William Crichton (29 November 1827 – 10 April 1889) was a Scottish engineer and shipbuilder who spent most of his career in Turku, located in the Grand Duchy of Finland.

After two years, he moved to Helsinki to work for Fiskars, but because of the Crimean War he was arrested due to his nationality and transferred to Saint Petersburg.

The company built predominantly ships and steam engines and its main customer was the Imperial Russian Navy.

His older brothers Alexander and Edward studied at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and were then employed by Scottish engineering companies.

[1] In the summer of 1850 Crichton received a letter from the Finnish engineering company Cowie and Eriksson offering him a position as supervisor on a three-year contract.

Although the offer did not come from Saint Petersburg, but the smaller city of Turku in southwestern Finland with a population of 13,000, Crichton probably saw it as an opportunity to gain a toehold in Russia.

The yard, Gamla Warfsbolaget i Åbo, ("old shipbuilding company in Turku"), was the most important customer of Cowie & Eriksson.

Owen Jr. had moved to Turku a few years earlier to lead the same project Crichton was working on and lodged at his sister's home.

After recovering in spring or early summer 1851, Crichton left for a holiday in Sweden where he met Mr. Fletcher a relative of Mrs. Owen.

The same evening he went to pick up his passport, military and Finnish police waited for him, told him to collect his drawings and notes, and ordered him to leave for Saint Petersburg with the papers, which travelled with him, in a sealed envelope.

Crichton spent two months with his granduncle during which time he met General Alexander Wilson, who was managing the state-owned Alexandrosk factory and Izhorsk Works in Kolpino.

[1] William Crichton and Annie Elizabeth Owen were married in the English church in Saint Petersburg in November 1854.

Following defeat in the Crimean War, the Russian Navy ordered new armoured ships with cannon turrets, powered by steam engines which used propellers; the minimum speed requirement was 15 knots.

Further speculation suggests the technology was successfully applied to the powerful engines built in Izhorsk and this was the reason Crichton received the award.

Julin was seeking a capable business partner who would run the company with him and suggested to Crichton that he purchase Cowie's shares.

As the company still built wooden ships, Crichton invested in a steam-powered sawmill that was located next to the river downstream from the other buildings.

Crichton had good contacts in Saint Petersburg; about twenty per cent of the company's orders came from Finland, the rest came from the Russian military and civil customers.

It was unusual that a small company like W:m Crichton & C:o could compete against the large Saint Petersburg shipyards for navy orders.

The military's purchasing process, and those of other public institutions, was complex and a successful business required both strong credibility and the right contacts.

Evidently, the connections Crichton had made in Kolpino helped him, but to obtain orders he had to give something in return, which meant corruption.

[1] During the late 1870s Crichton met the Welsh-born engineer John Eager in Saint Petersburg, whom he recruited to his own company.

Also larger vessels were built, such as two oil tankers for the Caspian Sea and the gun boat Bobr which was ordered for the Russian Pacific Fleet.