The greatest ships ever built by Harland & Wolff
The Titanic is the most famous ocean liner in history
From almost any viewpoint in Belfast, look up and there they’ll be: Samson and Goliath, the giant yellow gantry cranes of the Harland & Wolff shipyard, in the former Queen’s Island area of the city.
Though only added to the 163-year-old shipyard in 1974 and 1969, respectively, the cranes dominate the skyline, and serve as a symbol of the city’s psyche: proud, resolute, industrious. In 2003, they were both recognised as official scheduled monuments.
In its time, Harland & Wolff was the engine of Northern Irish industry, employing some 35,000 people, and building many of the world’s largest and most storied ships.
That Queen’s Island is now called Titanic Quarter gives away its most famous creation, but between Royal Navy ships, ocean liners, oil tankers and modern prototypes, the entire history of UK shipbuilding could be told by Harland & Wolff. If gantry cranes could talk…
The late Queen Elizabeth II with Sir Frederick Rebbeck, managing director of the fabled shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, in 1946 - PNA Rota/Getty Images
The story has now entered choppy waters, however. Hit by financial problems over recent years, fears for Harland & Wolff’s future were to be assuaged by a £200m government loan guarantee, enabling it to stabilise its finances and begin work on a major contract for the Royal Navy next year.
It was reported this week that the Treasury has reservations about the loan, while three other ministries – Defence, Trade and Business – wished to press ahead. Harland & Wolff described those reports as “misleading and inaccurate”.
As part of a consortium, the firm currently has a £1.6 billion contract to construct Royal Navy ships. If Jeremy Hunt blocks the support package, Navy vessels could end up being built in the Spanish port of Cadiz. To date, no British warship has ever been built by a foreign yard.
For now, Harland & Wolff battles on. Samson and Goliath stand firm, ready to continue the story. And what a legacy it is. Here, we look at 10 ships that made Harland & Wolff the pride of Northern Ireland.
Amerika
Amerika was a significant achievement for Harland & Wolff - Danvis Collection / Alamy
By the time Amerika, a passenger liner and troop transport ship, launched in 1905, Harland & Wolff had already been building ships for half a century. The company was formed in 1861 by Edward James Harland, an Ulster-based English shipbuilder, and German-born Gustav Wilhelm Wolff.
But the Amerika – a steel-hulled, 22,225 gross register tons, twin-screw, steam passenger liner – was a significant achievement in the early years of uber-luxurious transatlantic liners. Its sister ship, Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, was built in Hamburg, and became the largest ship in the world until the Lusitania, built by Harland & Wolff’s rivals John Brown & Company, was launched a few years later.
Amerika’s later history included being seized and placed under control by the United States Shipping Board for troop transport in World War One and again in World War Two, but one brush with history is particularly significant. On April 14 1912, after one hairy transatlantic crossing, it sent a wireless message warning about two large icebergs. The message was relayed by the Marconi operator on Titanic. Three hours later, Titanic herself hit one and sank.
RMS Titanic (1911)
The Titanic was launched in 1911 - Topical Press Agency/Getty
The most famous and ill-fated ocean liner in history may not seem the greatest advert for a shipbuilding company, but Belfast’s pride in having built the Titanic is evident to all visitors to the quarter it gives its name to. The Titanic was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners built for White Star Line: the others being Olympic and Britannic.
White Star’s great rival, Cunard Line, had recently launched the Lusitania and the Mauretania, and in order to keep up, White Star commissioned a new fleet of vessels larger and more luxurious than anything before them. Harland & Wolff had worked with White Star since the 1860s, and set to work designing the new liners.
The first ship, Olympic, approved in 1908, was Harland & Wolff’s 400th hull. Titanic, which was launched in 1911 and began sea trials at 6am on Tuesday April 2 1912, was number 401. We all know what happened after that.
RMS Olympic and Britannic (1910, 1914)
Brittanic was an improved Olympic-class liner launched after the sinking of the Titanic
The stories of the three Olympic-class liners built by Harland & Wolff are all remarkable. It was the lead ship, Olympic, launched in 1910, which had the longest career.
It served as a troopship during the First World War, earning the nickname “Old Reliable” and once ramming and sinking a German U-boat.
After the war Olympic, which was once the largest ocean liner in the world, returned to civilian service. It remained the largest British-built liner until RMS Queen Mary launched in 1934. By the time of her retirement and scrapping in the 1930s, Olympic had crossed the Atlantic over 500 times, travelling 1.8 million miles.
The Olympic, known as 'Old Reliable' - Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Britannic, meanwhile, was launched in 1914, after the sinking of the Titanic. Several major design changes were made to make her safer, including increasing the ship’s beam.
Laid up for months in Belfast, she was requisitioned as a hospital ship during the First World War, before hitting a naval mine near the Greek Island of Kea in 1916. Fortunately most of the 1,066 souls on-board were rescued. She was the largest ship lost in the First World War.
