Kommuna - class salvage vessel Kommuna is a submarine salvage ship in service with the Russian Navy ' s Black Sea Fleet . A double - hulled catamaran , she was laid down at the Putilov Factory ( now the Kirov Factory ) in St . Peterburg in November 1912 as the Volkhov , launched the following year , and commissioned on 14 June 1915 . She was renamed the " Kommuna " on 31 December 1922 . Having served in the Russian Imperial , Soviet , and Russian Federal navies through the Revolution and two world wars , she is the oldest ship still in service with any navy ( excluding such honorary commissioned ships as and ) . Ship history . The ship was the first Russian double - hulled vessel , and was developed by order of the Naval General Staff . The contract to build the ship was won by the Putilov company , who received Order No . 3559 from the General Directorate of Shipbuilding on 30 December 1911 , and the contract for construction was signed on 5 May 1912 . The ship was laid down on 12 November 1912 under the supervision of naval architect N . V . Lesnikova . On 17 November 1913 the ship was launched under the name " Volkhov " , and was commissioned into the Baltic Fleet on 15 July 1915 . " Volkhov " was initially based at Reval where she served as a submarine tender , capable of carrying 10 spare torpedoes and 50 tons of fuel , as well as accommodation for 60 submariners . She serviced Russian submarines , and also British E and C - class submarines . The " Volkhov " made her first successful salvage of a submarine in the summer of 1917 , raising the " Amerikanskiy Golland " ( Holland ) class submarine , which had sunk off the Åland Islands . On 24 September 1917 , the " Volkhov " refloated the " Bars " - class submarine " Edinorog " from a depth of . From late 1917 " Volkhov " participated in the Civil War , serving the submarines of the Soviet Baltic Fleet , and on 31 December 1922 ( just days after the founding of the USSR ) she was renamed " Kommuna " . Under her new name she continued in service in the Baltic , extinguishing a fire aboard the submarine " Zmeya " , and raising the despatch boat " Kobchik " , and the boat " Krasnoarmeyets " . In mid - 1928 " Kommuna " raised the British submarine , which had been sunk in the Gulf of Finland in June 1919 , from a depth of , and which then served as the prototype for the . " Kommuna " continued to serve as a salvage and repair ship , also raising a tug , a torpedo boat , and a crashed aircraft . Following the German invasion in June 1941 " Kommuna " was based at Leningrad , and although damaged by bombing continued to serve throughout the siege . In March 1942 she recovered four KV tanks , two tractors and 31 vehicles from Lake Ladoga , which had fallen through the ice road , called the " Road of Life " , which was Leningrad ' s only supply route . That year she also repaired six M - class submarines , as well as salvaging the " 411 " , the tugboat " Austra " , the schooners " Trud " and " Vodoley - 2 " , and several other vessels . In February 1943 , the crew of " Kommuna " were sent to the Volga where they recovered the tug " Ivan " and an Ilyushin Il - 2 aircraft . In 1944 , the " Kommuna " recovered 14 wrecks , totalling 11 , 767 tons , and repaired 34 ships . Following the end of the siege the entire crew were awarded the Medal " For the Defence of Leningrad " . The ship continued to serve after the war , and in 1954 she was refitted and her engines were replaced by more modern Dutch ones . In November 1956 she located the submarine , and in October 1957 raised the . In 1967 , the ship sailed from the Baltic to the Black Sea , and was refitted to carry submersibles at a cost of 11 million rubles . In 1974 she was equipped with a Type AS - 6 " Poisk - 2 " submersible , which on 15 December 1974 made a record dive to a depth of . In 1977 it was used in the search for a Sukhoi Su - 24 aircraft that crashed and sank off the Caucasus at a depth of . In 1984 the ship was laid up for transfer to Russian Academy of Sciences . However , the transfer was cancelled , and she was thoroughly looted , and had to be completely refitted before returning to Naval service . In 1999 she was re - designated from " salvage ship " to " rescue ship " . In October 2009 she received a British - built submarine rescue submersible " Pantera Plus " , capable of operating to depths of up to . As of January 2012 she forms part of the detachment of rescue vessels based at Sevastopol .