19th century Harland & Wolff was formed in 1861 by
Edward Harland (1831–1895) and
Hamburg-born
Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1834–1913) who had moved to England aged 15, and then to Ireland in 1857. In 1858, Harland, then general manager, bought the small shipyard on Queen's Island from his employer Robert Hickson. After buying Hickson's shipyard, Harland made his assistant Wolff a partner in the company. Wolff was the nephew of
Gustav Schwabe,
Hamburg, who was heavily invested in the
Bibby Line, and the first three ships that the newly incorporated shipyard built were for that line. Harland made a success of the business through several innovations, notably replacing the wooden upper decks with iron ones which increased the strength of the ships; and giving the hulls a flatter bottom and squarer cross section, which increased their capacity.
Walter Henry Wilson became a partner of the company in 1874. When Harland died in 1895,
William James Pirrie became the chairman of the company and remained so until his death in 1924.
1900s to 1940s Thomas Andrews, nephew of the then-chairman William Pirrie, became the general manager and head of the draughting department in 1907. It was in this period that the company built and the two other ships in her class, and , between 1909 and 1914. It commissioned
Sir William Arrol & Co. to construct
a massive twin slipway and gantry structure for the project. . The bow of
SS Nomadic is at the far left. In 1912, due primarily to increasing political instability in Ireland, the company acquired another shipyard at
Govan in
Glasgow, Scotland. It bought the former London & Glasgow Engineering & Iron Shipbuilding Co's Middleton and Govan New shipyards in Govan and Mackie & Thomson's Govan Old Yard, which had been owned by
William Beardmore & Company. The three neighbouring yards were amalgamated and redeveloped to provide a total of seven building berths, a fitting-out basin and extensive workshops. Harland & Wolff specialised in building tankers and cargo ships at Govan. The nearby shipyard of
A. & J. Inglis, on the north bank of the Clyde and the east bank of the Kelvin, was also purchased by Harland & Wolff in 1919, along with the Meadowside shipyard of
D. and W. Henderson and Company, on the north bank of the Clyde but on the west bank of the Kelvin. The company also bought a stake in the company's primary steel supplier,
David Colville & Sons. Harland & Wolff also established shipyards at
Bootle in
Liverpool,
North Woolwich in London and
Southampton. However, these shipyards were all eventually closed, beginning in the early 1960s when the company opted to consolidate its operations in Belfast. In the
First World War, Harland & Wolff built
Abercrombie-class monitors and
cruisers, including the 15-inch gun armed "large light cruiser" . In 1918, the company opened a new shipyard on the eastern side of the Musgrave Channel which was named the East Yard. This yard specialised in mass-produced ships of standard design developed in the First World War. During the 1920s,
Catholic workers,
Socialists and labour activists were routinely expelled from their jobs in the shipyard: Similar actions had occurred in June 1898 and July, 1912. See
The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922). The company started an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary with
Short Brothers, called Short & Harland Limited in 1936. Its first order was for 189
Handley Page Hereford bombers built under licence from
Handley Page for the
Royal Air Force. In the
Second World War, this factory built
Short Stirling bombers as the Hereford was removed from service. yard (27 October 1944) The shipyard was busy in the Second World War, building six
aircraft carriers, two cruisers (including ) and 131 other naval ships; and repairing over 22,000 vessels. It also manufactured
tanks and
artillery components. It was in this period that the company's workforce peaked at around 35,000 people. However, many of the vessels built in this era were commissioned right at the end of the Second World War, as Harland & Wolff were focused on ship repair in the first three years of the war. The yard on Queen's Island was heavily bombed by the
Luftwaffe in April and May 1941 during the
Belfast Blitz, causing considerable damage to the shipbuilding facilities and destroying the aircraft factory.
1950s to 1990s With the rise of the jet-powered airliner in the late 1950s, the demand for
ocean liners declined. This, coupled with competition from
Japan, led to difficulties for the British shipbuilding industry. The last liner that the company launched was MV
Arlanza for
Royal Mail Line in 1960; the last liner completed was SS
Canberra for
P&O in 1961. In the 1960s, notable achievements for the yard included the tanker
Myrina, which was the first
supertanker built in the UK and the largest vessel ever launched down a slipway, as it was in September 1967. In the same period the yard also built the semi-submersible drilling rig
Sea Quest which, due to its three-legged design, was launched down three parallel slipways. This was a first and only time this was ever done. In the mid-1960s, the
Geddes Committee recommended that the
British government advance loans and subsidies to British shipyards to modernise production methods and shipyard infrastructure to preserve jobs. A major modernisation programme at the shipyard was undertaken, centred on the creation of a large construction
graving dock serviced by two
Krupp Goliath cranes, the iconic
Samson and Goliath, enabling the shipyard to build much larger post-war merchant ships, including one of 333,000 tonnes. The shipyard had a long-standing reputation as a Protestant closed shop, and in 1970, during
the Troubles, 500
Catholic workers were expelled from their role. In 1971, the
Arrol Gantry complex, within which many ships were built until the early 1960s, was demolished. Continuing financial problems led to the company's
nationalisation by the interim '
(SI 1975/814) and the permanent ' (
SI 1975/1309). It did not become part of
British Shipbuilders when other shipbuilders were nationalised in 1977. The nationalised company was sold by the British government in 1989 to a management/employee buy-out in partnership with the Norwegian shipping magnate
Fred Olsen; this buy-out led to a new company called Harland & Wolff Holdings Plc. By this time, the number of people employed by the company had fallen to around 3,000. For the next few years, Harland & Wolff specialised in building standard
Suezmax oil tankers, and has continued to concentrate on vessels for the offshore oil and gas industry. It has made some forays outside this market. In the late 1990s, the yard was part of the then
British Aerospace team for the
Royal Navy's
Future Carrier (CVF) programme. It was envisaged that the ship would be assembled at the Harland & Wolff dry-dock in Belfast. In 1999, BAE merged with
Marconi Electronic Systems. The new company,
BAE Systems Marine, included the former Marconi shipyards on the
Clyde and at
Barrow-in-Furness thus rendering H&W's involvement surplus to requirements. Faced with competitive pressures, Harland & Wolff sought to shift and broaden their portfolio, focusing less on shipbuilding and more on design and structural engineering, as well as ship repair, offshore construction projects and competing for other projects to do with metal engineering and construction. This led to Harland & Wolff constructing a series of bridges in Britain and also in the
Republic of Ireland, such as the
James Joyce Bridge and the restoration of
Dublin's
Ha'penny Bridge, building on the success of its first foray into the civil engineering sector with the construction of the
Foyle Bridge in the 1980s. Harland & Wolff's last shipbuilding project was MV
Anvil Point, one of six near identical s built for use by the
Ministry of Defence. The ship, built under licence from German shipbuilders
Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, was launched in 2003. The company unsuccessfully
tendered against
Chantiers de l'Atlantique for the construction of
Cunard's .
