(; '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. 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. 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.