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