Sevmorverf (Sevastopol Shipyard) - History

On May sunny morning in 1783, a squadron of ships of the Azov military flotilla under the command of Vice Admiral Fyodor Klokachev entered the deserted Ahtiar Bay located on the edge of the southwestern coast of the Crimean peninsula. The roar of anchor chains and artillery salute symbolized the execution of Catherine II's rescript on the inclusion of the Crimea into the Russian Empire and the beginning of the creation of Russia's southern outpost — the base of the Black Sea Fleet being created.

Four stone buildings were laid on the western shore of the South Bay. One of them, the smithy for repairing ships that arrived, is considered the first production building of the enterprise. Date of laying the first buildings - June 14 - is the birthday of the city and the Sevastopol Admiralty - the predecessor of the Sevastopol Marine Plant.

Outstanding statesmen and military leaders stood at the cradle of the hero city and the company: Empress Catherine II, Field Marshal Prince G.A.Potemkin, commander A.V. Suvorov, Admirals F. Ushakov and M.P. Lazarev. Thanks to their vigorous activity, Sevastopol became a strong sea fortress, and the Sevastopol Admiralty developed its capacities by building, including unique five-chamber dry docks - the largest hydraulic structure in Europe, which allowed the ships to extend their life for many years.

The complex ship repair work constituted the main specialization of the enterprise throughout its activity. Having built three slipways for the construction of sailing ships, the Sevastopol artisans with their work replenished the young Black Sea fleet with new ships. Carrying the patrol and cruising services, participating in sea battles, like the brig Mercury, circumnavigating the world, like the corvette “Olivutsa”, in researching the shores of the Black Sea and the Far East, these ships glorified the city, the fleet and the Sevastopol Admiralty, which built them.

Admiralty craftsmen took an active part in the Crimean War, repairing ships, tools and weapons, making ammunition. They poured into the ranks of the defenders of the city, fought at the bastions, and to protect Sevastopol from enemy attacks from the sea, they gave the most expensive - their ships - the fruits of the creation of the difficult and great art of shipbuilding. In memory of this event, to the 50th anniversary of the first defense of Sevastopol, a monument was erected - a monument to the Scuttled Ships, which is still a symbol of the city.

In the second half of the 19th century, after the Crimean War, having revived from ruins and ashes, the Sevastopol Admiralty became a large and only shipping company on the Black and Azov seas with an extensive field of activity. It was actively engaged in the repair and construction of a metal freight and passenger fleet.

At the same time, the plant became famous for the construction of the first for the Black Sea three-armored squadron battleships Chesma and Sinop, which marked the beginning of the Black Sea armored fleet. For the repair of the growing powerful fleet, new workshops were erected and existing ones were refurbished. New stocks were created, on one of which the Ochakov armored cruiser with new powerful mechanisms, boilers and weapons was built, and the Nikolaev battleship Potemkin, the heroic ships of the first Russian revolution, was built at the mooring wall of the plant.

The difficult period was experienced by the city, the Black Sea Fleet and the Sevastopol Marine Plant (which he received in 1921) after the First World War, the intervention and the Civil War. Hunger was rampant, everything was destroyed, deserted in bays, with blackened skeletons of blasted ships off the coast. Factory workshops and warehouses were looted. And only thanks to the dedication, diligence and faith of the Sevastopol shipbuilders, the plant was restored, and the defeated fleet was repaired.

In the years of the first five-year plans, the Sevmorzavod, along with ship repair, continued to be actively involved in shipbuilding. Cargo-passenger ships, dry-cargo steamers, trawlers, schooners, minesweepers - not a complete list of vessels built during this period.

On June 22, 1941, millions of people were still asleep, unaware of the terrible misfortune, and Sevastopol had already entered the battle. The sudden start of the Great Patriotic War made significant changes in the program of the enterprise. At that time, the plant remained the only large industrial base on the Black Sea, capable of restoring ships of various classes damaged by the enemy. Under enemy bombs and shells, factory workers, without sparing their lives, forged victory weapons on open air platforms and in underground galleries.

Both in the besieged Sevastopol and in the new plant-based locations (Tuapse, Poti, Batumi), the factory had to work in conditions where it was impossible to draw a line between the rear and the front. Every time overcoming incredible difficulties, experiencing deprivation, dying in the name of life on earth, the factory workers continued their commitment to work without stopping production for an hour.

Heavy and heroic was the path traveled by Sevastopol, the plant and the Black Sea Fleet during the Great Patriotic War. But already on June 1, 1944, a restored and such long-awaited factory whistle sounded over the city, which he announced - the Marine Plant rose from the ruins. Actively participating in the restoration of the city, the Morzavodians put in order the old ones and created new production facilities, adjusted the equipment and started to do their main favorite thing - the repair and construction of ships.

In the first post-war decade, passenger boats and ferries of the Metallist type, self-propelled barges, steam and diesel scows, network barriers were built. The first expeditionary oceanographic vessel Nevelskoy was designed and built. Among the repaired first Soviet Antarctic whaling fleet "Glory". Then she was replaced by one of the largest kitobases in the world, “Sovetskaya Ukraine”, which for more than 30 years passed annual inter-flight repairs at the plant.

Many warships and submarines of both the Black Sea and Baltic and Northern fleets were repaired, re-equipped and modernized at the enterprise. Among them are artillery cruisers listed in the list of the best ships in the world and marked as “masterpieces of the world shipbuilding school”.

In the shipbuilding industry, a new direction appears and is actively developing - the floating crane structure, which originated in the 50s. In total, customers delivered more than 70 floating cranes of various capacities from 50 to 1600 tons, including Chernomorets, Bogatyr, Vityaz, Glory of Sevastopol, Sevastopol, and Neptun. They were built with the State Quality Mark and were widely used not only in our country, but also in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Germany.

Among the repaired were the largest vessels of the fishing fleet, large-capacity refrigerated vessels, representatives of the oil fleet, research vessels. Repair of antisubmarine cruisers "Moscow" and "Leningrad", which by their effectiveness had no equal in the domestic and foreign fleets.

Aircraft carrier cruisers repeatedly visited the dock. The world's first special-built missile cruisers were re-equipped and modernized. Many large anti-submarine and amphibious ships, destroyers, special-purpose ships, and ships of other types and classes were repaired. Submarines of both old and new projects were repaired.

The machine builders made a great contribution to the labor achievements of the Sevmorzavod. Windlass, views, winches, coolers, condensers, heaters, filters of various designs and this is not a complete list of products manufactured at the plant, were regularly supplied to all shipyards of the former Soviet Union and abroad.

Specialists from the “hot” professions - foundry workers and blacksmiths, did not lag behind them. A new foundry was built, which made it possible to significantly expand production. In addition to the main products, they cast busts of great naval commanders for the city and forged beautiful grids for parks and squares.

Becoming a joint stock company at the end of the twentieth century, the company continued to multiply what was achieved. Sevastopol shipbuilders showed their skills in the repair of domestic and foreign ships from Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Malta, Cyprus and other countries. More than once the flagships of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation and the Naval Forces of Ukraine visited the docks, as did the other ships of these fleets. Submarines were also repaired.

After a whole succession of owners, during the management of which the company experienced a number of difficulties, the Sevastopol Marine Plant is ready to continue faithfully serving the good of the fleet and the Fatherland.