Wm. Crichton & Co.
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Formerly called
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Cowie & Eriksson (1842–1857) D. Cowie & C:o (1857–1862) |
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| osakeyhtiö (1874 →) | |
| Industry | engineering; shipbuilding |
| Fate | bankruptcy |
| Successor | Ab Crichton |
| Founded | 1842 |
| Founders | David Cowie Anders Thalus Eriksson |
| Defunct | April 24, 1913 |
| Headquarters | Turku, Grand Duchy of Finland |
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Number of locations
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2 (1896 →) |
| Products | steam engines, ships and other engineering products |
| Owners |
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W:m Crichton & C:o Ab is a former engineering and shipbuilding company that operated in Turku, Grand Duchy of Finland in 1842–1913. The company also had another shipyard in Okhta, Saint Petersburg.
The company was founded as Cowie & Eriksson. At the beginning it produced steam engines, boilers and other engineering products. William Crichton became owner in 1862 and the company was named W:m Crichton & C:o The first shipbuilding slipway was constructed in 1864. The company became the biggest employer of Turku after acquiring the nearby yard Åbo Skeppswarf in 1883.
Crichton died in 1889, after which the operations were continued by investors. In 1896 the company started a new yard in Okhta, Saint Petersburg, to build ships for the local market. The operations were poorly organised and by time the yard created so much losses that the company bankrupted in 1913.
A new company, Ab Crichton, was established in 1914 to continue shipbuilding in Turku.
The contemporary sources use alternative spellings Wm Crichton & Co, W:m Crichton & C:o and W:m Crichton & Co. for which the corresponding Russian transliteration was В:мъ Крейтонъ и Ко. ("V:m Kreiton i Ko.").
The company was started in 1842, when Swedish chief engineer Anders Thalus Eriksson and Scottish David Cowie got a permit to start a foundry and engineering works in Turku. The men had worked before in for Samuel Owen who had built the first steam engines of Sweden. The location for the premises was selected an empty lot on east bank of river Aura, in address Itäinen Rantakatu 56–58. The start was funded by a loan of 15 000 silver rubles given by the senate. The operations started in 1844 and the portfolio consisted of steam engines and other machinery. In 1844 the company employed 86 people. While starting an engineering company from scratch included a high risk, there was need for steam engines in industrialising Finland. The products were steam engines and various castings and forgings, and the main customer became the Turku Old Shipyard located at the other side of the river.
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