The Shipbuilding Industry In Ireland
Above: Ship Building in Ireland
Indeed the whole fleet (forty-four ships) of the White Star Company was built by Messrs. Harland and Wolff. It was for the White Star Company that the long type of ocean steamship, with saloon and first-class passenger accommodation amidships was introduced in 1870. This, though a great advance in ship construction, is only one of the improvements due to the Belfast firm. Every demand, indeed, made by modern commercial necessities and modern luxurious ideas has been met by Messrs. Harland and Wolff. The world wanted big ships; Queens Island built the “Oceanic” and “Celtic” steady “railway timers” were required, and the “Majestic” and “Teutonic” were produced. In fine, Messrs. Harland and Wolff have always shown themselves pioneer builders of vessels of great size and extraordinary speed.
The two great achievements of these shipbuilders, however, were the successful launching and completion of the new White Star passenger and mail steamers “Oceanic” and “Celtic”. The “Oceanic’s dimensions even exceed the “Great Eastern’s”. The “Oceanic” is 704 feet long, and at the time of her launching was universally acknowledged to be the finest vessel ever produced, and the crowning success of the century in naval architecture and marine engineering, reflecting the highest credit alike on the enterprise of her owners and the capacity of her builders. The only matter for regret is that Mr. Thomas H. Ismay, the founder, and until his death the head of the White Star Line, should have passed away within a few months of the completion of this splendid addition to his already celebrated fleet.
This splendid ship, huge though its size has been surpassed by the “Celtic,” launched on the 4th April 1901. The length of the “Celtic” is given as 700 feet over all; she is, therefore, a few feet shorter than the “Oceanic”, though still ahead of the “Great Eastern”. In breadth she is 75 feet7 feet more than the “Oceanic”, but about the same amount less than the “Great Eastern”. It is this breadth of beam that makes her so much bigger than the “Oceanic”, while she surpasses the “Great Eastern” because a section of her amidships would be approximately a square, whereas in Brunei’s boat it was approximately a triangle.
The “Celtic” has not been designed with any view of attaining high speeds; her claim to distinction lies rather in the fact that she is the biggest boat that ever has been built or is now in process of construction. The only vessel in the past that approached her was the “Great Eastern”, which had a gross tonnage of 18,915 compared with her 20,880.
Besides the vessels built for the White Star Company for their Atlantic trade, the “Afric”, “Medic”, “Persic”, “Runic”, and “Suevic”, have been built for the Australian traffic of Messrs Ismay, Imrie and Co. So that Messrs. Harland and Wolff have put a girdle round the earth for the White Star Company. The Queen’s Island firms are the builders also of the excellent vessels that are used for the African traffic of the Union Line, and of some of the vessels used by the Atlantic Transport Company.
It is well known that not a little of the success of Messrs. Harland and Wolff is due to their astute and far-seeing manager, the Right Hon. W. J. Pirrie; an Irishman, of whom another great IrishmanLord Dufferin said when the degree of LL.D. was being conferred on the Chairman of the firm of Messrs. Harland and Wolff, “that he was a man who by his talents and indefatigable exertions had so stimulated the activity of his town that he lifted it from its former comparatively inferior position to that of being the third greatest commercial city in the whole of the British empire”.
Messrs. Harland and Wolff are the head of the world’s shipbuilding industry; and their position is all the more creditable from the fact that, while some of the Clyde shipping yards have to thank the arts of war for their success, the Queen’s Island firm supplies exclusively peaceful Argosies. Second in importance to Messrs. Harland and Wolff is the firm of Messrs. Workman, Clark and Co., but though they only take second place in Belfast, they are one of the largest shipbuilding firms in the world
This firm commenced business in 1879 on the north side of the river, and have ever since been improving their status in the shipbuilding world, their name now standing amongst the first shipbuilders of the United Kingdom and Ireland. In a short time after this successful venture they extended their works to the south side of the river. The increase of output, however, has compelled them to add considerably since then to the capabilities of both yards, and to take over the property of Messrs. These ship building establishments are now closed.
