This rich array of images showcases the labour-intensive heavy engineering and shipyard practices that were once part of Belfast's major industry, now sadly no more. Once, the output of such yards as Workman, Clark and Harland & Wolff was vital business of national and international importance.

The Harland & Wolff yard had a long association of building ships for the White Star Line, culminating in the three largest passenger vessels of the Edwardian era, Olympic, Titanic and Britannic, as well as others for the International Mercantile Marine Co. This illustrated volume from Richard P. de Kerbrech and David L. Williams covers aspects of the construction and the skilled craftsmen that worked on these ships, and many others, from the Edwardian era to the 1920s, revelling in atmospheric views of the boiler shop, foundry, machine shop and slipways, as well as many successful launchings.