Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding and fabrication company headquartered in London with sites in Belfast, Arnish, Appledore and Methil.

[6] Outside of White Star Line, other ships that have been built include the Royal Navy's HMS Belfast; Royal Mail Line's Andes; Shaw, Savill & Albion's Southern Cross; Union-Castle's RMS Pendennis Castle; P&O's Canberra; and Hamburg-America's SS Amerika of 1905.

In 1912, due primarily to increasing political instability in Ireland, the company acquired another shipyard at Govan in Glasgow, Scotland.

The three neighbouring yards were amalgamated and redeveloped to provide a total of seven building berths, a fitting-out basin and extensive workshops.

During the 1920s, Catholic workers, Socialists and labour activists were routinely expelled from their jobs in the shipyard:[15][16] Similar actions had occurred in June 1898 and July, 1912.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In the late 1990s, the yard was part of the then British Aerospace team for the Royal Navy's Future Carrier (CVF) programme.

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.

Harland & Wolff's last shipbuilding project was MV Anvil Point,[20] one of six near identical Point-class sealift ships built for use by the Ministry of Defence.

[21] In 2003, Harland & Wolff's parent company sold 185 acres of surplus shipyard land and buildings to Harcourt Developments for £47 million.

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.

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.

[23] In July 2010, Harland & Wolff secured a contract to make a prototype tidal energy turbine for Scotrenewables Ltd.[24] Manufacture of the SR250 device was completed in May 2011 and has been undergoing testing in Orkney since.

From 2025 the yard is expecting to complete the final assembly of three naval support ships for the Royal Navy as part of the Team Resolute Consortium.

[35] [36] 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.

A collection of Harland & Wolff papers are held at Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).

[42] Records relating to the Govan yard of Harland & Wolff plc are maintained by the Archives of the University of Glasgow (GUAS).