Titanic shipyard set to go bankrupt

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - The iconic Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff, which built the Titanic, headed toward bankruptcy on Monday as its workers vowed to continue a weeklong occupation of the site.

The company is set to file for insolvency on Tuesday at the High Court in Belfast, with accounting firm BDO appointed administrators, according to reports.

The moves came after Dolphin Drilling, the Norwegian parent of Harland and Wolff which filed for bankruptcy in June, failed to find a buyer for the giant of Northern Ireland's industrial past.

The shipbuilder, whose huge yellow cranes have towered over the Belfast skyline for decades, employed more than 30,000 people in the early 20th century but now has only 130 workers.

A group of workers that has protested at the shipyard every day for the past week voted on Monday to continue their occupation of the site, calling on the government to intervene.

They emerged from a meeting chanting "save our shipyard" before confirming the outcome of the vote.

"The workforce have told us they wish to continue with the occupation of this plant until such times as we find a way to continue shipbuilding and heavy industry in Belfast," Joe Passmore, a steelworker and union representative, said.

John McDonnell, finance spokesman for the main opposition Labour Party in Westminster, visited the shipyard site and claimed the United Kingdom's Prime Minister Boris Johnson had failed the workers in his first real test since taking power last month.

"We know this is a viable concern, we know the government has naval contracts it can put here to ensure the long-term future," he said.

However, a British government spokesperson said Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith had held stakeholder meetings since taking up the role last month but no "viable" options for the shipyard's future had emerged. "He is speaking to partners... on the next steps to help those affected," the spokesperson added.

As well as building the doomed Titanic, which sank in 1912, Harland and Wolff supplied almost 150 warships during World War II.

It has since moved away from shipbuilding and was until recently working mostly on wind energy and marine engineering projects.