Legendary shipbuilding "flagship" is difficult to continue the legend
In the brutal competition in the military market, survival of the fittest is an eternal law. With the passage of time, there are always some old military enterprises that will be eliminated by the times. Just last year, Harland Wolf Shipyard, which has a shipbuilding history of more than 150 years, was exposed to be on the verge of bankruptcy. Once this news was announced, it quickly caused waves in the military industry. Speaking of Harland Wolf Shipyard, most people may not know much about it, but when it comes to the famous cruise ship Titanic, almost everyone knows it. This luxurious cruise ship, which exudes romance and sadness, was born in Harland Wolf Shipyard. After the baptism of two world wars, Harland Wolff Shipyard is second to none not only in the field of civil ships, but also in the manufacture of warships. Since the establishment of the shipyard, more than 170 warships of various types have been produced, and many famous warships such as the "awesome" aircraft carrier and the "Befast" cruiser have been built successively. After World War I, Harland Wolfe Shipyard once became a pillar enterprise of British military industry. However, since the 1990s, the British navy began to drastically reduce its establishment, the shipyard lost the strong support of the state, and its former glory gradually faded away. In the new century, Harland Wolfe Shipyard has taken the initiative to change, but with little effect, and had to formally announce its farewell to the shipbuilding industry. In this issue, let’s approach Harland Wolf Shipyard and read the story of the rise and fall of this century-old famous enterprise. From wooden deck to iron deck, the door to success is "bumped" by technological innovation. Befast, a coastal city in the northeast of Northern Ireland Peninsula, has dozens of kilometers of coastline and the largest local seaport, Befast Port. Its unique geographical advantages once made this ancient city a world shipbuilding center, and the famous Harland Wolf Shipyard is located here. Toggle the hands of the years, and time goes back to 1858. At that time, Britain took the lead in completing the first industrial revolution, and the fire of technological revolution ignited the passion of countless entrepreneurs. Many people hoped to seize the opportunity to do something. Under this background, Edward James Harland, general manager of a small shipyard, came up with the idea of starting a business. With all his assets, Harland bought a shipyard from his employer, and he believed that with his own ability, he would definitely make a career in the British shipbuilding industry. However, the reality is far from what he imagined. At that time, British maritime trade entered the golden age of vigorous development, and various domestic shipbuilding enterprises sprang up like mushrooms after rain, and the market competition was unprecedentedly fierce. There are a series of problems in the newly established shipyard, such as chaotic management, lack of talents, aging equipment, etc. Every step of the shipyard is treading on thin ice. Faced with many difficulties, Harland, who was stubborn by nature, chose to persist and led the shipyard staff to take the pace of innovation. They introduced advanced production lines, formulated strict shipbuilding technology standards, vigorously rectified management order, and sent special personnel to large shipyards for further study. In 1859, France took the lead in building the world’s first armored ship, ending the centuries-long wooden warship era. This epoch-making creation, like a thunder, opened a breakthrough of technological innovation for Harland Wolff Shipyard. Influenced by this armored ship, Harland Wolf Shipyard began to study the shipbuilding materials. They found that the ship decks in the market are usually made of wood, which not only has more consumables and less strength, but also affects the hull capacity. Recognizing this problem, Harland Wolff Shipyard immediately put its energy into developing a new deck. After repeated tests, they replaced the original wood materials with iron materials and developed a brand-new iron deck, which greatly improved the deck strength and hull capacity. With good performance, this deck quickly became an "explosive" product in the market, and Harland Wolf Shipyard began to receive a large number of orders one after another, earning the "first bucket of gold" in the fierce market competition. The increasing orders did not slow down the exploration of Harland Wolf Shipyard. They tried to use iron materials for the whole hull, and soon built an all-iron yacht with a stronger structure-Miranda. This yacht is similar to the first "Warrior" armored ship built in Britain: the hull is made of a large piece of iron plate, which is divided into several watertight compartments and adopts advanced steam power system. These technologies were later successfully applied to the production and manufacture of armored ships, and accumulated the experience and technology of building warships for Harland Wolf Shipyard. Innovation is the soul of an enterprise and the guarantee of its sustainable development. In the "painful period" of enterprise reform and development, Harland Wolff Shipyard has always regarded the concept of technological innovation and creating excellent products as a guideline, and has taken the lead in developing the first iron deck ship in Britain, won the "admission ticket" for building the future armored ship, and won the first opportunity in the shipbuilding market with strong hands. An unusual "cross-border" modification, unexpectedly starting a military trip. On April 10th, 1912, Southampton Port ushered in the busiest day in shipbuilding history. The "Titanic" cruise ship with colorful flags is lying quietly in the harbor, and the dock is crowded with tens of thousands of passengers, family members and staff who are off. At 12 o’clock noon, accompanied by the sound of sirens, the Titanic slowly sailed out of the dock and officially opened its maiden voyage. However, only a few days later, this luxurious "dream ship" unfortunately collided with an iceberg in the depths of the North Atlantic and slept forever at the bottom of the Na Pianhai. Almost at the same time as Titanic, there were two other 10,000-ton "sister ships"-Olympic and British. The "maiden" of these three sisters were all Harland Wolf Shipyard. Perhaps it is fate. Although these "three sisters" are in the same era, the final outcome is completely different. In the second year after the sinking of Titanic, World War I broke out, and the war quickly entered a white-hot stage. The British Navy urgently needed large transport ships to meet the demand of the front line. However, under the construction conditions at that time, it took a lot of time to build a new transport ship. In desperation, the British Admiralty came up with a fantastic idea-can