Shipbuilding has historically been one of the UK’s strong suits. It makes sense – basically as long as there have been people born on this island they’ve been inventing new ways to get off of it. Easily the most famous ship built on local shores, and probably the most famous ship ever, was the Titanic.
Although the Titanic is famous for sinking, which is typically the one thing boats are really meant not to do, the Belfast docks where it was constructed has been churning out high quality naval engineering since the 1860s. However, that could come to an end soon.
Back in November, the Treasury promised Harland & Wolff (the shipbuilders that own the shipyard) a £200 million loan to stay in business. Despite this, earlier this week the Telegraph reported that the Treasury may now go back on the agreement, with chancellor Jeremy Hunt reportedly wishing to deny the company’s request for subsidies.
If the money doesn’t come from the government, it’s pretty likely that the 160-year-old shipyard will meet its demise. Harland & Wolff is currently working on a £1.6 billion contract to built three Royal Navy vessels, and it’s expected that if it isn’t able to cough up the cash soon those will be outsourced to Spain.
This is a very literal sink or swim moment for shipbuilding in Belfast – the dock’s fate currently hangs in the balance, but we should have an answer soon. Hopefully this is just another blip for a thriving industry which can go on to one day correct its legacy and make an actually unsinkable ship.
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