Crichton-Vulcan is an abandoned

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are shipbuilding, built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes m ...

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, that once formed the cornerstone of the Finnish shipbuilding industry. The shipyard is best known for the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

coastal defence ship Coastal defence ships (sometimes called coastal battleships or coast defence ships) were warships built for the purpose of coastal defence, mostly during the period from 1860 to 1920. They were small, often cruiser-sized warships that sacrifi ...

s and

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

s it produced. Shipbuilding at the yard gradually ended after 1976, after a new shipyard had been built in the suburb of Perno. The old yard was taken over by Turku Repair Yard and used for ship repair until 2004, when they too moved to the nearby city of

Naantali Naantali (; ) is a municipalities of Finland, town in Southwest Finland, and, as a resort town during the summer, an important centre of tourism in the country. The municipality has a population of (), and is located west of Turku. The town h ...

. The shipyard by the Aura River in Turku then lay abandoned for some time and was the target of

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The t ...

. However, the site is currently being turned into an upper-class residential area. Demolition of the old buildings began in June 2011.

History

The first shipyard in Turku was established in 1732 on the eastern bank of the Aura River. The first

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

and metal workshop was established in 1842. After the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

the workshop was acquired by Scotsman William Crichton. Crichton built a new shipyard near the mouth of Aura. Soon a joint-stock company, W:m Crichton & C:o Ab was established, merging smaller shipyards. In 1913 W:m Crichton & C:o Ab went bankrupt, and a new company Ab Crichton was established in its place. Åbo mekaniska verkstads Ab was founded in 1874 and discontinued at the late 1890s. Ab Vulcan was started in 1898 to continue the operations. In 1924 the manager of Vulcan

Allan Staffans Allan Walfrid Staffans (13 February 1880 – 19 October 1946) was a Finnish technician, vuorineuvos and Shipbuilding, shipbuilder. Staffans began his career at Kone- ja Siltarakennus, Maskin- och Brobyggnad (Maskin o. Bro) shipyard in Helsinki in ...

organised a merger between the two companies creating Crichton-Vulcan Oy. It again was merged with

Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish corporation, Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the Marine propulsion, marine and energy markets. The core ...

between 1936 and 1938. Wärtsilä bought the neighbouring boat and engine builder

Andros Andros (, ) is the northernmost island of the Greece, Greek Cyclades archipelago, about southeast of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . It is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and ...

in 1939 and joined it to Crichton-Vulcan. In 1966 the name of the shipyard was changed to Oy Wärtsilä Ab Turun telakka.

Naval ships

During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the shipyard served the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until being dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution and the declaration of ...

. After

Finnish independence Finland declared its independence on 6 December 1917. The formal Declaration of Independence was only part of the long process leading to the independence of Finland. History Proclamation of Empress Elizabeth (1742) The subject of an independe ...

in 1917, Finland started a program on naval armament. Most of the ships were designed by the Dutch (German) company

Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw (Dutch: engineer-office for shipbuilding), usually contracted to IvS or Inkavos, was a Dutch dummy company set up in The Hague and funded by the after World War I in order to maintain and develop German submarine know-how and to circumvent the ...

and built by Crichton-Vulcan. The shipyard built two

s for the

Finnish Navy The Finnish Navy ( , ) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The navy employs 2,300 people and about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS", short for "Finnish Navy ship", but ...

. The (displacement) ''Ilmarinen'' and ''Väinämöinen'' were ordered in 1927 and delivered in 1931 and 1932, respectively.

Submarines

The shipyard also built the prototypes for the World War II German

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

fleet.

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

was banned under the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

from building submarines, so work was conducted under foreign dummy companies. Three submarines were ordered in 1927. The submarines were designed by Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw; the design was based on the World War I

German Type UB III submarine The Type UB III submarine was a class of U-boat built during World War I by the German Imperial Navy. Design UB III boats carried 10 torpedoes and were usually armed with either an 8.8 cm SK L/30 naval gun, or a 10.5 cm SK L/45 naval gun, deck ...

. The design work and the supervision of the construction was done by Germans. The submarines would serve as a step in the design of the

German Type VIIA submarines German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ger ...

. The ''Vetehinen'', the ''Vesihiisi'' and the ''Iku-Turso'' were commissioned in 1930 and 1931. A smaller sub, the ''Vesikko'', was launched in 1933. It too was designed by Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw, and was the direct prototype of the German Type II submarine.

