The company Harland and Wolff was formed during 1861, by Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, born in Hamburg in 1834, and Mr. Edward James Harland born in 1831. In the year 1858 the general manager during the time, Harland, bought the small shipyard located on Queen's Island. He bought the property from Robert Hickson, who was his employer.
Once Harland bought Hickson's shipyard, he then made his assistant Wolff a partner in the business. Gustav Wilhelm Wolff was the nephew of Gustav Schwabe of Hamburg. He has invested heavily in the Bibby Line. The first 3 ships which were constructed by the brand new shipyard were for that line. By being innovative, Harland made the company a successful venture. Amongst his well-known ideas was increasing the ship's overall strength by using iron for the upper wodden decks. As well, he was able to increase the capacity of the ship by giving the hulls a squarer cross section and a flatter bottom.
Harland and Wolff eventually experienced competitive pressures in regards to building ships. They sought to shift their focus and broaden their portfolio. They chose to concentrate more on structural engineering and design and less on shipbuilding. The business even diversified into the fields of ship repair, offshore construction projects and competing for more projects which had to do with construction and metal engineering.
Harland and Wolff had other interests, such as a series of bridges to be constructed in the Republic of Ireland and in Britain. These bridges consist of the restoration of Dublin's Ha'penny Bridge and the James Joyce Bridge. In the 1980s, their initial foray into the civil engineering sector occurred with the construction of the Foyle Bridge.
The MV Anvil Point was the last shipbuilding project of Harland and Wolff to date. This was one of six near identical Point class sealift ships which was built to be used by the Ministry of Defense. In the year 2003, the ship was launched, after being constructed under license from German shipbuilders Flensburger, Schiffbau-Gesellschaft.