A museum began operating in Sevastopol on the warship "Smetlivy"
The last ship afloat of the 61st project “Smetlivy”, which was withdrawn from the Black Sea Fleet in October 2019 and transferred to Patriot Park, receives tourists. That same year, he celebrated his 50th year on combat duty and entered the Armed Forces record book, having served twice as long as he was supposed to. It is called one of the most beautiful in terms of ship characteristics, as well as the only surviving “singing frigate”. The ships of Project 61 received this name from the Western military because of the sound of their gas turbine engines. It was these engines that at one time made it unique, since they were used for the first time on this project, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The authors of the SevastopolLife project published a video of an excursion on the Smetlivy.
The tour of the ship is conducted by Sergei Lisovoy - in the 80s he served on the Smetlivy and was responsible for the operation of the engine room, and today he is the head of the Marine department of the Patriot Park of the Southern Military District.
Lisovoy talks with nostalgia about his service and recalls how in the early 90s his rank was lowered after modernization and conversion to Project 01090.
“Formerly a 2nd rank ship. Now he is rank 3, because he is a TFR class. Of course, I, as someone who served on this ship and considered the “singing frigate” to be a large anti-submarine ship of the 61st project, somehow feel uneasy when I listen to it being called SKR. It had a completely different weapon and purpose at one time... The ship itself, let’s say, is unique. I am very glad that my service took place on such a ship. But if they had once told us, my colleagues, that the only ship that would remain would become a museum, we would never have believed it,” says Lisovoy.
He also recalls the rivalry with NATO and meeting with the bloc's ships:
“We had a case where it was a clear day, the Ticonderoga was such a ship, we were sailing with it on a parallel course, side-by-side, at a distance of about 50-70 meters. We walked and walked until he made a sharp turn to the left towards us. We were also calm, no one knew that he would provoke us. Naturally, everyone sounded the alarm, ran to their combat posts, and immediately began to launch - we were on one turbine, and began to launch the remaining turbines in an emergency. And they gave full speed and went to the left of the collision. And so, a little more and we would have collided with him.”
“Smarty” continued to monitor NATO ships until his “retirement” - in April 2018 he served in the Mediterranean Sea, in June 2019 he monitored the movements of the American destroyer Carney in the Black Sea, and in August of the same year controlled the actions of the destroyer Porter.
Today, everyone can visit the Smetlivy SKR - excursions around it are conducted from the Mine Wall in the South Bay of Sevastopol.
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