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'Crichton-Vulcan' is an abandoned shipyard in Turku, Finland that once formed the cornerstone of the Finnish shipbuilding industy. The shipyard is best known for the World War II coastal defence ships and submarines it produced. Shipbuilding at the yard ended by 1976, after a new shipyard had been built in Turku. The old yard was taken over by 'Turku Repair Yard' and used for ship repair until 2004, when they too moved to a new location. The shipyard on the river Aura, in the center of Turku, now lies abandoned and is the target of vandals.^[1]

Contents

History

Naval ships

Submarines

Successors

Engines

Ships

See also

References

History

The first shipyard in Turku was established in 1732 on the eastern bank of the Aura River. The first foundry and metal workshop was established in 1842. After the Crimean War the workshop was acquired by 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 later merged with another workshop that changed its name to 'Oy Vulcan Ab' in 1899. In 1924 the companies were merged into 'Crichton-Vulcan Oy'. It again was merged with Wärtsilä between 1936 and 1938. In 1966 the name of the shipyard was changed to 'Oy Wärtsilä Ab Turun telakka'.

Naval ships

During World War I, the shipyard served the Imperial Russian Navy. After Finnish independence in 1917, Finland started a program on naval armament. Most of the ships were designed by the Dutch (German) company Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw and built by Crichton-Vulcan.^[2]
The shipyard built two coastal defence ships (pocket battleships) for the Finnish Navy. The 3,900 tonne (displacement) ''Ilmarinen'' and ''Väinämöinen'' were ordered in 1927 and delivered in 1931 and 1932 respectively.

Submarines

The shipyard also built the prototypes for the WW II German U-boat fleet. Germany was banned under the Treaty of Versailles from building submarines, so work was conducted under foreign dummy companies. Three 716-tonne submarines were ordered in 1927. The submarines were designed by Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw; the design was based on the WW I German Type UC III submarine. 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.^[3]
The ''Vetehinen'', the ''Vesihiisi'' and the ''Iku-Turso'' were commissioned in 1930 and 1931.
A smaller sub, the 250-tonne ''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, eight kilometers from the center of Turku. This new shipyard in now operated by Aker Finnyards and produces the world's largest cruise ships, the Freedom Class and the future Genesis class. After 1984 the old shipyard concentrated solely on ship repair; the last newbuilding was launched in 1976.
In 1986 Wärtsilä's shipbuilding branch merged with the shipyards of the state-owned Valmet, taking over the Vuosaari shipyard in Helsinki. In 1989 the new company, ''Wärtsilä Marine INC'', went bankrupt.
A new company, Masa-Yards (now Aker Finnyards), headed by yard manager Martin Saarikangas, took over the new shipyard in Turku and Wärtsilä's Helsinki New Shipyard.
Another new company, Turun Korjaustelakka Oy, now ''Turku Repair Yard Ltd'', 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 island in Naantali. The company now operates the largest dry dock in the Baltic Sea area.^[4]

Engines

Wärtsilä, the company, is today one of the leading producers of large diesel engines for ships and power plants,^[5] producing Wärtsilä-Sulzer and the Wärtsilä-Vasa engines. The engine factory is also located on the Aura riverbank. In 2004 Wärtsilä decided to move production of its diesel engines from Turku to its factory in Italy.

Ships

Very few ships produced at the old shipyard are still in service:

★ One of the few is M/V ''Freewinds'', the floating "university" of the Church of Scientology.

★ In 1975 Wärtsilä delivered five cruiseferries to the Soviet Union. At least one of them is still in service, under the name Mv ''Van Gogh''.

See also

★ Finnish Maritime Cluster

★ Russian frigate Rurik (1851)

References

1. Modern Ruins in Finland - Turku Repair Yard
2. Finnish Navy in World War II
3. Dutch Export Submarines - Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw
4. Turku Repair Yard - company web page
5. Wärtsilä - Group structure