The business Harland and Wolff was formed in 1861, by Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, born in Hamburg in the year 1834, together with Mr. Edward James Harland born in 1831. In the year 1858 Harland, who was the general manager during the time, bought the small shipyard situated on Queen's Island. He purchased 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 first 3 ships which were constructed by the brand new shipyard were for that line. By being inventive, Harland made the company 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 eventually experienced competitive pressures in regards to shipbuilding. They sought to shift their focus and broaden their portfolio. They decided to focus less on building ships and more on structural design and engineering. The company even diversified into the fields of offshore construction projects, ship repair and competing for additional projects that had to do with construction and metal engineering.
These other interests led to Harland and Wolff building a series of bridges in the Republic of Ireland and in Britain. These bridges comprise the restoration of Dublin's Ha'penny Bridge and the James Joyce Bridge. In the 1980s, with the construction of the Foyle Bridge, their first foray into the civil engineering sector happened.
The MV Anvil Point was the last shipbuilding project of Harland and Wolff to date. This was one of six almost identical Point class sealift ships that was built to be utilized by the Ministry of Defense. The ship was launched during 2003, after being constructed under license from German shipbuilders Flensburger, Schiffbau-Gesellschaft.