Harland and Wolff, once acknowledged as the greatest and best-known shipbuilding company in the world, for many years enjoyed a mighty eminence before a gradual descent into near obscurity. This illustrated book, told from the unique perspective of someone who was there at the time, chronicles the history of the organisation from its creation to the present day, from its halcyon days to its present incarnation. Today, the company is no longer involved in shipbuilding, maintaining only a small ship repair and engineering facility and occupying a fraction of its previously vast complex. At its peak Harland and Wolff directly employed over 45,000 people, with even more in its subsidiary companies. Well-known Harland and Wolff former employee Tom McCluskie, who was a technical consultant to James Cameron on the movie Titanic, sheds light on many little-known facts about the business, delves into the human interest stories, and recounts both the mighty zenith and ignominious demise of this great enterprise.

Tom McCluskie followed his father and was apprenticed into Harland & Wolff's shipyard on Queen's Island, Belfast. Harland and Wolff was a hard working environment, and also dangerous but Tom accepted this as the price to pay for working at such a famous shipyard, the one that had built the Titanic and also the Canberra. Slowly working his way up through determination and hard work, Tom became passionate about the history of the yard and, at a time when no-one in H &W cared, he managed to secure the company's archive and was responsible for having it deposited at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. As an acknowledged Titanic expert, he was also seconded by H & W to help James Cameron make his epic 'Titanic' movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Tom traces the history of one of the most famous of all shipbuilding companies, from the arrival of Edward Harland in Belfast in 1854 through the building of the Titanic to the company in its present-day form. In doing so he transports us back to the glamorous 'golden age' of shipping and gives an intriguing new perspective on British industry. A regular speaker at Titanic conventions worldwide, Tom has written numerous books on the Titanic and her two sister ships.