Lists of construction workers who built the titanic

[Susan Taylor]

I'm looking for ways of finding lists of the builders of the Titanic when it was built in Belfast. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mike Herbold]

This is a great topic. I'm surprised nobody has responded yet. Has anyone contacted you direct? If not, let me know -- there are some Harland and Wolff employees around that are active Titanic people who could probably help you.

 

[Dave Gittins]

I'm sure I read some time ago that H & W have no such lists and request that people don't bother them by asking. You might try the Ulster Titanic Society. http://www.nireland.com/uts/

Upwards of 15,000 men were involved, so tracing them would be a very big job indeed. It's all beyond living memory and you are likely to get only second-hand tales of dubious accuracy. James Carlisle of Belfast has done good work recently on tracing those killed on the job, but he found that even there the records are vague. See his work elsewhere on Encyclopedia Titanica.

 

[Mike Herbold]

Susan:
Stephen Cameron wrote a book entitled "Titanic, Belfast's Own," which is available through Amazon.com. He talks a bit about the workforce and has some interesting documents. One that caught my eye was the 'Engine Works, Staff Wages' time cards for the week after the Titanic disaster.

There's not a lot of detail, but it sounds like something you'd be interested in. Cameron used to be very active here on ET, and is chairman of the Ulster Titanic Society (see links).

 

[Jayne]

I'm looking for ways of finding lists of the builders of the Titanic when it was built in Belfast. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

I know only the name of the glass cutter who cut the glass for all the chandeliers on the titanic. His name was William knott. He was a great uncle to my husband.

 

[Christopher Stewart]

I’ve just joined the website and I’m also looking for information regarding my grandad that worked at H & W around the time Titanic was built on slipway four. Would H & W have any information or would this be covered by the data protection act?

 

[Dave Gittins]

See my post from back in 2000. Unless he was involved in something unusual that made the papers, your grandfather would not get a mention.

 

[Mike Spooner]

It was quite surprising how much was sub contract in the building of Titanic ship and others too at H&W. Ireland does not have raw materials as mainland England & Scotland had. There is a book by Andrew PB Lound. RMS TITANIC MADE IN THE MIDLANDS. Quite an eye open what was built in England and then ship to Belfast. H&W may of had the machine shops but not the raw materials as were imported.
That quoted figure of 14000-15000 working on the two ships Olympic & Titanic is wrong. That is the total work force of H&W at the time. They had six other slipways turning out ships. Total figure working on the Olympic & Titanic is nearer to 3000-4000. Titanic was built on slipway No 3. Olympic No 2. I have been there. It may surprise you to know that shipbuilding in Belfast was not the largest in employment at the time! Textile industrial was the largest employment!

 

[Mike Spooner]

Just to add to the above of sub contracts Scotland biggest contribution to the Titanic was the steel plates from David Colville & Son Company in Motherwell.

 

[Steven Christian]

It was quite surprising how much was sub contract in the building of Titanic ship and others too at H&W. Ireland does not have raw materials as mainland England & Scotland had. There is a book by Andrew PB Lound. RMS TITANIC MADE IN THE MIDLANDS. Quite an eye open what was built in England and then ship to Belfast. H&W may of had the machine shops but not the raw materials as were imported.
That quoted figure of 14000-15000 working on the two ships Olympic & Titanic is wrong. That is the total work force of H&W at the time. They had six other slipways turning out ships. Total figure working on the Olympic & Titanic is nearer to 3000-4000. Titanic was built on slipway No 3. Olympic No 2. I have been there. It may surprise you to know that shipbuilding in Belfast was not the largest in employment at the time! Textile industrial was the largest employment!

Your right about that. Prior to WW2 Irish Linen was a huge market. I think the term "Irish Lenin" is still synonyms with quality linen. Belfast in its past had been called Linenopolis.

 

[Mike Spooner]

This may surprise you H&W did not have all to them self as a ship builder in Belfast! Another ship builder almost came up from no were to match H&W output. Workman & Clark Company. At the start of building the Olympic & Titanic Workman & Clark were turning out more tonnage of ships than H&W! They too had to compete for the sub contract work from England & Scotland. The change of leadership in any company whether the past or today can make the world of different! Make no mistake it was Mr E Harland who put H&W on the map and what a remarkable job he did with such stiff fierce competition he faced from many other shipyards in England & Scotland. Mr William Pirrie leadership was some what different to Harland. Personal think Pirrie was not in same league as Mr E Harland and Mr G Wolff were? At that time the output of Belfast shipyards were only 10% of the British shipyards from the mainland.