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Great Eastern (ship)

Great Eastern 1866-crop.jpg
Great Eastern at Heart's Content, July 1866
History
Liverpool
Name: Great Eastern
Port of registry: Liverpool
Ordered: 1853
Builder: J. Scott Russell & Co., Millwall
Laid down: 1 May 1854
Launched: 31 January 1858
Completed: 1859
Maiden voyage: 30 August 1859
In service: 1859
Out of service: 1889
Renamed: "Berthed"
Struck: 1889
Homeport: Liverpool
Nickname(s): The great ship
Fate: Scrapped 1889–90
Status: Scrapped
Notes: Hit rocks on 27 August 1862
General characteristics
Type: Passenger ship
Tonnage: 18,915 grt
Displacement: 32,160 tons
Length: 692 ft (211 m)
Beam: 82 ft (25 m)
Decks: 4 decks
Propulsion: Four steam engines for the paddles and an additional engine for the propeller. Total power was estimated at 8,000 hp (6.0 MW). Rectangular boilers
Speed: 14 knots (26 km/h)
Boats & landing
craft carried:
18 lifeboats after 1860 20 lifeboats
Capacity: 4,000 passengers
Complement: 418

SS Great Eastern was an iron sailing steam ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and built by J. Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall on the River Thames, London. She was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers from England to Australia without refuelling. Her length of 692 feet (211 m) was only surpassed in 1899 by the 705-foot (215 m) 17,274-gross-ton RMS Oceanic, and her gross tonnage of 18,915 was only surpassed in 1901 by the 701-foot (214 m) 21,035-gross-ton RMS Celtic. The ship's five funnels were rare. This was later reduced to four.

Brunel knew her affectionately as the "Great Babe". He died in 1859 shortly after her ill-fated maiden voyage, during which she was damaged by an explosion. After repairs, she plied for several years as a passenger liner between Britain and North America before being converted to a cable-laying ship and laying the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866. Finishing her life as a floating music hall and advertising hoarding (for the famous department store Lewis's) in Liverpool, she was broken up in 1889.

After his success in pioneering steam travel to North America with Great Western and Great Britain, Brunel turned his attention to longer voyages as far as Australia and realised the potential of a ship that could travel round the world without the need of refuelling.

On 25 March 1852, Brunel made a sketch of a steamship in his diary and wrote beneath it: "Say 600 ft x 65 ft x 30 ft" (180 m x 20 m x 9.1 m). These measurements were six times larger by volume than any ship afloat; such a large vessel would benefit from economies of scale and would be both fast and economical, requiring fewer crew than the equivalent tonnage made up of smaller ships. Brunel realised that the ship would need more than one propulsion system; since twin screws were still very much experimental, he settled on a combination of a single screw and paddle wheels, with auxiliary sail power. Using paddle wheels meant that the ship would be able to reach Calcutta, where the Hooghly River was too shallow for screws.


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Wikipedia

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