Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries Ltd

Record holders of ‘heaviest middle point lift’ at 774T. If you need anything ‘heavy’ assembled then H&W are the company for you.

You know your home whenever you see that H&W sign on those big yellow things. It is usually the first thing you can see and one of the only landmarks that you can pick out about Belfast whenever you are coming in on a flight or driving into belfast from the motor-​way.
Paris has the Eiffel tower
London has Big Ben
New York has the status of liberty
Los Angeles has the Hollywood sign
and Belfast has these cranes.
Belfast used to be world leaders in shipbuilding and textiles and I think it is only right that these cranes remain iconic and a poster of what Belfast once was. I’m not sure what we could be known for these days.
I’ve seen that they are repainting one of the cranes, a touch of paint will do them the world of good.

These two giants of the sky are synonymous with the Belfast skyline, and when you drive into the city they are one of the few things you can’t miss.
I remember being a child and not quite understanding what all the fuss was about, not realised in my tiny youthful mind quite how monstrous these beasts are.
I won’t delve too much into details and the history of the ship building industry in Belfast, partially because there is a lack of interest on my part and if you are a tourist you’ll probably be bored senseless but a gaggle or tour guides.
The main thing to know and understand is these monsters were at the heart of the industry for many years and it’s certainly worth a trip to see the scale of the beasts.

It’s nice to have landmarks that are synonymous with a city and whilst the Harland & Wolff Cranes aren’t particularly elegant, they are an imposing and distinctive part of Belfast’s skyline.
Sampson and Golliath, as they’re also known are situated in the shipyard of Harland & Wolff and were constructed by the German engineering firm Krupp. Goliath was completed in 1969 and Samson in 1974.
Goliath stands 96 metres (315 ft) tall, while Samson is taller at 106 metres (348 ft). At the time Harland & Wolff remained one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, the yard closed down some years later.
The announcement that they were to be built was seen as an important event at the time. It signalled that one of Northern Ireland’s largest employers was to expand at a time when the country’s Troubles were raging, and when inward investment was at a low.
The towers are also synonymous with another one of Belfast’s most famous claims to fame, the fact that the Titanic was built in this very shipping yard.

The reason I recommend going to down to the shipyard is not just to see David and Goliath, as the cranes are known, but to check out the surrounding area which has become a hub for local and international movie productions, with the set known as The Paint House nearby. Who knows, if you’re lucky you might bump into one of the stars (although with many of the movies being the equivalent of B-​Side songs, you might not recognise them anyways).

Samson and Goliath are part of the Belfast skyline. Despite the almost complete lack of a ship building industry any more, the stand there as monuments to our industrious past. It’s only when you get right up close to them that you are swallowed by the sheer size. A lot of work itself was put into just constructing these cranes, which shows how big the industry was that it required their necessity. Instead of turning the area into a somewhat misguided praise of a ship we built that actually sank in its first journey, we should name the newly forming streets around this area after these giants.

As noted in previous reviews, H&W are as synonymous with Belfast as soda bread, sectarianism and spides (like), but unlike the last two, Samson and Goliath are an incredibly proud and important part of Belfast’s ship building past.
For a little history brief… In 1861 Edward Harland set up his soon to be famous company Harland & Wolff. (There’s a commemorative statue to him in the grounds of City Hall) During WW2 the shipyard was at its busiest, during this period alone they built 6 aircraft carriers, 2 cruisers (including HMS Belfast) and 131 other naval ships; they also repaired over 22,000 vessels. It was during this period that the company’s workforce peaked at around 35,000 people, that’s quite a number compared to Belfast’s population of 425,000.
The shipyard has been the site of a number of incredible achievements; obviously Titanic which I don’t need to say much about except to include a news cutting describing «the largest vessel in the world — floated proudly on the water, a monument to the enterprise of her owners and the ingenuity and skill of the eminent firm who built her». Belfast News-​Letter, 3 April 1912. I have to note … she was fine when she left here! Built by Irish men, sunk by English men … What else can I say? (I’ll leave that for a Titanic review)
Other incredible feats of H&W include how in 1967s the tanker Myrina was the first supertanker to be built in the UK, and the largest vessel ever launched down a slipway. In the same decade the semi submersible drilling rig the Sea Quest was built. This was designed as a three legged rig and was launched down three parallel slipways. This was the first and only time this has ever been done.
To date the cranes have built OVER 135 ships, 4 cruisers and 10 oil tankers. Harland and Wolff is positioned to support the needs of the marine, offshore and civil engineering sectors. Now a days the cranes and shipyard are used for ships overhaul, refitting and ship repair, as well as the construction and repair of offshore equipment such as oil platforms.
These unique resources and facilities make Harland and Wolff a shipyard which has produced some of the largest, most sophisticated and technically advanced engineering feats in history. According to the website, the modern H&W offer a range of facilities to marine industries including but no limited to design and structure engineering, ship repair, ship and offshore building, renewables; offshore wind farms, tide and wave power generators, modular construction, marine vessel and offshore unit recovery and recycling and Offshore Wind Farm Logistics.
I had the utter joy of being able to visit the cranes last weekend. They are simply stunning. I’d never been to see them before, a scandal I thought for a local enthusiast, and I am so Glad I got the opportunity. Go and see them. They are beautiful giants.

Samson and Goliath are an intrinsic part of the Belfast skyline. They make it impossible to forget Belfast’s ship building roots (and not just the Titanic claim to fame — I’m still not totally sure why we’re so proud of that!).
As an attraction, it’s pretty much just a case of driving near them and looking, rather than getting to climb them or anything, but they’re still worth seeing.
Hopefully they aren’t in any danger, but as Harland & Wolff have declined so rapidly over the last few years, you would worry that these giants won’t actually be around forever.

The Harland and Wolff cranes are as part of Belfast as the religious divide, Queen’s University or the ‘B’ in Belfast. They are one of, if not the iconic image from the history of Belfast, one which fingers crossed lives on for many many years into the future. These massive cranes, aptly named Samson and Goliath, stand at 96 metres and 106 metres high. They were built in 1969 and 1974 respectively and show a brief but memorable glimpse into Belfast’s wonderful shipbuilding industry which sadly has fallen away in the last number of years.
They would have been enough to look at in themselves, but they are also part of a variety of tours, including Titanic tours and the Belfast City Sightseeing tours.
It would be amazing if you could get up onto the cranes and to see the view from there, but sadly unless you can build a ship, chances are you will never be able to get up that high.
But if you ever come to Belfast, you have to visit these.