TITANIC/HMNZS WAIKATO SHIPYARD HARLAND AND WOLFF SINKS INTO ADMINISTRATION

Administrators have been appointed to the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast where the Titanic was built, putting the future of 123 workers in doubt. It employed more than 30,000 people at its peak and is closely associated with the city’s industrial past. Accountancy firm BDO has been appointed as administrator and the company will file for insolvency today, a spokesman for Harland and Wolff said. The shipyard’s Norwegian owners had been seeking to sell the business but failed to find a suitable buyer. BDO had been advising the company on its failed efforts to sell the business. Unite, the union representing the shipyard workers called on the Government to save the shipyard by placing it into the hands of the official receiver and underwriting the business.

The frigate ex HMNZS Waikato was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland, launched by Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra with a bottle of wine from the Te Kauwhata vineyards on February 18 1965, and commissioned into the Royal New Zealand Navy on 16 September 1966. To help celebrate the commissioning, Waikato Breweries donated 40 dozen bottles of beer to the ship’s company. She sailed from Portsmouth 8 April 1967 and arrived in her home port at Mount Maunganui 2 June 1967.

HMNZS Waikato decommissioned in 3 July1998 and was sunk at Tutukaka on the 25th November 2000.  She now lies in 28 metres of water 2km south of Tutukaka Heads.  Thanks, JB for the article.