Successors

In the mid-1970s, Wärtsilä built a new, larger shipyard in Perno, from the center of Turku. This new shipyard is now operated by

Meyer Turku Meyer Turku Oy is a Finnish shipbuilding company located in Turku, Finland Proper. The main products are cruise ships and cruiseferries. The shipbuilding facility is Perno shipyard in Turku. The yard area is 144 hectares and it is equipped wi ...

and produces the world's largest

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

s, the and the . After 1983 the old shipyard concentrated solely on ship repair; the last newbuilding entirely built at the old shipyard was , launched in 1979, but until spring 1983 the old shipyard continued to complete ships that were launched at the new yard and then towed to the old yard. In 1986 Wärtsilä's shipbuilding branch merged with the shipyards of the

state-owned State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, property, or enterprise by the national government of a country or state, or a public body representing a community, as opposed to ...

Valmet Valmet Oyj, a Finnish company, is a developer and supplier of process technologies, automation systems and services for the pulp, paper, energy industries. Flow control serves a wider base of process industries. History 1999–2012 Valmet ...

, taking over the Vuosaari shipyard in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

. In 1989 the new company,

Wärtsilä Marine Wärtsilä Marine (; ) was a Finland, Finnish shipbuilding company. The company was created in 1987 in order to improve shipbuilding productivity by combining the Wärtsilä and Valmet yards under the same organisation. The yards were located in ...

, went bankrupt. A new company, Masa-Yards (now

STX Europe STX Europe AS, formerly Aker Yards ASA, was until 2012 a subsidiary of the South Korean STX Offshore & Shipbuilding. With headquarters in Oslo, Norway, STX Europe operated 15 shipyards in Brazil, Finland, France, Norway, Romania and Vietnam. Th ...

), headed by yard manager Martin Saarikangas, took over the new shipyard in Turku and Wärtsilä's

Helsinki New Shipyard Hietalahti shipyard (also known as Helsinki New Shipyard, ) is a shipyard in Hietalahti, Helsinki, Hietalahti, in downtown Helsinki, Finland. Since 2019, it has been operated by a company named Helsinki Shipyard (company), Helsinki Shipyard. H ...

. Another new company,

Turku Repair Yard Turku Repair Yard Ltd (; ) is a Finnish ship repair company. Its premises are situated in Luonnonmaa island, Naantali. The company has focused on repairing of ships and boats. Turku Repair Yard is a part of Estonian BLRT Grupp. Premises Th ...

, was established to take over the old repair yard. In 2004 the old yard was abandoned and the company moved to a new shipyard outside the city limits on

Luonnonmaa Luonnonmaa is an island in Southwest Finland. The island is in the Finnish Archipelago Sea ( Finnish: ''Saaristomeri'') region of the Baltic Sea, and located in the southernmost part of Finnish territorial waters. With an area of 44.0 square kilo ...

island in

. The company now operates one of the largest

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

s in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

area used solely for ship repair. It is owned by BLRT Grupp.

Engines

, the company, is today one of the leading producers of large

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s for ships and power plants,Wärtsilä - Group structure
/ref> producing Wärtsilä-Sulzer and the Wärtsilä-Vasa engines. The engine factory was also located on the Aura riverbank. In 2004 Wärtsilä decided to move production of its diesel engines from Turku to its factory in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Ships

A number of ships produced at the old shipyard are still in service, a few examples: * MV ''Freewinds'', the floating "university" of the

Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religiou ...

. *In 1975–76 Wärtsilä delivered five

cruiseferries A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship and a Ro-Pax ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while ot ...

to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. * Sister ships and delivered to

SF Line SF Line was the name of the Finland, Finnish shipping company now known as Viking Line. The company, originally named Rederi Ab Ålandsfärjan, was one of three shipping companies that formed shipping marketing company Viking Line in 1966, the o ...

for Turku-Stockholm service. * MS ''Bore I'' delivered to Steamship Company Bore (member of

Silja Line Silja Line is a Finnish shipping company and cruiseferry brand owned and operated by the Estonian shipping company AS Tallink Grupp, for car, cargo and passenger traffic between Finland and Sweden. The former company Silja Oy—today Tallink S ...

) also for Turku-Stockholm service.

References

External links

YLE archive: Documentary about shipbuilding at Wärtsilä Turku Shipyard in 1971 (in Finnish).
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