Posted on 08/05/2019 10:52:03 AM PDT by NRx
The historic Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic is expected to collapse into administration on Monday, threatening the end of centuries of shipbuilding in the city.
Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries, which dates back to 1861, has struggled in recent years as a result of stiff competition from overseas rivals. The company’s Norwegian owner, Dolphin Drilling, filed for bankruptcy in June and put the Belfast shipyard up for sale.
The company’s yellow cranes – named Samson and Goliath – have dominated Belfast’s skyline since 1974, but the workforce at the yard has declined from a peak of more than 35,000 in the 1920s to only 130 as Northern Ireland’s shipbuilding industry has all but disappeared. The remaining staff have been given redundancy notices.
As well as the “unsinkable” Titanic, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, the shipyard on the banks of the River Lagan made some of the world’s largest and most famous ships, such as the Titanic’s sister Olympic, and Britannic liners. The yard also played a key role in the second world war, producing ships such as HMS Belfast, the battleship now moored on London’s South Bank as a floating museum.
The yard built its last ocean liner, the Canberra, in 1961, to take passengers from the UK to Australia. But Harland and Wolff gradually declined as the age of mass air travel supplanted travel by ship, and shipyards in the Far East offered cheaper vessels.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
I think some ambulance chasers were a bit late, eh?
Two out of three ain't bad..............
Was just there on a cruise.
You would think after the Titanic, that would have been the end for them.
One might also think that in this Jet Age - Ocean Liners would not be in hot demand.
Gee. The HMS Belfast is a light cruiser, not a battleship.
Britannic sank even faster then her sister
Lists of ships built at H&W by decade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_built_by_Harland_and_Wolff
Why? The shipbuilders didn't drive it into the iceberg.
One might also think that in this Jet Age - Ocean Liners would not be in hot demand.
It's a far more elegant way to travel, if sheer speed isn't your goal. Ask Cunard. They keep buying Queen Elizabeths and Queen Marys.
Hopefully, there will always be a place for these magnificent ships.
She had a hole blown below the water line by a mine...................
Like many European and US shipyards, Harland and Wolff seem to have been slow and incomplete in adopting new, efficient modular production methods first developed by Asian shipbuilders. In addition, unions insisted on obsolete work rules that ran up costs.
Subsidized by their governments.
In addition, unions insisted on obsolete work rules that ran up costs.
Can you post some info on that.
No shipyards means the west loses the next world war.
In addition, unions insisted on obsolete work rules that ran up costs.
= = = = = = = = = = = =
While aboard in LST I was home ported in Yokosuka Japan from 1960-62 and all Maintainance and repairs were done in Japanese Shipyards.
Used to be funny when the yard changed a light bulb, 1 would carry it in, another would screw it in, another take the old one away etc etc.
The ‘explanation’ was ‘WE’ couldn’t allow NON UNION work on USN ships outside of UNION yards because it was taking work out of US Yards....so apparently we had to pay the Japanese yard workers on an equal scale BUT it would have ruined the Japanese economy if the US was paying 20 per hour (or whatever union rate was) and really couldn’t be paying JNs that rate so it had to be split up so the pay was the same per hour.. So if changing a light bulb was considered to cost say 30 bucks one JN couldn’t get 10+ yen, so it had to be split 5 or 6 ways.
Or something along that line...
Why? The shipbuilders didn't drive it into the iceberg.
Yeah, but didn't they claim it was unskinable?
Tough to make a living appealing to a fraction of 1% of the market.
See, for example, the privately mailed excerpt from the study: “TOWARDS A THEORY OF BRITISH ECONOMIC DECLINE: THE CASE OF SHIPBUILDING, 1890-1970.”
They were the builders. Probably not the designers.
The Royal Navy needs at least 150 new ships.
I’m sure something can be worked out.
“and shipyards in the Far East offered cheaper vessels”
I think I see a framing problem here.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.