The company Harland and Wolff was formed in 1861, by Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, born in Hamburg in 1834, and Mr. Edward James Harland born in 1831. During the year 1858 the general manager at the time, Harland, bought the small shipyard on Queen's Island. He bought the property from Robert Hickson, who was his employer.
Harland at one time bought Hickson's shipyard and made his assistant Wolff a partner in the business. Gustav Wolff was Gustav Schwabe of Hamburg's nephew. He has invested mostly in the Bibby Line. The initial 3 ships which the brand new shipyard made were for that line. By being inventive, Harland made the company a successful undertaking. Amongst his well-known suggestions was increasing the overall strength of the ship by utilizing iron for the upper wodden decks. What's more, he was able to increase the capacity of the ship by giving the hulls a flatter bottom and a square cross section.
Harland and Wolff eventually experienced competitive pressures in regards to building ships. They sought to shift their focus and broaden their portfolio. They decided to concentrate less on shipbuilding and more on structural engineering and design. The business also diversified into the areas of offshore construction projects, ship repair and competing for additional projects which had to do with metal engineering or construction.
Harland and Wolff had other interests, like a series of bridges to be built in Britain and in the Republic of Ireland. These bridges consist of the restoration of both Dublin's Ha'penny Bridge and the James Joyce Bridge. During the 1980s, their first foray into the civil engineering sector took place with the building of the Foyle Bridge.
The MV Anvil Point was the last shipbuilding job of Harland and Wolff to date. This was amongst six near identical Point class sealift ships that was constructed for use by the Ministry of Defense. The ship was launched in 2003, after being built under license from Flensburger, Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, German shipbuilders.