The town was founded in 1789 by the Russian Governor General of Novorossiya Knyaz Potemkin initially as a shipyard called simply a "New Shipyard on the Ingul river". Knyaz Potemkin signed an order to construct a shipyard on August 27, 1789, which is considered to be a city birth date. The shipyard was to serve for the repair of the Russian Navy ships in the Russo-Turkish war. Later Potemkin ordered the shipyard to be named "Nikolaev" to commemorate the date of fall of Ochakov to the Russian troops under his command on December 6, 1788, close to the day of Saint Nicholas "(Nikolay)" December 19, in the Russian Orthodox Church. 