SS Fizik Kurchatov

The ship «Физик Курчатов» loading the missiles in Casilda port. The photo is captured by an RF-101 pilot with the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing on Nov. 6, 1962, while the aircraft itself casts a shadow over the port.
History
Name:	Fizik Kurchatov (Russian: Физик Курчатов) Call sign: UYOM [1] Register number: М-27551 [1] Class formula until 1975: Л*Р4/1С *РСМ [1] Class formula from 1975: КМ(*)Л3[1] [1] IMO number: 5404093 [2][3][1]
Namesake:	Leninsky Komsomol class of cargo ships, projuct 567 and 567К.
Owner:	June 1962 – 30 April 1986: Black Sea Shipping Company, USSR
Operator:	June 1962 – 30 April 1986: Black Sea Shipping Company, USSR
Port of registry:	June 1962 – 30 April 1986: Odessa, USSR 30 April 1986 - August 1986: Gorgetown, Cayman Islands
Builder:	Kherson shipyard
Renamed:	Kurchat, home port George Town, Cayman Islands.[3][1]
Fate:	Scrapped at Kaohsiung (China) in August 1986[3][1]
General characteristics
Type:	freighter, tweendecker
Tonnage:	11,206 GT[2][3] or 12,127 GT[1] DWT 16247 mt[2][3] or 16225 mt[1] Displacement 22225 mt[4]
Length:	557.7 ft (170.0 m)[4]
Beam:	72.2 ft (22.0 m)
Propulsion:	two steam turbine engines driving a single 6.3 m (21 ft) screw propeller
Speed:	18.5 knots[4]
Capacity:	Bale capacity: 20220 cub m[1] Grain capacity: 23763 cub m[1]

Fizik Kurchatov (Russian: Физик Курчатов) was a multi-purpose tweendecker freighter owned by the Black Sea Shipping Company (Soviet Union). One of the Leninsky Komsomol class of cargo ships, it had steam turbine engines and oneproject 567K.^[5] The ship was named after Soviet scientist and physicist Igor Vasiliyevich Kurchatov (1903-1960).

This ship was one of the Soviet ships that took part in:

• operation Anadyr
• one of the nine Soviet ships that transported Soviet missiles back to the USSR from Cuba during the Cuban crisis.
• 1973 Arab-Israeli War

The image of the Soviet ship Fizik Kurchatov on the badge. 1962 year.

History

The keel of the ship was laid down in Kherson Shipyard on 20 of March 1961. By that time the Shipyard had built already seven sister ships.^[4] The ship Fizik Kurchatov was built in June, 1962.^[1] The ship was handed over to the Black Sea Shipping Company on the 30 of June, 1962.^[1]

During the Cuban crisis.

As per one source the maden voyage was from Nikolayev to Cuba. The cargo on board was an air defense battalion including the equipments and troops. After the unloading on Cuba the ship loaded sugar and sailed from Cuba on beginning of June, 1962, to return back to the USSR.^[6] Or the source is wrong (can be wronge dates only) or the ship was built in May and delivered to the Black Sea shipping Company after this voyage.

Total mentioned two voyages of this ship in Operation Anadyr:

• First voyage commenced before 25 of July. The ship loaded 1131 tons of general cargo and trucks on the main deck. She sailed from Odessa. Ghana was declared as port of destination, but the ship arrived on Cuba. The voyage was completed on the 7 of August, 1962.^[7]
• Second voyage commenced in September. The ship loaded 9500 tons of general cargo including subdivisions of 51 missile division and sailed from Odessa. Oran, Algerian port, was declaired as port of destination, but the ship arrived on Ciba.^[7]

On the 23 of October, 1962, the ship still was on Cuba.^[8]

The Soviet cargo ship Fizik Kurchatov left Cuba on the 7 of November 1962 and was photographed by American reconnaissance planes during its return to the Soviet Union. The ship transported back to the USSR six canvas-covered missiles on the open main deck. These were the same missiles which had been aimed toward the United States. The Soviet Union, following the American blockade of Cuba, decided to send the missiles back to its territory.^[9]

1973 Arab–Israeli War

The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War, or October War, also known as the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, was a war fought by the coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel from October 6 to 25, 1973. Total 23 or more Soviet merchant ships carried military cargoes to Siria and Egyptin October and November, 1973 and eight of them were Leninsky Komsomol class of cargo ships. The ship Fizik Kurchatov was one of this seven Leninsky Komsomol class of cargo ships.

According to U.S. information the ship Fizik Kurchatov three time visited.:

• the ship passed Bosphorus on the 9 and arrived Alexandria on the 12 of October, 1973;
• the ship passed Bosphorus on the 23 and arrived Latakia on the 25 of October, 1973;
• the ship passed Bosphorus on the 10 and arrived Alexandria on the 12 of November, 1973.^[10]

The part of the letter from the junior officer to his father when the father was in Cuba, on board of the ship Fizik Kurchatov. The letter dated 09 of May 1985. The text of this letter informs that the son was planned as the junior officer for the ship Toyvo Antikaynen and awaiting the ship's arrival in the USSR from Yugoslavia.

USSR created the new fleet of Ethiopia.

The ship Fizik Kurchatov brought on board and delivered to Ethiopia two Artillery Cutters Project 1400ME "P-205" and "P-206" in October 1982 when the Soviet Union created the new fleet of Ethiopia.^[11]

Cuba

It is necessary to say that the ship Fizik Kurchatov often visited the Cuba and after Caribbean Crisis. Last years this ship was sent to Cuba mostly also and the attached letter confirm it.

The fate

The ship was renamed Kurchat and changed home port to George Town, Cayman Islands, on 30 of April 1986 and scrapped at Kaohsiung (China) in August 1986.

References

1. Водный транспорт >> Kurchat
2. Marine Traffic >> KURCHAT, general cargo.
3. SHIPSPOTTING.com >> FIZIK KURCHATOV - IMO 5404093
4. Мой город - Херсон. >> Леонид Коршун и его корабли.
5. Проект 567, 567К, тип Ленинский комсомол.
6. ГБУ КО «Редакция газеты «Весть» >> Остров Свободы в его судьбе. Date: 29 of October 2011
7. Author: Розин Александр. Title: СССР в строительстве ВМС Кубы. Chapter 8: Советские суда участвовавшие в переброске войск в ходе операции «Анадырь».
8. The Fourteenth Day: JFK and the Aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis. By David Coleman. W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. >> Soviet Ships: October 23
9. gettyimages >> best of news
10. Розин Александр. "Советский флот в войнах и конфликтах "холодной войны". Это - персональная страница Александра Розина >> Война «Судного дня» 1973 г. Противостояние флотов СССР и США на море. Chapter 9: Корабли эскадры конвоируют транспорты.".
11. 8-я оперативная эскадра кораблей (хроника создания в зоне Индийского океана 8-й оперативной эскадры кораблей ВМФ) 1967–1992 гг. >> СССР создает новый флот Эфиопии.

See also

• Operation Anadyr
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• United States embargo against Cuba
• Leninsky Komsomol class of cargo ships

1. Розин Александр. "СССР в строительстве ВМС Кубы. >> Chapter 8: Советские суда участвовавшие в переброске войск в ходе операции «Анадырь».".
2. Розин Александр. "Советский флот в войнах и конфликтах "холодной войны". Это - персональная страница Александра Розина >> Война «Судного дня» 1973 г. Противостояние флотов СССР и США на море. Chapter 9: Корабли эскадры конвоируют транспорты. Table: Список судов по американским данным вышедших из черноморских портов в Сирию и Египет в октябре и начале ноября 1973 г.".