SS Great Eastern

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Image:Great eastern launch attempt.jpg

This article describes the ship the Great Eastern. For information on the Great Eastern Railway please see Great Eastern Railway.

The Great Eastern was a ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. She was the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers around the world without refuelling. She would only be surpassed in length in 1899 (by the SS Oceanic, and in tonnage in 1901 by the SS Celtic).

She was built in partnership with an experienced ship designer, John Scott Russell. Unknown to Brunel, Russell was in financial difficulties. The two men disagreed on many details. It was Brunel's final great project, as he collapsed after being photographed on her deck, and died a few days later, a mere four days after her first shakedown. She was built by Messrs Scott, Russell & Co. of Millwall, London, the keel being laid down on May 1, 1854.

The ship was finally launched —after many technical difficulties— on January 31, 1858. She was 692 feet (211 m) long, 83 feet (25 m) wide, 60 feet (18 m) deep (draught was 20 ft (6.1 m) unloaded and 30 ft (9.1 m) fully laden) and weighed 32,000 tons (her tonnage was 18,915). In comparison the SS Persia, launched in 1856, was 390 feet (119 m) long and 45 feet (14 m) in breadth. She was at first named the SS Leviathan, but the high building and launching costs ruined the Eastern Steam Navigation Company and so she lay unfinished for a year before being sold to the Great Eastern Ship Company and finally renamed SS Great Eastern. It was decided that she would be more profitable on the Southampton–New York run, and outfitted accordingly. Her eleven-day maiden voyage began on June 17, 1860, with 35 paying passengers, 8 company "dead heads" and 418 crew.

Image:Great Eastern 1866.jpg The hull was an all-iron construction, a double hull of 0.75 inch (19 mm) wrought iron in 2 ft 10 in (864 mm) plates with ribs every 6 ft (1.8 m). Internally the hull was divided by two 350 ft (107 m) long, 60 ft (18 m) high, longitudinal bulkheads and further transverse bulkheads dividing the ship into nineteen compartments. She had sail, paddle and screw propulsion. The paddle-wheels were 56 ft (17 m) in diameter and the four-bladed screw-propeller was 24 ft (7.3 m) across. The power came from four steam engines for the paddles and an additional engine for the propeller, total power was estimated at 8,000 hp (6 MW). She had six masts, providing space for 18,148 square feet of sails, but the sails turned out to be unusable at the same time as the paddles and screw, because the hot exhaust from the five funnels would put them on fire. Her maximum speed was 13 knots.

After only a few passenger voyages and a series of accidents, she was sold for £25,000 (her build cost has been estimated at £500,000) and converted into a cable-laying ship. She laid 2,600 miles (4,200 km) of the 1865 transatlantic telegraph cable and took part in other similar operations before being broken up for scrap in 1889–1890 —it took 18 months to take her apart!

Reference

James Dugan, The Great Iron Ship, 1953 (regularly reprinted) ISBN 0750934476

See also

Robert Halpin, captain

External links

• Great Eastern Salvage web site
• Brief description of the Great Eastern
• Great Eastern timeline
• Great Eastern, 1860–1888
• The Calamitous Titan