Launch of the MV Cedric

Details

Location

Belfast, Harland & Wolff shipyard

Year

1952

Source

Digitised as part of Unlocking Film Heritage

Format

16mm

black and white

Length

01min 50sec

Silent

silent

Courtesy

British Film Institute, National Museums Northern Ireland

Rights Holder

National Museums Northern Ireland

It is illegal to download, copy, print or otherwise utilise in any other form this material, without written consent from the copyright holder.

Description

Enter the spectacular slipways of Harland & Wolff and explore the shipyard that built the Titanic and her sister ships.

Excited spectators in three piece suits mingle with workers in boiler suits as Harland and Wolff prepare to launch the refrigerated cargo vessel. Riveters continue their work high up in the impressive forest of scaffold. As the camera sweeps upwards it reveals the majestic scale of the 11,232 ton ship. The MV Cedric was sold to Liberia in 1976 and renamed the Sea Condor. It was scrapped later that year in Taiwan. The ship plans are in the National Maritime Museum.
 

Notes

Next to the Linen Industry, ship building was one of the biggest industries in Northern Ireland. One of the most famous companies associated with ship building in Northern Ireland, Harland and Wolff, was established in 1858 building over 1700 ships. The shipyards for much of the last century have been the life-blood of Belfast. Sadly during the following decades, work at the Belfast shipyards began to decline. At one point Harland & Wolff employed just over 100 staff, a far cry from its heyday in this film. Today the company has reinvented itself for a new industrial age, making offshore wind farms, oil rigs, and bridges. This material comes from the collection of National Museums Northern Ireland.

Credits

Digitised as part of the BFI's Unlocking Film Heritage project.

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