(; 'Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works Ltd.') was a Finnish shipbuilding and engineering company that operated in Helsinki in 1895–1938. The company was set up to continue shipbuilding at Hietalahti shipyard, after its predecessor Helsingfors Skeppsdocka, which operated the yard in 1865–1895, had bankrupted.
The company portfolio consisted of the building and repairing of ships and the production of tram and railway wagons, boilers, steam and combustion engines, winches and other products. Before and during the First World War the main customers were the Imperial Russian Navy and the Finnish State Railways. Following the Finnish Declaration of Independence in 1917, the Finnish Civil War broke out in 1918. The yard was closed until the Red Guards had left the city.
Due to recession in shipbuilding the company owners decided to sell the shares to another Helsinki engineering company, Kone- ja Siltarakennus in 1926. In 1935 was taken over by Wärtsilä, which amalgamated Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works into its own organisation. The yard continued operating under the name Shipyard after that.
Background
The Hietalahti yard construction was started in 1865 by industrialist Adolf Törngren, who founded the company Helsingfors Skeppsdocka. Törngren soon fell into financial difficulties before the premises were taken into use. By the following year the new owner became Tampere Linen and Iron Industry, which still had to invest a substantial sum of money into buildings, a dock and machinery, before the yard finally became operative.Osakeyhtiö Hietalahden...: Laivatelakan synty ja ensimmäiset toimintavuodet. pp. 7–27. The new owner had planned to sell the yard after commissioning, but it had difficulties reaching a satisfying level of profitability and a prominent new owner. Finally, in 1880 the company was sold to engineer Oskar Eklund.Osakeyhtiö Hietalahden...: Toiminta Tampereen Pellava- ja Rauta-Teollisuus Osakeyhtiön hallinnan alaisena. pp. 28–37. Eklund enlarged the premises, but continuously suffered a lack of funding. In 1895 was declared bankrupt by the main creditor, Union Bank of Finland.
Foundation The estate was auctioned on 3 October 1895 to trader J. C. Burmeister for 550,000 marks. The Senate confirmed the company articles of association on 25 October. The new company name was in Swedish and in Finnish, both meaning 'Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works Ltd.' The founding meeting was held on 18 December 1895. The participants were Burmeister, engineer Edvin Bergroth, bank director Alfred Norrmén, senior engineer Theodor Tallqvist, commercial counsellors Paul Sinebrychoff and Victor Ek and traders Theodor Stude and A. Einighorst. The capital stock was 400,000 marks, and a 250,000 marks' state loan granted to the preceding company was included in the liabilities.
Burmeister, Tallqvist and Norrmén formed the company board; the deputy members were Sinebrychoff and Stude. Einighorst and Ek were comptrollers and their deputies were trader K. H. Renlund and vuorineuvos Albert von Julin. Bergroth was appointed the company manager and Thor Winter became the vice president.
Initial investments Unlike the preceding operator of the yard, Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works had a good capital base and could directly invest in new machinery. Under Bergroth's determined leadership, the company started a significant investment programme. As docking of ships was considered the core business, the company bought neighbouring houses to get more area around the dry dock, which had very constricted space. The yard area was enlarged towards the city during the following years. In 1896 the company invested in a 30-tonne masting crane. Wooden sheds were gradually replaced by brick buildings, which reduced both fire risk and insurance costs.
Production of rolling stock in the area had started back in 1889, and new facilities were built in 1898 in an area recently gained. As the new premises were next to the railway connection, the transportation of products became easier. During 1898–1899 a new sawmill building was constructed from bricks at the border of the factory area, next to Tokankatu street. A brick pump house was built in 1899 and in the following year it was equipped with a steam-powered centrifugal pump made by Scottish Drysdale & Co. At the same time a new prime power machinery building with a chimney was constructed next to it, at the place of the old sawmill and storage. The boiler installed was a used six-bar steam boiler taken from the shipwrecked Scottish vessel S/S Jupiter.
The wooden gate of the dock was replaced by a steel gate in 1899. In the same year a new central storage area for raw materials was built in the southern part of the area. This building was also made from brick and quarried partly into bedrock.
Other investments from the late 1890s were a two-floor carpenter workshop and paint shop, and a forging furnace. The old rolling stock workshop was renewed for boiler building. All cradles were equipped with rollers – by the year 1900 the yard comprised three cradles.
By the beginning of the 20th century the company employed 300–400 people.
Early 20th century When Bergroth left the company leadership in May 1900, his follower engineer Adolf Engström received the leadership of a financially solid company. Bergroth continued as a member of the management board.Osakeyhtiö Hietalahden...: Toiminta uuden vuosisadan aikana. Vuodet 1901–1914. pp. 58–77.
