A modern tribute to the maritime legend Titanic, is being created in the shipyards of Belfast. The steel skeletons that once dominated Belfast’s skyline are now fading into the background. RMS Titanic’s story is known all over the world – her size, her tragic first voyage, and her legacy in steel. In Belfast, however, she was much more than just a ship. She was the symbol of a shipbuilding city at its peak, and a triumphant industrial achievement. Now, this iconic ship is being reassembled piece by piece. This time, it’s not to sail but to honour. Raising the Bow
A Monument in Metal: Raising the Bow
A team of dedicated engineers, artisans and heritage experts are bending 16 tonnes of steel on the slipways next to the Titanic’s dry dock. The team’s mission is to recreate the Titanic bow in eight days. This challenge pays tribute to not only the Titanic, but also to the generations who worked in shipyards to make her a reality over a hundred years ago.
Standing next to the steel structure, you can get a sense of the Titanic’s sheer size. The bow section is 9.4 meters high after a week-long construction. This is just a small part of the picture. Titanic herself was 53.34 metres tall from keel tip to funnel tip. This portion of the ship is only 1/19th the size of the entire section. However, it took five days of manual work to build a single plate, a rib and a stem segment.
The team’s goal is to physically reconnect Belfast with its industrial past. They channel the sweat and skill of men who once walked the same yards as they hand-assemble the steel pieces. The original stem of the Titanic measured 45 meters, a testament to its size and ambition.
Titanic & the Pulse of Belfast
In 1909, the Titanic story began at Belfast’s Harland and Wolff Shipyard. Harland and Wolff, the largest shipyard in the world, was located in Belfast, the heart of shipbuilding at the time. The Titanic was more than a ship. She represented Edwardian engineering and galvanised a city.
Over 4,000 men worked on her steel hull until her launch, May 31st 1911. She was 268 metres in length and weighed more than 46,000 tons. The sky above Belfast was filled with the clangs of hammers and the roaring of furnaces for two years as the frame of the ship took shape. The hull required 600 steel ribs that were heated in furnaces before being bent into exact curves with massive wooden pegboards.
Harland and Wolff’s gates were flooded with 15 thousand people every day, either for work or just to see the impressive scale of the shipbuilding. The shipyard, which was run by a strict schedule, was like a small city. The foreman would greet workers at the gate at 6:20 am. Anyone late? Anyone late? No pay, no work. The breaks were strictly scheduled: breakfast at 8:20 am, lunch between 1 and 2 pm, and a short afternoon break. Even toilet breaks had to be planned. Each worker was given exactly seven minutes by an attendant.
Harland and Wolff is still standing, even though it no longer manufactures ships. It launched its last vessel in 2003. It focuses today on renewable energy and marine engineering, with a dedicated but reduced workforce of 300. Samson and Goliath are still visible over Belfast’s skyline. They guard a legacy of steel.
Rivets: Holding the Titanic together
The rivet was the seemingly simple component at the core of the Titanic’s structure. The metal rivets were the superglue for the Industrial Age. They held bridges, battleships and buildings together. The Titanic used more than three million rivets. A rivet was driven into position, then hammered by four people, before being cooled down to tighten and shrink the bond.
Riveting is an art. Five years of training were required to become a riveter. The pay for riveters was also among the highest in the yard. The work was often back-breaking and dangerous. A typical riveting crew consisted of a “catch-boy” who ran the hot rivet and a holder using a huge hammer. Two “smashers”, on the other hand, would pound it in. The symphony was made of metal and human power.
Speed was important because payment was made per rivet. Crews were competing to earn more money, which led to intense rivalry and even carelessness. Around 75% of Titanic rivets were installed entirely by hand, despite these dangers.
A City Woven In Linen
Belfast’s textile industry was dominated by women, while men dominated shipyards. In 1911, Belfast was so well-known for its linen production that the city earned the name Linenopolis. Nearly 75% all women employed worked in textiles. They produced the fine linens that would later adorn The Titanic’s dining room and cabins.
Harland and Wolff provided 45,000 napkins in linen, 32,500 towels and 18,000 sheets of bedsheets for the 3,500 passengers and crew on the Titanic. The mills in Belfast were home to women who worked long hours and under difficult conditions. The spinning rooms were a hot and noisy place. Mill fever, which included dizziness, nausea and exhaustion, was common. Many workers were barefoot and suffered trench foot after standing in puddles.
These women were talented, resilient and mostly invisible in the Titanic story. Without their expertise, the Titanic’s luxury would not have existed.
The Blueprint Underneath the Steel
The Titanic was first envisioned on paper and then on wood. Harland and Wolff draughtsmen sketched full-scale sections of the Titanic directly on the floor in 1909. These huge drawings were turned into wooden templates that guided the shaping of each piece of steel.
This process demanded incredible precision. The curves and joints had to be precisely measured down to the millimetre to account for the shrinkage of the metal as it cooled. This was an exercise in both intelligence and intuition without computers or calculators. It required endless hours of kneeling with rulers and chalk on cold concrete floors.
When work means risk
Titanic’s construction was dangerous and sometimes deadly. The official death toll is eight men, but it’s likely a lower number. The norm for heavy industry at the time was grim. One death per PS100,000. The Titanic, costing around PS1.5 million to build, lost 8 lives within the “acceptable range” at that time.
The 1906 Compensation Act provided some protection. Harland and Wolff paid PS300 to the widow of Robert James Murphy Sr., who died at work. This was a small amount in those days and equalled two and a half years’ wages. For the families who were left behind, however, this amount was not enough to compensate.
A Living Legacy
It’s not just a replica, but a resurrection. The steel bow is rising again next to the docks on which the Titanic was built. It’s not the ship itself, but the spirit of those who built it. Every rivet driven, every plate formed today echoes their stories of skill, suffering and pride.
The Titanic Quarter is a place where past and present meet. The lines of the ship have been etched in the concrete slipways. The dry dock is still intact. Titanic Belfast is an interactive museum in the shape of the ship’s bow. It is located nearby. The physical reconstruction of the bow, built with the same techniques and tools, is what brings the history to life.
The team’s efforts to recreate the Titanic’s bow are not just about raising steel, but also raising memories. The memory of a ship that once represented the pinnacle of human ambition. Memory of a dreaming city. And the memory of thousands who sacrificed their time, their health and even their lives for a vessel which would change the face of the world.