The company Harland and Wolff was established in 1861, by Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, born in Hamburg in the year 1834, together with Mr. Edward James Harland born during the year 1831. During 1858 the general manager during the time, Harland, bought the small shipyard situated 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 company. Gustav Wolff was Gustav Schwabe of Hamburg's nephew. He has invested mainly in the Bibby Line. The first 3 ships which the brand new shipyard made were for that line. By being inventive, Harland made the company a successful venture. One of his famous ideas was increasing the ship's overall strength by using iron for the upper wodden decks. As well, he was able to increase the capacity of the ship 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 broaden their portfolio and shift their focus. They chose to focus more on structural engineering and design and less on building ships. The business also diversified into the areas of ship repair, offshore construction projects and competing for more projects that had to do with construction and metal engineering.
Harland and Wolff had other interests, like a series of bridges to be constructed in the Republic of Ireland and in Britain. These bridges comprise the restoration of the James Joyce Bridge and Dublin's Ha'penny Bridge. In the 1980s, their first foray into the civil engineering sector occurred with the building of the Foyle Bridge.
To date, the last shipbuilding job of Harland and Wolff was the MV Anvil Point. This was one of six almost identical Point class sealift ships that was built for use by the Ministry of Defense. The ship was launched in the year 2003, after being built under license from German shipbuilders Flensburger, Schiffbau-Gesellschaft.