Kherson – Center of Maritime Education in the South of Ukraine
Training of cadres for the Black Sea Fleet.
The development of Kherson as the first Russian Black Sea port and Admiralty shipyard led to the need for training cadres for the Black Sea Fleet in the immediate vicinity of its creation and basing.
In Kherson at the end of the 18th century, government projects to open naval educational institutions were partially implemented. But with the transfer of the Black Sea Admiralty to Mykolaiv, the issue of military naval education in Kherson was closed. Instead, the problem of training specialists for the commercial fleet and civil shipbuilding became acute, as Kherson since the time of its foundation had become a significant center of internal and external trade.
In 1806, the Kherson merchant shipyard began to operate. From 1798 to 1822, 358 vessels were built at the civil shipyards of the city for Russian and foreign customers. Seafaring was studied by local cadres only in practice: young men sailed as sailors on merchant ships, and eventually took exams to obtain a certificate for the rank of skipper, navigator, or boatswain.
The building of the Kherson School of Merchant Shipping. Drawing by the student of the school M. Khakalovskyi. 19th century.
The development of navigation demanded a qualitatively new, professional, education. On February 7, 1834, Emperor Nicholas I signed the "Regulations on the Kherson School of Merchant Shipping," the goal of which was defined as "preparing young people: firstly, to become navigators and skippers for private merchant maritime vessels, and secondly, to become builders of commercial vessels." The solemn opening of the new educational institution took place on October 1, 1834. For the school, the authorities allocated three buildings of the former travel palace of Catherine II on the territory of the old Admiralty, built back in 1787. According to the "Regulations," the school was to train cadres for the commercial fleet of the entire Black Sea region.
Therefore, to the group of state-funded students, young men from Kherson, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kerch, Yevpatoriya, Feodosia, Izmail, and other cities were enrolled on a competitive basis. The study period was 4 years. Cadets studied special disciplines: navigation, piloting, marine astronomy, commercial geography, ship architecture, as well as general sciences and foreign languages. Graduates of the school received the ranks of navigators, assistant navigators, shipbuilders, and assistant shipbuilders. After a four-year shipboard practice with a mandatory 24-month stay at sea, navigators took exams for the rank of skipper.
Sextant – marine navigation instrument. 19th century.
By 1867, the Kherson School of Merchant Shipping had trained almost 200 free navigators for the Black Sea region, who served the Russian merchant fleet as captains of sailing and steam vessels in long-distance and short-distance voyages.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the status of the school changed more than once, but it continued its fruitful activity. Today, it is the oldest civil maritime educational institution in Ukraine – the Kherson State Maritime Academy.