Seasons Greetings !



I wish you all a happy and healthy new year 2012 filled with new horizons and wonderful discoveries !

Between a Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Games, the UK will take centre stage in 2012 and I invite you to follow my latest wanderings on the back roads of a sometimes poetic, often picturesque country which simply never ceases to amaze me.

Welcome aboard the SS Great Britain - Bristol ( 16/04/12 ) !





Dear Friends ,

I am delighted to take you with me on a journey through time on board the magnificent and very first ocean liner of maritime history and the largest ship of her time, the SS Great Britain

The man behind her design and creation, was one of a kind genious Civil Engineer in the name of Isambard Kingdom Brunel...

Isambard Kingdom Brunel ( 1806-1859 )



Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the only son of the French civil engineer, Sir Marc Brunel, was born in Portsmouth on 9th April, 1806. He was educated at Hove, near Brighton and the Henri Quatre in Paris. In 1823 Brunel went to work with his father on the building of the Thames Tunnel. He was later to be appointed as resident engineer at the site.

In 1829 Brunel designed a suspension bridge to cross the River Avon at Clifton. His original design was rejected on the advice of Thomas Telford, but an improved version was accepted but the project had to be abandoned because of a lack of funds.

After being appointed chief engineer at the Bristol Docks in 1831, Brunel designed the Monkwearmouth Docks. He later went on to design and build similar docks at Plymouth, Cardiff, Brentford and Milford Haven.

In March 1833, the 27 year old Isambard Brunel was appointed chief engineer of the Great Western Railway. His work on the line that linked London to Bristol, helped to establish Brunel as one of the world's leading engineers. Impressive achievements on the route included the viaducts at Hanwell and Chippenham, the Maidenhead Bridge, the Box Tunnel and the Bristol Temple Meads Station. Controversially, Brunel used the broad gauge (2.2 m) instead of the standard gauge (1.55m) on the line. This created problems as passengers had to transfer trains at places such as Gloucester where the two gauges met.

Brunel persuaded the Great Western Railway Company to let him build a steam boat to travel from Bristol to New York. The Great Western made its first voyage to New York in 1838. At that time the largest steamship in existence was 208 feet long, whereas the Great Western was 236 feet long. The journey to America took fifteen days and over the next eight years made 60 crossings.

The next steamship that Brunel built in Bristol was the Great Britain. It had an iron hull and was fitted with a propeller with six blades. The Great Britain was designed to carry 250 passengers, 130 crew and 1,200 tonnes of cargo. She made her first voyage from Liverpool to New York in 1845.

In 1852 Isambard Kingdom Brunel was employed by the Eastern Steam Navigation Company to build another steamship, the Great Eastern. Built on the Thames, the ship had an iron hull and two paddle wheels. The Great Eastern was extremely large and was designed to carry 4,000 passengers. Brunel was faced with a series of difficult engineering problems to overcome on this project and the strain of the work began to affect his health. While watching the Great Eastern in her trials, Brunel suffered a seizure. He died on 15th September, 1859 and was buried at Kensal Green cemetery five days later.

The SS Great Britain



The ss Great Britain was a world first when she was launched in Bristol in 1843. This uniquely successful ship design brought together new technologies in a way which transformed world travel.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the most daring of the great Victorian engineers, conceived the groundbreaking combination of a screw propeller, an iron hull, and a massive 1000-horsepower steam engine.

She was immediately successful - on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic the ss Great Britain easily broke the previous speed record.

Although effectively a prototype, she continued sailing until 1886, and travelled thirty-two times around the world and nearly one million miles at sea.

1845 - 46 Luxury Transatlantic Passenger Liner



Originally conceived as a paddle steamer, the ss Great Britain’s builders quickly recognised the advantages that the new technology of screw propulsion could give the vessel, and converted the ship and her engines to power a 16 foot iron propeller. At the time of her launch in 1843 she was by far the largest ship in the world, over 100 feet longer than her rivals, and the first screw-propelled, ocean-going, wrought iron ship. Designed initially for the transatlantic luxury passenger trade, she could carry 252 first and second class passengers and 130 crew.

While her first few voyages successfully demonstrated her potential, they were not great financial successes, with far fewer passengers than anticipated. And her career as a passenger liner was cut short when she ran aground on the sands of Dundrum Bay in Northern Ireland in 1846. Although her hull was not badly damaged, her engines were ruined, and the expense of re-floating her drained the financial resources of her owners.

