Harland made a success of the business through several innovations, notably replacing the wooden upper decks with iron ones which increased the strength of the ships and giving the hulls a flatter bottom and squarer cross section, which increased their capacity. Wolff was the nephew of Gustav Schwabe, Hamburg, who was heavily invested in the Bibby Line, and the first three ships that the newly incorporated shipyard built were for that line. In 1858 Harland, then general manager, bought the small shipyard on Queen's Island from his employer Robert Hickson.After buying Hickson's shipyard, Harland made his assistant Wolff a partner in the company. Edward James Harland (1831–95) and Hamburg-born Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1834–1913 he came to the UK at age 14). As of 2011, the expanding offshore wind power industry had been the prime focus, and 75% of the company's work was based on offshore renewable energy. Harland and Wolff's official history, Shipbuilders to the World, was published in 1986. Well-known ships built by Harland & Wolff include the Olympic-class trio: RMS Titanic, RMS Olympic and RMS Britannic, the Royal Navy's HMS Belfast, Royal Mail Line's Andes, Shaw Savill's Southern Cross, Union-Castle's RMS Pendennis Castle, and P&O's Canberra. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the White Star Line. Harland & Wolff is a shipyard, specialising in ship repair, conversion, and offshore construction, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This image catches them in silhouette against a warm December sunset.
Locally they are known as Samson and Goliath and in daylight they are a bright yellow colour.
Photo of Belfast Yellow cranes at Harland and Wolff Shipyard where the liner RMS Titanic was built.