Crichton-Vulcan
The Crichton Vulcan shipyard was established in Turku (Finland) in 1924 through the merger of the joint stock companies Crichton and Vulcan and formed the cornerstone of the Finnish shipbuilding industry. In 1975/76 the shipyard was relocated from Turku to the Perno district and after many sales and mergers the company was established, which today as Meyer Turku mainly builds cruise ships. The original site of the Crichton Vulcan shipyard is no longer an industrial site.
history
A foundry and metal workshop founded in Finland in 1842 was taken over by the Scotsman William Crichton after the Crimean War . He turned it into a shipyard , which in 1914 traded as the Crichton corporation.
The Vulcan machine shop and shipyard emerged from Åbo Mekaniska Verkstad, which was founded in 1874 and was transferred to the Vulcan joint stock company in 1898. In 1911 the Vulcan employed around 300 people and had a turnover of 7.6 million Finnmarks. The Vulcan was also represented in St. Petersburg since 1907 and produced a. a. Steam engines , diesel engines and pumps.
The Vulcan director Allan Staffans was significantly involved in the 1924 merger of Crichton and Vulcan and became chairman of the board of the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard. In 1938, licenses to build Krupp diesel engines were acquired and new assembly halls were built for the construction of the engines.
In 1938, Crichton-Vulcan was taken over by Wärtsilä and in 1939 it was merged with the neighboring boat and engine manufacturer Andros. In 1971 the name was changed to "Wärtsilä Turku Shipyard". With around 5500 employees, the shipyard was the largest Finnish company.
In 1975/76 the shipyard was relocated to the Perno district, where a dry dock with a 600-ton gantry crane was built. In 1987 the company was merged with the Valmet Group to form "Wärtsilä Marine". In 1989 the shipyard became insolvent and was soon taken over by the Masa Yards company and in 1990 by the Kvaerner Group and operated under the name "Kværner Masa Yards".
In 2000, Kværner was taken over by the competitor Aker and renamed Aker Kværner. Soon after, the shipbuilding activities were merged with Aker Finnyards, from which in 2006 the Aker Yards shipyard group was formed.
In 2008, the Finnish branch of the shipyard group with the shipyards in Turku, Rauma and Helsinki was taken over by the South Korean group STX Corporation and now traded as "STX Finland Cruise".
The shipyard in Turku was taken over first to 70% and then 100% by the German Meyer Werft in 2014/2015 . The shipyard in Turku is one of the largest shipyards in Europe, has an area of 144 hectares and the new dock measures 365 × 80 meters and mainly builds post-Panamax cruise ships. Around 1350 people are employed in Turku.
Building program
Many ships were built for Russian contractors. Some of the shipyard's naval ships, including two coastal defense ships (coastal tanks) for the Finnish Navy, were designed by the Dutch Engineers' Cantoor voor Scheepsbouw (IvS) and built by Crichton-Vulcan. The 3,900 tons of Ilmarinen (Schiff, 1934) and Väinämöinen were ordered in 1927 and delivered in 1931 and 1932 respectively. They were the largest Finnish naval ships.
In 1922, the Ministry of Defense negotiated the renovation of an obsolete Russian submarine. Since there was nobody in Finland with submarine know-how, the IvS was switched on in contact with Germany and a secret construction contract was concluded. The drafts of the submarines came from IvS and in 1927 three 720 t UB III boats were ordered and built. The CV 707, later the Vesikko , was the prototype of the German submarines U-Boot-Klasse II . After being launched on May 10, 1933, the Reichsmarine took test drives , and on April 30, 1934 it was put into service by the Finnish Navy.
Other new buildings in the following years were government ships, ferries and passenger ships. After the shipyard was relocated in 1975/76, the ships became significantly larger and passenger ships were increasingly being built for cruise ships.
See also
Web links
- MEYER becomes 100% owner of the shipyard in Turku , accessed on April 15, 2018
Individual evidence
- ^ Turku Repair Yard, accessed April 15, 2018
- ↑ accessed on April 15, 2018
- ↑ Cruise Ship Orderbook accessed April 15, 2018