Strikes and changes in political environment The early 20th century was a time of increased labour movement activity; also, the yard and engineering shop workers were dissatisfied by their working conditions. The daily working time was long and salaries low, and despite much responsibility, the workers had hardly any rights. The first notable strike took place in 1902, when the yard smiths went on strike for one month. The action did not lead to favourable results for the workers; instead of reaching a collective agreement, each worker made a personal contract with the employer.
The early 1900s were also politically turbulent due to the russification policy the Empire applied to its autonomous Grand Duchy. This culminated in the assassination of governor-general Bobrikov in 1904. The Russo-Japanese War broke out the same year, and this led to an increased order intake from the Russian military.
In July 1906 the metalworkers went on a general strike which lasted until November, when a collective agreement was reached. Another strike followed in January 1909 and lasted until March, apart from foundry workers who returned to work in April, and steel plate workers who came back in May.
Orders from the Imperial Russia reduced again in 1910 when the Empire re-established its pressure policy towards Finland. The company managed to get sufficient orders from private companies of Russia to compensate for the decline in new public building projects. Moreover, the company received a lot of repair projects from the Imperial Russian Navy.
Shipbuilding and repairs In year 1900 Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works invested in pneumatic tools. A separate air compressor building was constructed next to the steam boiler building, and the premises were equipped with a comprehensive pressurised air supply network. The new tools increased productivity, especially at the dockyard.
In the early 20th century, the company built passenger ships, tug steamers and other vessels for Finnish and Russian customers. In 1904 the company recruited Theodor Höijer as its shipbuilding master. Höijer was an experienced engineer who had worked in Sweden and the United States.
The size of ships visiting the Finnish harbours had grown by the end of the 19th century, and in order to be able to dock those ships, the dock had to be extended. In 1903 the dock was extended to 96 metres, in 1910 to 100.6 metres and in 1912 to 106.7 metres. After the last enlargement, the company was able to dock the largest ships which visited the Finnish harbours. As the dry dock alone was not enough to meet the demand, the company considered building another similar one or a floating dry dock. The first option was ruled out due to cost reasons, and the second one due to lack of suitable space next to the area. Therefore, the company ended up replacing an 1886-built cradle with a larger one with a 1,500-tonne capacity. The 1907–1908-built new cradle was a significant investment, costing nearly 350,000 marks. Ship repair capabilities were further enhanced by the introduction of welding in 1906 and investments in machinery, including two large lathes in 1908.
Between 1900–1914 the company built at least 60 vessels. Most of the customers were from Russia and other countries around the Baltic Sea. 22 projects were steam launches and passenger steamers, three were coast guard vessels, 20 vessels were tug boats, rescue vessels or icebreakers and 11 were barges. In motor vessels the company used engines produced by Swedish J. & C. G. Bolinders Mekaniska Verkstads AB. About 30 vessels built in 1910–1918 were powered by these engines designed by Erik Rundlöf.
At the end of 1904 the Russian Admiralty ordered first two, then another two torpedo boats, which were delivered in 1907. The drawings and engines came from Germany. The orders were highly profitable and during the building process the company headcount was increased from 700 to 1,000. The project required building an electrogalvanisation facility which operated until 1914. While the order intake of military vessels declined in 1910, the company received significant repair projects: in 1911 three medium-size navy vessels, in 1912 three ships-of-the-line and five smaller vessels, in 1913 one ship of the line and a minelayer. Moreover, in 1914 shortly before the outbreak of the war, nine smaller ships underwent a thorough repair. Also, new ships were constructed in the meantime.
Wagon production As Engström had a lot of earlier experience with rolling stock, his contribution to the company's railway wagon-building was significant. Wagon-building balanced the wintertime pits in demand. The main customer was Finnish State Railways and the other customers were private railway operators with standard 5 ft and narrow gauges. The company produced mainly freight wagons, but also some passenger coaches. The wagon production was ended in 1916, by which point the company had built 1,980 closed and 963 open freight wagons and 80 coaches. This makes Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works the second-largest producer of railway wagons in Finland until then, right after the State Railways' Engineering Works.
The wagon factory produced also other various rolling stock, including 12 tram wagons for Helsinki Tramway and Omnibus company.
Other products By 1912 Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works had delivered 140 boilers and 120 steam engines for marine use. For stationary use the company built 190 boilers of various types. The power of boilers ranged up to 400 ihp.
In addition, the company produced pumps, preheaters, winches, anchoring machinery, rudder machinery, engine order telegraphs, filtering devices and a number of other products.
Beginning of the First World War When the First World War broke out at the beginning of August in 1914, the common belief was that the war would only last for a couple of months at most. The shipyard management did not expect to have many orders, and therefore reduced the headcount. But after a while the order intake increased; the Imperial Russian Army ordered more vessels, ship repair projects and gave various other assignments. The earlier declared ban the Empire had placed on orders from Finnish companies was practically omitted.Osakeyhtiö Hietalahden...: Laivatelakka maailmansodan aikana. Vuodet 1915–1918. pp. 78–89.