SS Fizik Kurchatov

File:Image of the Soviet ship Fizik Kurchatov on an enamel badge 1962.jpg

File:The letter from Odessa to placed on Cuba Sovit ship Fizik Kurchatov May 1985.jpg

The Fizik Kurchatov{{'s}} keel was laid down at the Kherson Shipyard on 20 March 1961. By that time, the shipyard had built seven of her sister ships.[http://www.mycity.kherson.ua/avtory-ag/korshun/korshun-ship.html Мой город - Херсон. >> Леонид Коршун и его корабли.] The ship was completed in June 1962 and transferred to the Black Sea Shipping Company on 30 June of that year.

The maiden voyage of the ship was from Nikolayev port to Cuba. The ship loaded cargo in Mykolaiv port. Her cargo was an air defense battalion and its equipment. After unloading in Cuba, the Fizik Kurchatov loaded sugar and returned to the USSR in June 1962.{{cite web|url=http://www.vest-news.ru/article/20679|author=ГБУ КО «Редакция газеты «Весть»|title=Остров Свободы в его судьбе|date=2011-10-29}}{{cite web|url=http://np.ks.ua/history/hersontsy-v-operatsii-anadyr.html|author=Виктор Хмель|title=Херсонцы в операции "Анадырь".}} Other sources say that the ship was built in May and delivered to the Black Sea Shipping Company after this voyage.

Some sources say that the Fizik Kurchatov{{'s}} maiden voyage began before 25 July, when 1,131 tons of general cargo and trucks were loaded on her main deck. Although she sailed from Odessa with Ghana her declared destination, she arrived in Cuba on 7 August.{{cite web|url=http://alerozin.narod.ru/Cuba62/Cuba1962-8-1.htm|author=Розин Александр|title=СССР в строительстве ВМС Кубы. Chapter 8: Советские суда участвовавшие в переброске войск в ходе операции "Анадырь".}}

Her second voyage reportedly began in September 1962, when she loaded 9,500 tons of general cargo (including portions of a missile division) and sailed from Odesa. Oran, an Algerian port, was declared her destination but she arrived in Cuba.

On 23 October 1962, she was still in Cuba.[http://jfk14thday.com/tracking-soviet-ships-october-23/ The Fourteenth Day: JFK and the Aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis. By David Coleman. W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. >> Soviet Ships: October 23]

The Fizik Kurchatov left Cuba on 7 November 1962, and was photographed by U.S. reconnaissance planes during her return to the Soviet Union. She returned six canvas-covered missiles, which had been aimed at the United States, to the USSR on her open main deck.[http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-soviet-cargo-ship-fizik-kurchatov-which-left-cuba-on-news-photo/104405101 gettyimages >> best of news]

The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War and the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, was fought by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel from 6 to 25 October 1973. At least twenty-three Soviet merchant ships carried military cargoes to Syria and Egypt in October and November 1973, including eight Leninsky Komsomol-class cargo ships; the Fizik Kurchatov among them. According to U.S. intelligence, the Fizik Kurchatov made three voyages from Soviet Black Sea ports to Syria and Egypt between October and November 1973:

• Transited the Bosphorus on 9 October and arrived in Alexandria three days later, on 12 October 1973.
• Sailed from the USSR to Syria, transiting the Bosphorus on 23 October and arriving in Latakia two days later, on 25 October.
• Transited the Bosphorus on 10 November and arrived in Alexandria on 13 November 1973.{{cite web|url=http://alerozin.narod.ru/1973/oktovr-9.htm|author=Розин Александр.|title=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.}}

The Fizik Kurchatov delivered P-205 and P-206, two Zhuk-class patrol boats, to Ethiopia in October 1982 when the Soviet Union supplied the African country's new fleet.[http://8опэск.рф/26.%2013-7.%20Новый%20ВМФ%20Эфиопии.htm 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.]

{{Portal|Soviet Union|Transport}}

The Fizik Kurchatov was renamed the Kurchat and her home port became George Town, Cayman Islands on 30 April 1986. She was scrapped in Kaohsiung, China in August of that year.

{{Commons category}}

• United States embargo against Cuba

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{{Cold War}}

{{Operation Anadyr}}

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Category:Leninsky Komsomol-class cargo ships

Category:1962 ships

Category:Ships built at Kherson Shipyard

Category:Ships built in the Soviet Union

Category:Cuban Missile Crisis