The company Harland and Wolff was formed during 1861, by Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, born in Hamburg during 1834, together with Mr. Edward James Harland born during 1831. During the year 1858 Harland, who was the general manager during the time, purchased the small shipyard located on Queen's Island. He bought the property from Robert Hickson, who was his employer.
Harland at one time purchased 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 heavily in the Bibby Line. The first 3 ships that the brand new shipyard built were for that line. By being innovative, Harland made the business a successful venture. Amongst his well-known ideas was increasing the ship's overall strength by utilizing iron for the upper wodden decks. As well, he was able to increase the ship's capacity by giving the hulls a flatter bottom and a square cross section.
Harland and Wolff were eventually faced with competitive pressures in regards to building ships. They sought to broaden their portfolio and shift their focus. They decided to focus more on structural design and engineering and less on building ships. The business even diversified into the areas of offshore construction projects, ship repair as well as competing for additional 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 both the James Joyce Bridge and Dublin's Ha'penny Bridge. In the 1980s, with the building of the Foyle Bridge, their initial foray into the civil engineering sector took place.
Today, the last shipbuilding project of Harland and Wolff was the MV Anvil Point. This was among six near identical Point class sealift ships that was constructed for use by the Ministry of Defense. The ship was launched during the year 2003, after being built under license from German shipbuilders Flensburger, Schiffbau-Gesellschaft.