Samson and Goliath, the huge gantry cranes of Belfast’s Harland and Wolff shipyard, still dominate the city skyline though the incessant din of heavy shipbuilding is now but a memory. The company, which once employed more than 10,000 skilled craftsmen and engineers, has contracted its workforce to around 500, and has diversified into new technologies, such as wave and wind turbine construction. The skyline, however, is now enhanced by a new structure, and the slipways, from which the sister ships, Titanic, Olympic, and Britannic were launched are now populated by visitors to Titanic Belfast, the height of which matches that of those magnificent vessels.

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