] [http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/nikolaev.htm GlobalSecurity Website] , (Accessed: 6/9/2008)] 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. Early in the Soviet era, the shipyard was renamed to the "Andre Marti (South) Yard (Shipyard No. 198)". 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:"The Soviet Navy at the Outbreak and During the Great Patriotic War: Introduction", [http://rusnavy.com/history/io7.htm 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 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, By the 1950s, an estimated 65 Whiskey-class submarines, the "Sverdlov"-class light cruisers, and the "Stalingrad"-class battlecruiser were built. During the 1960s, the "Moskva"-class helicopter ships and the "Kiev"-class VSTOL aircraft carriers were constructed. 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."Kuznetsov Class (Type 1143.5) Heavy Aircraft Carrying Cruiser, Russia", [http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/kuznetsov/ Naval-technology.com] , (Accessed 6/4/2008), SPG Media PLC] 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", The yard's largest slipway is 1,082.6 ft. (330 m) long and 131.2 ft. (40 m) wide and two cranes of 900-ton lifting capacity are able to handle sections of more than 1,500 tons. The main part of the shipyard are the following work-shops: the slipway work-shop, the outfitting work-shop, the plating work-shop, the work-shop for assembly and welding of flat and volumetric sections. The assembly and welding work-shop is designed to fabricate volumetric block-section up to 180 tons, which during manufacturing are outfitted with welded parts and pipelines in double bottom and double side compartments. Modern technologies of metal cutting and welding, use of standard articles, improvements of dimensional accuracy, introduction of integrated automation lines, module fitting-out of rooms enable to realise flexible methods of construction of any ship project and adapt easily to clients' technical requirements.

The state-owned Chernomorsky Shipyard built a tanker for Greece and 2 trawlers for the State Committee of Fisheries of Ukraine in the late 1970s. Shipbuilding for export has been yielding to losses in Ukraine since 1995, partially due to the state's economic and monetary policy during 1993-1995. Furthermore, high overheads and over-manning, together with relatively low use of production capacities, and other internal problems, have served to increase the costs in shipbuilding. Enterprises have worked out a set of measures to reduce shipyard production costs. These measures aim at minimising the cost of raw and completing materials, equipment, counterpart operations, wages, overhead and power expenses, etc. These measures have already resulted in a reduction of prime cost of vessels by 10-18%. For example, the prime cost of the vessel being built at Chernomorsky Shipyard under project 17012 was reduced by US$ 6 million. The Municipal Council of Nikolayev made a part of the housing stock and welfare fund of Chernomorsky Shipyard, 61 Communars Shipyard and Okean Shipyard, a municipal property. "That was a great help to the yards because, in 1997 alone, they had to spend 30 million Hrivnyas on maintenance of those properties.

The joint-stock company Chernomorsudoproekt is one of the leading ship design firms in Ukraine. It was founded in 1956 around the design personnel of Nikolayev shipbuilding enterprises. And over 40 types of vessels have been built at Ukrainian shipyards according to its designs. Chernomorsudoproekt specialized in creating designs for dry cargo vessels, including those for work in the Arctic. The designs of universal vessels of the Bezhitsa type (35 ships built), Slaviansk type (42) Kapitan Kushnarenko type, are well remembered in the former USSR. They designed scientific research vessels, including those accompanying space craft, drilling, fishing vessels, auxiliary vessels for the Navy. According to Chernomorsudoproekt's designs the Okean yard in Nikolayev built 25 big tonnage bulkers of the Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Khariton Greku type (52.5 thousand dwt), Chernomorsky shipyard built unique high speed ro-ro ships of the Kapitan Smirnov type, and Kherson yard - built LASH carriers of the Alexey Kosygin type.

The Commission for Re-adjustment, Restructuring and Bankruptcy of Enterprises at Ministry of Industrial Policies of Ukraine has worked out and approved the projects for restructuring Chernomorsky Shipyard. In particular, the state owned enterprise Meridian shipyard has been established on the base of Chernomorsky shipyard.

The shipbuilding industry in Ukraine consists of eight major shipyards along with several large suppliers of marine equipment. Over 80 percent of ship production takes place in the southern city of Nikolayev. Nikolaev has three large shipyards that place orders for delivery of any type of vessel: the shipyard "Okean", the Chernomorsky shipbuilding yard and the "61 Communard" shipyard. Nikolaev is located in the southern part of Ukraine, about 500 km south-east from Kiev, 120 km from Odessa and 60 km from the Black Sea on a peninsula formed by the Southern Bug and Ingul rivers. Through the Dnieper - Bug Estuary Nikolaev is connected with the Black Sea and the great Ukrainian river Dnieper. This made it possible to locate sea and river ports in Nikolaev.

All over the world Nikolaev is well known as a city of shipbuilders. Strong ties link Nikolaev closely to merchant fleet and Navy, due to location of three shipyards, where vessels and ships of various types, from bulk-oil carriers to aircraft carriers have been under construction. Approximately 75 industrial enterprises are connected with shipbuilding. Gas turbines, air conditioning systems, machine tools, conveying and metal cutting machinery produced in Nikolaev operate in different enterprises of marine technology and industry. The heavy industry has suffered from the reduction of military orders and rupture of links with former Soviet republics. Now they are facing the problem of reconversion, privatisation and spin-off companies on their base creation.