September 29, 1968 the State flag of the USSR was raised on R/V Akademik Vernadskiy. R/V Akademik Vernadskiy was built in 1968 at the shipyard in Wismar (GDR) by order of the USSR Academy of Sciences for Marine Hydrophysical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. The vessel was additionally equipped at a shipyard in Kronstadt.

The first captain of R/V Akademik Vernadskiy was the deep sea captain G.V. Belitskiy. The head of the first expedition was Ph.D. S.G. Boguslavskiy.

Expeditionary research at R/V Akademik Vernadskiy was carried out in the period 1969 - 1991. During this time, 62 cruises were carried out in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, Black and Mediterranean Seas. A significant part of the them was carried out according to state and international projects and programs (POLIMODE, SECTIONS, SIKAR, MOKARIB, SOVFRANCE, JASIN-78, the Soviet-Guinean program, etc.). Two round-the-world expeditions were completed under the GLOBEX International Program.

Research during the cruises was carried out using the latest instruments and methods. All developments of MHI NAS of Ukraine in this direction were tested and used. These are the most diverse probing and towing complexes, autonomous drifting buoys, various devices installed on the ABS (autonomous buoy station) and SABS (submerged autonomous buoy station), etc.

For the scientific data processing, the Minsk-22 computer was installed on R/V Akademik Vernadskiy. It was connected to most laboratories with a special subscriber ring communication system, which made possible not only to connect sensors to the computer directly and record processes in real time, but also to carry out controlled experiments. The results are presented in scientific articles and monographs.

R/V Akademik Vernadskiy was named after the academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences V.V. Vernadsky, the first president of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.