Royal Mail Line’s Andes (1913)
Royal Mail Line's Andes was in action from 1913 until 1952 - Alamy Stock Photo
Another vast passenger liner which served in the First World War, Andes formed part of the Tenth Cruiser Squadron, patrolling the North Atlantic armed to the teeth.
After the war she was refitted to be the height of luxury, taking paying passengers between Southampton and South America. By the 1920s she was the largest cruise vessel in the world.
During the Second World War, she was refitted again as a hospital ship, and survived another conflict. In her dotage she was chartered by the New Zealand Government as an emigrant ship. She was pensioned and broken up in 1952, after two world wars and many trips around the world.
HMS Glorious (1915)
HMS Glorious was sunk by German battleships in 1940 - Hilary Morgan / Alamy
One of three Courageous-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy in the First World War, Glorious participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917, and was there when the German High Seas Fleet surrendered in 1918.
Unusually, Glorious was converted into an aircraft carrier during the 1920s, and spent most of her career patrolling the Mediterranean. During the Second World War, she spent most of the early stages of the conflict hunting the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. It was unsuccessful, but went on to support operations in Norway, where she was sunk by German battleships in 1940. 1,200 people lost their lives.
HMS Belfast (1938)
HMS Belfast is now moored permanently on the River Thames - Electric Egg/Alamy Stock Photo
Perhaps the most visible Royal Navy ship in the country, thanks to its permanent mooring as a museum ship by Tower Bridge on the River Thames in London.
It’s now run by the Imperial War Museum, but was built in the early 1930s in, obviously, Belfast.
A cruise of the third Town class, Belfast was part of the British naval blockade against Germany, and struck a mine in 1939, requiring two years of repairs.
Returning to action in 1942, Belfast had one of the most active and dramatic wars, escorting Arctic convoys, participating in the Battle of North Cape, and of course taking part in Operation Overlord on D-Day.
RMS Pendennis Castle (1957)
Built in 1957, RMS Pendennis is among Harland & Wolff's most beautiful ships - Marco McGinty/Alamy Stock Photo
One of the largest ships of her time, and widely considered one of the most beautiful, Pendennis Castle was a regular on the popular Southampton to South Africa route, replacing Arundel Castle, another Harland & Wolff ship.
“Ship of the year” when she was launched, Pendennis Castle was an early example of what cruising looks like now, with “fun” activities on board hoping to attract younger passengers. She finished service in the 1970s.
The Canberra (1961)
The SS Canberra had a second life as a cruise ship - Allan Cash Picture Library / Alamy
A veteran of the P&O fleet for over 30 years, SS Canberra entered service in 1961 as an ocean liner between the UK and Australasia. She cost £17m to build and was worth it: over a distinguished career, she not only carried thousands of passengers halfway across the world, but also served as a troopship in the Falklands War.
Later, when she became a cruise ship, she was hugely popular with British passengers due to her service in the Falklands. As a result, ticket sales were healthy for many more years than anybody expected, keeping her from the scrappers until 1997.
RFA Fort Victoria (1990)
RFA Fort Victoria survived the IRA's explosive devices and went on to participate in numerous deployments - Marco McGinty/Alamy Stock Photo
A Fort-class combined fleet stores ship and tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, supplying ammunition, fuel and other supplies to Royal Navy vessels around the world, Fort Victoria had been at dock for only a few weeks when the Provisional IRA planted two explosive devices on board in September 1990.
One exploded, damaging an engine room, which later flooded. The ship almost sank, but emergency services and Harland & Wolff workers managed to save it – just.
A day later, a second call from the IRA revealed there was another device hidden on board, which took two weeks to find. This, and other problems, meant it wasn’t accepted into service until 1994, but it has since had a distinguished career, including participating in Operation Telic in Iraq in 2003, various Indian Ocean deployments, and carrier support. She will be replaced in the next decade, it’s thought, by a new class of Fleet Solid Support Ship…
Team Resolute (2025)
The Fleet Solid Support Ships are yet to materialise
Will we ever see these built and launched by Harland & Wolff? In 2022, it was announced that three Royal Navy support ships are to be built in Belfast after a £1.6bn Ministry of Defence contract was signed. “Team Resolute” refers to a consortium comprising three companies – design firm BMT, Harland & Wolff and Navantia UK.
The Fleet Solid Support Ships would provide munitions, stores and provisions to the Navy’s aircraft carriers, destroyers and frigates deployed at sea. Each will be as long as two Premier League football pitches.
At the time, the UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said the contract will “bolster technology transfer and key skills from a world-renowned shipbuilder.”
All true – if it goes ahead. Production of the ships is due to start in 2025; they were hoped to be operational by 2032. Now, under the giant shadows of Samson and Goliaths, the city of Belfast will hope that’s still the case.
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