It took an incredibly short period of time, a mere six months, from the meeting in London between Bruce Ismay and Lord Pirrie to discuss the new Olympic-class liners, and the actual keel-laying in December 1907 of the first of the trio, Olympic, yard No. 400. On October 20th, 1910, Olympic was launched at Harland and Wolff’sBelfast yard, and she immediately entered the …
The shipbuilding company of Harland and Wolff stands on Queen’s Island, in Belfast’s River Lagan, and was built on land reclaimed from a river-straightening scheme undertaken between the years 1841 – 1846. The company’s roots were initially sown in 1853, when Robert Hickson and Company opened a shipbuilding yard on the island, building iron-hulled ships. …
Wallace Henry Hartley was born on 2nd June 1878, in Colne, East Lancashire. His parents Albion and Elizabeth Hartley were both employed in the local textile trade, which at the time produced cotton for export around the world. Wallace was the younger brother to Mary Ellen, who had been born the previous year. When Wallace …