Titanic Shipyard Files for Insolvency

The Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff, the 158-year-old shipyard in Northern Ireland that built the Titanic, is preparing for bankruptcy.

The ship building company was put into administration on Monday after its bankrupt Norwegian owner Dolphin Drilling failed to find a buyer and calls for its nationalization were rebuffed.

The shipyard has been occupied by workers since last Monday as part of a high-profile campaign to save the yard, which is due to formally cease trading at 5.15pm on Monday.

They said on Monday they would block administrators from entering the site. Trade unions said that they will not give up on this famous shipyard. The occupation will continue, they added.

“BDO have been appointed as administrators and the company will file for insolvency tomorrow,” a Harland and Wolff spokesman said.

According to CNN, the shipyard in Belfast employed about 35,000 at its pre-World War II peak in 1935. It has only 123 full-time employees today. It has not built a ship since 2003, when it built two ferries.