industries limited type private limited company industry civil engineering marine engineering shipbuilding offshore construction founded 11 april 1861 nationalised 1977 privatised 1989 headquarters belfast northern ireland united kingdom key people edward harland gustav wilhelm wolff william pirrie 1st viscount pirrie thomas andrews sir john parker fred olsen archie price owner fred . olsen energy number of employees 500 website www.harland wolff.com harland & wolff heavy industries is a british heavy industrial company specialising in shipbuilding and offshore construction located in belfast northern ireland . harland & wolff is most famous for having built all of the ships intended for the white star line including the rms titanic . 1 other well known ships built by harland & wolff include titanic s sister ships rms olympic and rms britannic the royal navy s hms belfast royal mail line s andes shaw savill s southern cross union castle s rms pendennis castle and p & o s canberra . harland and wolff s official history shipbuilders to the world was published in 1986 . 2 as of 2011 the expanding offshore wind power industry has been the prime focus and 75 % of the company s work is based on offshore renewable energy . 3 launch of rms olympic rms britannic launching postcard launch of rms titanic contents 1 early history 2 the war years 3 post war period 4 restructuring and current operations 5 archives 6 list of ships built 7 references 8 external links early history edit workers leaving the shipyard at queens road in early 1911 . rms titanic is in the background beneath the arrol gantry . statue of edward james harland in the grounds of belfast city hall harland & wolff was formed in 1861 by edward james harland 1831 95 and hamburg born gustav wilhelm wolff 1834 1913 in the uk from age 14 . in 1858 harland then general manager bought the small shipyard on queen s island from his employer robert hickson . harland & wolff s belfast drawing offices early in the 20th century 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 . when harland died in 1895 william james pirrie became the chairman of the company until his death in 1924 . thomas andrews also became the general manager and head of the draughting department in 1907 . it was in this period that the company built olympic and her sister ships titanic and britannic between 1909 and 1914 commissioning sir william arrol & co. to construct a massive twin gantry and slipway structure for the project . 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 and 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 was also purchased by harland & wolff in 1919 along with 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 . these shipyards were all eventually closed from the early 1960s however when the company opted to consolidate its operations in belfast . the war years edit a burner operating at night on the deck of a ship at harland and wolff s liverpool yard 27 october 1944 . in the first world war harland and wolff built monitors and cruisers including the 15 inch gun armed large light cruiser hms glorious . 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 . 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 license 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 . the shipyard was busy in the second world war building six aircraft carriers two cruisers including hms belfast 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 world war ii as harland and 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 causing considerable damage to the shipbuilding facilities and destroying the aircraft factory . post war period edit 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 whilst 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 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 british government started advancing loans and subsidies to british shipyards to preserve jobs . some of this money was used to finance the modernization of the yard allowing it to build the much larger post war merchant ships including one of 333 000 tonnes . however continuing problems led to the company s nationalisation though not as part of british shipbuilders in 1977 . in 1971 the arrol gantry complex within which many ships including the titanic were built until the early 1960s was demolished . the company was bought from the british government in 1989 in a management employee buy out in partnership with the norwegian shipping magnate fred olsen ; leading 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 specialized 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 . the company bid unsuccessfully tendered against chantiers de l atlantique for the construction of cunard line s new queen mary 2 . 4 in the late 1990s the yard was part of the then british aerospace s 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 . restructuring and current operations edit the samson and goliath gantry cranes have become city landmarks harland & wolff is now a leading offshore fabrication and ship repair yard . isle of inishmore and jonathan swift being refitted at harland & wolff in 2008 faced with competitive pressures especially as regards shipbuilding 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 and 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 to date was mv anvil point one of six near identical point class sealift ships built for use by the ministry of defence . the ship built under licence from german shipbuilders flensburger schiffbau gesellschaft was launched in 2003 . harland and wolff was nearly awarded the contract to build rms queen mary 2 in 2003 but was not given the government guarantee necessary to do so . as a result the contract was awarded to chantiers de l atlantique . the ship entered service in 2004 . 5 in recent years the company has indeed seen its ship related workload increase slightly . whilst harland & wolff has no involvement in any shipbuilding projects for the foreseeable future 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 ss nomadic 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 . there is also speculation about a resurgence in the prosperity of the shipyard thanks to the company s diversification into emerging technologies particularly in renewable energy development such as offshore wind turbine and tidal power construction which may provide an opportunity to further improve the company s fortunes in the long term . for example the united kingdom planned to build 7 500 new offshore wind turbines between 2008 and 2020 6 creating great demand for heavy assembly work . unlike land based wind turbines where assembly occurs on site offshore wind turbines have part of their assembly done in a shipyard and then construction barges transport the tower sections rotors and nacelles to the site for final erection and assembly . as a result of this 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 . 7 this was the second offshore wind farm assembled by the company for vestas having completed the logistics for the barrow offshore wind