British shipyard group Harland and Wolff is insolvent. The company that built the ‘Titanic’ and dozens of ships for the Antwerp shipping company Red Star Line more than a hundred years ago can no longer pay its debts.
It is already the second time in five years that the British Harland and Wolff Group is in financial trouble. For the individual shipyards themselves – the group has four yards in Northern Ireland and Britain – there would be a good chance of being taken over.
The company was best known in the early 20th century as a shipyard where many passenger and warships for the British home market were launched. In recent years, the company was still mainly active as a design and repair yard.
Titanic’
The most famous ship built at Harland and Wolff is the ‘Titanic’. Construction of the ship began in 1909 at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. On its maiden voyage in 1912, it hit an iceberg at full speed and sank, killing nearly 1,500 passengers. Today, a museum at the shipyard remembers the iconic ship.
Red Star Line
In addition to the ‘Titanic’, dozens of passenger ships were built at the shipyard, long serving the Antwerp shipping company Red Star Line. Red Star Line transported some two million Europeans from Antwerp to US cities, New York and Philadelphia, between 1873 and 1935.
Thus, in 1912, the year the ‘Titanic’ sank, the shipyard built the ‘Belgenland’. That ship, which sailed to America between 1923 and 1935 for Red Star Line, was then one of the most luxurious passenger ships in the world. The ship was 204 metres long and could carry some 2,700 passengers,