1852 - 1876 Emigrant Clipper



Under new owners Gibbs Bright and Co, the ship prospered, and her reputation was re-established. It was the height of the Australian gold rush and the company took full advantage of the increase in emigration to that country by rebuilding the ship for use as a fast and luxurious emigrant carrier, circumnavigating the globe.

A 300 foot-long deck house was added to the ship’s upper deck and a new 500 h.p. Penn engine was fitted. The internal accommodation was rebuilt to accommodate 750 passengers in three classes and the ship now had a radically different external appearance, sitting lower in the water and featuring a much larger superstructure and twin funnels.

For her initial voyage, the ss Great Britain carried four masts, two fore and aft and two square sails but she was then re-masted, to carry three masts and all square sails. Over the next 24 years and 32 voyages she was a frequent sight in Australian waters, as well as making stops in Cape Town, St Helena, and the occasional trip to New York. The ship averaged 60 days out and 60 days home & an extremely fast time for the 19th century and carried over 15,000 emigrants. In 1861 she carried the first ever English cricket team to tour Australia. Two years later, she again transported the English side, which by then included E.M. Grace, brother of Dr. W.G. Grace.

1855 Troop Ship

Between 1855 and 1856 the vessel was chartered by the British Government to carry troops to and from the Crimean War. Over the course of the conflict, she carried over 44,000 troops. She was then rebuilt, with her hurricane deck expanded breadthways to her bulwarks. This was later referred to as the spar deck. Her masts were repositioned, and a new, wider funnel replaced the earlier twin funnels. She was then chartered again by the British Government for a further trooping voyage, carrying the 17th Lancers and 8th Hussars to the Indian Mutiny.

1882 - 1886 Windjammer

By the late 1870’s the ss Great Britain was showing her age and her owners were unable to maintain their full registration as a passenger vessel. The ship was still serviceable however and her sleek-hulled profile ensured her easy conversion into a fast three-masted sailing ship. Her engines were removed, as was her upper spar deck, and the hull was clad with pitch pine.

1886 - 1970 Coal Hulk

Barely recognisable as the same vessel launched in 1843, she transported Welsh coal to San Francisco around Cape Horn. On her third trip, she ran into trouble around the Cape, and was forced to run for shelter in Port Stanley, in the Falkland Islands. The cost of repairs were not economic and she was sold as a coal and wool storage hulk in Port Stanley.

Here she remained through the First World War, with coal from her hold helping to replenish the battle cruisers HMS Inflexible and HMS Invincible before the decisive battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914, in which the armoured German cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, and light cruisers Nurnberg and Leipzig were sunk. By 1937 the Great Britain’s hull was no longer watertight, and after being towed a short distance from Port Stanley, she was beached. Holes were driven in her sides, and she was abandoned to the elements.

It was a particularly sad fate for the ship. But even in this condition, her historical significance was recognised, as witnessed by attempts to rescue her in the late 1930’s and 1960’s, and by the raffle of souvenirs from her during the Second World War to raise funds for the purchase of Spitfires.

Salvage and Conservation









Finally, in 1970, an epic salvage effort re-floated the ship, and she was towed back home across the Atlantic to Bristol. Her new life had begun, but it took 35 years to complete the painstaking conservation and restoration we can all now enjoy. Brunel’s 160-year-old ship has suffered serious damage since she was scuttled and abandoned in the Falklands in 1935. Recent conservation work focused on all original, pre-1970 material as it is this original fabric which provides the most tangible and important link with the ss Great Britain’s past. But iron corrosion was as at advanced stage.

Construction of a glass sea at the ship’s water line provides the roof of a giant airtight chamber surrounding the ship’s lower hull. Beneath the glass plate moisture is removed from the air using special dehumidification equipment. In this dry environment, the hull will no longer corrode. Never tried before, this groundbreaking method is akin to placing an historic artefact in a glass case but on a vast scale.

The glass sea is covered with a thin layer of water, so the ship appears to be floating. Visitors can descend beneath the glass plate into the dry dock, to see the ship’s vast, curved flanks and her all-important propeller.

Although she will never sail again, Brunel’s ss Great Britain is an invaluable educational resource and an international monument to British invention.

Here are the pictures of my extraordinary day exploring the legendary SS Great Britain in Bristol ...