The business Harland and Wolff was established in 1861, by Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, born in Hamburg during the year 1834, and Mr. Edward James Harland born in the year 1831. In the year 1858 Harland, who was the general manager during the time, bought the small shipyard located on Queen's Island. He bought the property from his employer, Richard Hickson.
Once Harland bought Hickson's shipyard, he then made his assistant Wolff a partner in the company. Gustav Wilhelm Wolff was the nephew of Gustav Schwabe of Hamburg. He has invested heavily in the Bibby Line. The first 3 ships that were constructed by the brand new shipyard were for that line. By being innovative, Harland made the business a successful venture. Among his famous suggestions was increasing the ship's overall strength by using iron for the upper wodden decks. Furthermore, 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 broaden their portfolio and shift their focus. They decided to concentrate more on structural engineering and design and less on shipbuilding. The company even 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 built in the Republic of Ireland and in Britain. These bridges include the restoration of Dublin's Ha'penny Bridge and the James Joyce Bridge. During the 1980s, their first venture into the civil engineering sector occurred with the construction of the Foyle Bridge.
The MV Anvil Point was the last shipbuilding job of Harland and Wolff to date. This was among six near identical Point class sealift ships that was built to be used by the Ministry of Defense. In 2003, the ship was launched, after being built under license from German shipbuilders Flensburger, Schiffbau-Gesellschaft.