The Black Sea Shipyardis 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. They also began construction on the abortive Stalingrad-class battlecruiser cancelled after Stalin's death in 1953
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 Ozi-Cale (today Ochakiv) to the Russian troops under his command on December 6, 1788, on the day of Saint Nicholas (patron saint of seafarers)– according to the Russian Orthodox Church calendar.
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:
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.
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 carriers and the Kiev-class VSTOL aircraft carrying cruisers were constructed. The Kiev-class Admiral Gorshkov was launched in 1982 and later in 1985 the Admiral Kuznetsov was launched. The Admiral Kuznetsov's hull design is based on the Admiral Gorshkov but is larger with a full load displacement, 58,500 tons as compared to Admiral Gorshkov's 40,400 tons. KH-11 satellite photographs of the construction of the Admiral 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. In the late 1970s, the shipyard constructed two large trawlers for the State Committee of Fisheries of Ukraine.