2000s to 2020s In 2003, Harland & Wolff's parent company sold 185 acres of surplus shipyard land and buildings to Harcourt Developments for £47 million. This is now known as the
Titanic Quarter, and includes the £97 million
Titanic Belfast visitor attraction. In recent years the company has seen its ship-related workload increase. While Harland & Wolff has had no recent involvement in
shipbuilding projects, the company is increasingly involved in overhaul, re-fitting and ship repair, as well as the construction and repair of off-shore equipment such as
oil platforms. On 1 February 2011 it was announced that Harland & Wolff had won the contract to refurbish , effectively rekindling its nearly 150-year association with the White Star Line. Structural steel work on the ship began on 10 February 2011 and was completed in time for the 2012 Belfast Titanic Festival. In July 2012 Harland & Wolff was to carry out the dry docking and service of the Husky Oil
SeaRose FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) vessel. Belfast's skyline is still dominated today by Harland & Wolff's famous twin
gantry cranes,
Samson and Goliath, built in 1974 and 1969 respectively. In late 2007, the 'Goliath' gantry crane was re-commissioned, having been moth-balled in 2003 due to the lack of heavy-lifting work at the yard. In June 2008, assembly work at the Belfast yard was underway on 60 Vestas V90-3MW wind turbines for the
Robin Rigg Wind Farm. This was the second offshore wind farm assembled by the company for Vestas having completed the logistics for the
Barrow Offshore Wind Farm in 2006. In August 2011 Harland & Wolff completed the logistics for the
Ormonde Wind Farm which consisted of 30 REpower 5MW turbines. In March 2008, the construction of the world's first commercial tidal stream turbine, for Marine Current Turbines, was completed at the Belfast yard. The installation of the 1.2MW
SeaGen Tidal System was begun in
Strangford Lough in April 2008. In July 2010, Harland & Wolff secured a contract to make a prototype tidal energy turbine for Scotrenewables Ltd. Manufacture of the SR250 device was completed in May 2011 and has been undergoing testing in Orkney since. Since April 2012, the booming
offshore wind power industry has taken centre stage. Harland & Wolff had been working on three innovative meteorological mast foundations for the Dogger Bank and Firth of Forth offshore wind farms, as well as putting the finishing touches to two Siemens substations for the
Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm. Seventy-five per cent of the company's work was based on offshore
renewable energy. Harland & Wolff was one of many UK and international companies profiting from the emergence of UK wind- and marine-generated electricity, which had been attracting significant inward investment. As the business environment became increasingly competitive the yard began to have difficulty in generating enough business to meet overhead expenses. The yard was last profitable in 2015 and the following year it had an operating loss of £6 million. In 2018, the parent company
Fred. Olsen & Co. restructured and decided to place Harland & Wolff up for sale. No buyer emerged and on 5 August 2019 the company announced that they would cease trading and entered formal administration. Subsequently, on 1 October 2019, it was announced that the shipyard had been bought for £6 million by the London-based energy firm, InfraStrata. In August 2020, InfraStrata also bought the dormant
Appledore shipyard for £7 million. The deal will see the shipyard renamed H&W Appledore complementing the H&W Belfast shipyard by focusing on smaller ships of up to 119 metres in the shipbuilding and ship repair market. In February 2021, InfraStrata acquired two
BiFab yards, the £850,000 deal was struck for the
Methil and
Arnish yards, (but not the Burntisland facility). These Scottish facilities will trade under the Harland & Wolff brand. In September 2021, Infrastrata plc was renamed Harland & Wolff Group Holdings plc. In April 2023, the Belfast yard completed its first new vessel since
Anvil Point in 2003. It is a barge for the waste management company,
Cory, the first of an order for 23 such craft. From 2025 the yard is expecting to construct three new
solid stores replenishment vessels for the
Royal Fleet Auxiliary as part of the Team Resolute Consortium. On 16 September 2024, it was reported that Harland & Wolff entered administration for the second time in 5 years. The company was expected to continue operations normally, with its non-core operations winding down and up to 60 jobs being lost. On 19 December 2024, it was announced that the Spanish state-owned shipbuilding company
Navantia had agreed to buy Harland & Wolff's four shipyards and retain all employees. In January 2025, it was announced that
Navantia had completed its purchase of the British company. == Archives ==