The Shipbuilding Industry in Belfast 11 



ship. From that time, until Sir Edward HarlancTs death in 1895 

 (21 years later), these four men worked together in a very remark- 

 able ideal partnership. All were practical men, trained in their 

 profession, known to each other and working together almost from 

 boyhood, each man of them able to do the other's work (and often 

 did it) : yet each of them with a strong individuality of his own. 

 Perhaps it is impertinent of me to make any distinction, where all 

 were so equally balanced : but, of the four, Sir Edward Harland 

 was perhaps the inventive genius, the man whose ideas were 

 sometimes impracticable (the ^' Britannic^ s^' patent propellor had 

 to be cut out of her after one voyage); or, on the other hand, 

 sometimes only ahead of his time (26 years ago, as a schoolboy, 

 I heard him speaking of the 1,000 foot boat which has not yet 

 been built, but which assuredly will be built within the next few 

 years). Mr. Wolff was the financier : my father was the practical 

 naval architect, ready to take any step as soon as he could make 

 sure of it, but no sooner : and Mr. Pirrie (Lord Pirrie as he now 

 is) was the business man, the captain of industry upon the largest 

 possible scale. But once more I would note that all four of them, 

 Harland, Wolff, Wilson, and Pirrie, could do, and did do, each 

 other's work when it was needful to do so. The years have made 

 changes: for 11 years past Lord Pirrie, junior partner in 1874, 

 has been sole survivor, so far as active work is concerned, of the 

 original group who joined in partnership 41 years ago : but Lord 

 Pirrie has so reorganised the management, and extended the scope 

 of the business, that it is probably not only larger, but also 

 sounder as a business concern, than even Sir Edward Harland 

 himself could have anticipated when he died. In addition to the 

 works at Belfast, the firm owns a yard on the Clyde, and two 

 extensive repair yards, one at Liverpool and one at Southampton. 

 Shipbuilding in Belfast is not limited to a solitary firm. 

 Second only to Harland & Wolff is Messrs. Workman & Clark, 

 an oflshoot of the former, inasmuch as both principals were, like 

 Wilson and Pirrie, pupils of Harland himself. In 1879 Mr. 

 Workman and Mr. Clark set up in business for themselves, and, 



