SS Great Eastern
Great Eastern at Heart's Content, July 1866
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| 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. With five funnels (later reduced to four), she was one of a very few vessels to ever sport that number, sharing her number of five with the Russian cruiser Askold – though several warships, including HMS Viking, and several French cruisers of the pre-dreadnought era had six.
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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