The SS Great Britain

Ever since the American ship SS Savannah became the first paddle steamer to cross the Atlantic in 1819, there had been a steady growth in trans-Atlantic passenger services being offered between Great Britain and North America. That between Bristol and New York was provided by the Great Western Steamship Company using the SS Great Western, but demand for places on this ship soon exceeded supply, and in 1838 they decided they needed a second liner. To design and build this ship, they assembled a team headed by the most celebrated engineer of the age, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Brunel was at the very summit of his powers, with a reputation both for astonishing innovation as well as being profligate with his investor’s money, and his latest project was to be no exception. His employers were looking for a sister ship for their existing liner, tentatively to be called the City of New York, but Brunel persuaded them to be more ambitious, and proposed to build them the largest vessel in the world. With its size would come great economies of scale in terms of running cost, he argued. What he didn’t explain was that the technology required to build such a ship would come at considerable cost. He also insisted that the ship should have a grand name more in keeping with his bold design, such as the SS Great Britain.

The new ship was well over three hundred feet long with a displacement of 3,400 tons, making her at least 1,000 tons larger than the next biggest ship in existence. This was much larger than could practically be built from wood, so the hull had to be made from iron. Initially she was to be a paddle steamer, with additional power provided by sail on her six masts, but after work had already begun on her engines, Brunel decided that she should be powered instead by a propellor, which necessitated completely new engines. Changes in design like this continued to add to the cost of construction as well as delaying her launch date. When the SS Great Britain was finally completed in 1843 she had taken almost six years to build, and was well over budget.

The magnificent ship was launched in the presence of Prince Albert, who had a keen interest in technology. He toured the ship, learning of the efficiencies that meant she only required 120 crew. He saw the luxury with which her 360 passengers would travel, with individual cabins, well-appointed dining rooms and promenade saloons on her three decks, as well as the cavernous hold with room for 1,200 tons of cargo and a similar amount of coal for her boilers. And he inspected her five iron masts, most of which could be lowered when she was steaming into a headwind. All was set fair for her to have an illustrious career.

But then her problems began. First it was discovered that the behemoth was too large to fit through Bristol harbour’s lock gates, and she was effectively trapped for almost a year while the work to widen them was completed. Finally, in July 1845, five years overdue, she was able to make her maiden voyage to New York with high expectations that she would set new standards in speed and comfort. But her time of 14 days and 21 hours was much slower than the prevailing record. Worse still, her passengers complained that she rolled excessively even in calm weather, and she was so much larger than other ships that she ran aground in channels not dredged to accommodate her. This happened once on the Massachusetts Shoals, and again off the Irish coast. With passengers giving her a wide berth, and the extra cost of modifying her to correct her speed and rolling, her owners became bankrupt in 1847. The SS Great Britain languished in Prince's Dock, Liverpool for some time, before being sold for a mere £25,000.

Her new owners extensively refurbished the ship, equipping her with new engines, a more conventional three mast sail plan, and fitting her out with extensive cabins to accommodate up to 730 less-wealthy customers. She was then ready for the most successful period of her career, providing a passenger service between Britain and Australia. Large numbers were interested in emigrating there, not least following the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851. In 1852 she made her first voyage to Melbourne, carrying 630 emigrants, where she excited great interest, with 4,000 people paying a shilling each for a tour of her. She operated between England and Australia for almost 30 years, earning a reputation as the most reliable of the emigrant ships and even carrying the first English cricket team to tour Australia in 1861. It has been calculated that up to quarter of a million Australians are the descendants of SS Great Britain passengers.

By 1882, her age made her no longer economic as a passenger ship. She was bought by a firm in Liverpool, her engines and cabins were stripped out, and she became a sailing cargo barque, specialising in transporting bulk coal. In 1886 she was taking a cargo of Welsh coal out to California when there was a fire on board. She arrived at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where she was found to be beyond economic repair. Written off by her insurers, she was stripped of her masts, and her hull was towed to Sparrow Cove, and used as a hulk to store coal for the Royal Navy’s coaling station based there.   

When coal was replaced by fuel oil, she was abandoned, slowly rusting away, until her fortunes changed once more. In 1970 Sir Jack Hayward, a prominent businessman, philanthropist, and owner of the English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers, learned of her fate, and had her recovered and brought back to the same dry dock in Bristol where she had been built 127 years earlier. Now fully restored, she remains there as a museum ship, attracting visitors from around the world.