Twenty-ninth Index Card

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/exhibition/belfast/main.html

• The iconic Belfast industry, however, was shipbuilding.
• It did not employ as many workers as the linen industry, but its achievements brought international renown to the city.
• Throughout the nineteenth century the shallow waters of the city were redeveloped into a major port, which were home to what became the largest ship-builders in the world.
• In 1859 Edward Harland bought the shipyard in the port which he had previously managed.
• Two years later he took Gustav Wolff as his partner.
• They expanded over the following decades, and by 1900 Harland and Wolff employed 9,000 people.
• In 1911 they launched the Titanic, then the largest ship in the world, which sank so dramatically on its maiden voyage.