To the 160th anniversary of the founding of the Baltic Shipyard

The middle of the 19th century was a crucial moment for Russia. The defeat in the Crimean War (1853-1856) clearly demonstrated that Russia could retain the status of a great maritime power only subject to reorganization of its navy and reconsideration of its shipbuilding.
A private enterprise of Matvey Egorovich Karr, a first order merchant, and Mark Lvovich Makferson, a naval architect and engineer, appeared to be riding this wave. Starting from its establishment on 26 May 1856 (13 May according to the Old Style) Baltiysky Zavod mastered new designs of merchant and naval ships subsequently built by other shipyards.
Baltiysky Zavod’s main profile was the construction of metal ships for the Russian Navy as well as steam engines and other marine equipment. 30-40 years prior to the development of submarines construction and combat tactics all over the world, Baltiysky Zavod built a submarine designed by Ivan Aleksandrovsky (1866) that complied with almost all the above requirements. The ironclad gunboat Opyt was built in 1862 and became the first Russian ship made completely of steel..