the existing civilian ships be modified to support the frontline team? This idea of "cross-border" modification has made many enterprises "retreat". However, in the view of Harland Wolf Shipyard, although the challenge is arduous, it is an excellent opportunity for enterprises to expand into the military field. In the process of modification, Harland Wolff Shipyard skillfully transformed the deck public area of "Britain" into a wounded room, installed more than 3,000 beds inside the hull, and equipped with advanced medical equipment, and the whole ship became a medical ship of the British Navy. And its other "sister ship"-"Olympic" was converted into a troop transport ship, the hull was painted with camouflage stripes, and six anti-submarine guns were installed at the bow and stern, which greatly improved the protection performance and successfully completed dozens of troop transport tasks. The outstanding performance of "Olympics" and "Britain" in the war made the strength of Harland Wolf Shipyard recognized by the British military. On the eve of World War II, countries have stepped up their military expansion to prepare for war. At that time, due to the lack of effective early warning system and fighter protective armor, the defense capability of the British navy aircraft carrier needed to be improved, and it was urgent to develop an aircraft carrier with better performance. The heavy responsibility once again fell on the shoulders of Harland Wolff Shipyard. After two years of painstaking research and development, in the second half of 1939, the aircraft carrier "Awesome" was successfully launched in the port of Befast. Facing the needs of the military, Harland Wolff Shipyard handed over a nearly perfect answer: in the defense system, the aircraft carrier "Awesome" adopted the most advanced 79 radar in Britain at that time, with a monitoring range of tens of kilometers, and an armored hangar was set up on the aircraft carrier to protect the fighters. Six eight-in-one anti-aircraft guns were installed around the hull, with a maximum range of 6,200 meters. With its excellent performance, the "awesome" aircraft carrier destroyed a German heavy cruiser in its first battle when performing its mission in the Atlantic Ocean. Subsequently, the "awesome" aircraft carrier participated in many naval battles such as air strikes in the Indian Ocean and the Battle of Okinawa, and made great contributions to the British Navy. Waiting for the country to "transfuse blood" and embark on the road of recession that is difficult to turn back. "Destiny depends not on chance, but on your choice. Fate is not waiting, but fighting. " The famous saying of British Prime Minister Churchill has inspired countless British people to work hard on the road of starting a business. Extending this wisdom to the field of military industry, its spiritual connotation is equally important to the development of enterprises. In the fierce competition in the military industry market, Harland Wolf Shipyard quickly jumped into the "fast lane" of development with its pioneering and innovative spirit. In its heyday, the shipyard employed about 35,000 workers, and its business scope expanded to the fields of aircraft and tank manufacturing, becoming a well-deserved leader in the industry. Before and during World War II, the British shipbuilding industry flourished and once occupied half of the global shipbuilding market. The output of Harland Wolff Shipyard is even more amazing. During this period, the shipyard built six aircraft carriers, two cruisers and more than 130 other naval vessels for the British Navy, and the number of various vessels repaired was tens of thousands. There is a hidden crisis when the wind is smooth. With the change of the situation, the British army was repeatedly defeated in the battlefield at the beginning of World War II, and the German army once regarded the British military factory as a bombing target. In 1941, the German Air Force carried out air raids on Harland Wolff Shipyard and its port of Befast for several days, which caused heavy damage to the shipyard and killed nearly 800 people. After the war, Harland Wolf Shipyard rallied, hoping to reproduce its former glory. However, after the war, countries began to reduce military spending, warship orders fell sharply, and many shipyards closed down. Harland Wolf Shipyard was doomed, and its performance began to plummet, so it had to spend the "cold winter" of the industry by laying off employees and reducing production. In the 1970s, with the rapid rise of shipbuilding enterprises in Asian countries, the advantages of European shipyards in infrastructure, industrial scale, production capacity and other aspects were gradually reduced, and the shipbuilding market was once seized by shipbuilding enterprises in Asian countries. The advantages accumulated by Harland Wolff Shipyard for a hundred years have been exhausted, and even it has fallen into the dilemma of not having enough funds to pay workers’ wages. In desperation, the shipyard submitted a subsidy application to the British government. In 1975, the shipyard was nationalized and began to rely on the military’s "care" orders to make ends meet. However, the good times did not last long. In the 1990s, the British Navy began to drastically reduce its establishment, and the orders for weapons and equipment also decreased, which was undoubtedly another heavy blow to Harland Wolfe Shipyard. After a hundred years of vicissitudes of life, how can you be willing to sink into the sand? In the new century, Harland Wolff Shipyard began to make great efforts to transform, and devoted itself to the research of renewable energy, offshore wind power generation and tidal power generation construction technology, and the assembled offshore wind turbines also achieved certain sales. However, a handful of military and civilian orders cannot change the "blood loss" of Harland Wolff Shipyard. With the saturation of the installed capacity of power stations in the British coastal areas, the last "livelihood rice bowl" of Harland Wolf Shipyard was overturned, and it gradually approached the edge of bankruptcy. Carrying a huge foreign debt, long-term arrears of workers’ wages, and massive brain drain … As of last year, there were only 123 employees left in the shipyard. Although the British government tried its best to support this legendary shipyard, all kinds of measures were of no help. Looking at the development history of Harland Wolff Shipyard, it is not difficult to find that bold innovation and breakthrough are the power source for the rapid development of enterprises, and also the magic weapon to adapt to market changes and gain market opportunities. However, when in danger, Harland Wolf Shipyard never found a solution, but waited for the country to "transfuse blood" and finally embarked on the road of irreversible recession. Above: A centaur aircraft carrier built by Harland Wolf Shipyard. Information photo