The company Harland and Wolff was established in 1861, by Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, born in Hamburg in the year 1834, and Mr. Edward James Harland born in the year 1831. In 1858 Harland, who was the general manager at the time, bought the small shipyard on Queen's Island. He bought the property from Robert Hickson, who was his employer.
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 mostly in the Bibby Line. The initial 3 ships that were built 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. Additionally, he was able to increase the ship's capacity by giving the hulls a flatter bottom and a square cross section.
Harland and Wolff eventually experienced competitive pressures in regards to building ships. They sought to broaden their portfolio and shift their focus. They chose to focus less on shipbuilding and more on structural engineering and design. The company even diversified into the areas of offshore construction projects, ship repair and competing for additional projects which had to do with metal engineering or construction.
Harland and Wolff had other interests, such as a series of bridges to be constructed in Britain and in the Republic of Ireland. These bridges comprise the restoration of both the James Joyce Bridge and Dublin's Ha'penny Bridge. In the 1980s, their first foray into the civil engineering sector took place with the construction of the Foyle Bridge.
The MV Anvil Point was the last shipbuilding job of Harland and Wolff to date. This was amongst six almost identical Point class sealift ships which was constructed for use by the Ministry of Defense. During 2003, the ship was launched, after being constructed under license from Flensburger, Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, shipbuilders from Germany.