SS Great Eastern was an iron-hulled steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and built by John Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall Iron Works on the River Thames, London, England. Powered by both sidewheels and a screw propeller, 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 surpassed only in 1899, by the 705-foot (215 m) 17,274-gross-ton RMS Oceanic, her gross tonnage of 18,915 was surpassed only in 1901, by the 701-foot (214 m) 20,904-gross-ton RMS Celtic and her 4,000-passenger capacity was surpassed only in 1913, by the 4,234-passenger SS Imperator. Her five funnels (later reduced to four) was unusual for the time. She also had the largest set of paddle wheels in existence.
Brunel knew her affectionately as the "Great Babe". He died in 1859 shortly after her maiden voyage, during which she was damaged by an explosion. After repairs, she plied for several years in her intended use as a passenger liner between Britain and North America, her voyages made largely unprofitable by her high initial and operating costs. Within a few years she was repurposed to lay underwater cable, laying the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866. Finishing her life as a floating music hall and advertising hoarding (for the department store Lewis's) in Liverpool, she was broken up on Merseyside in 1889.
It is important to emphasize that, unlike other ships, the Great Eastern was not just a simple record-breaking ship of the 19th century: her dimensions exceeded the previous limits of shipbuilding, making her both the largest ship of her time and a feat in the history of engineering. She did not simply set a new record, but rather represented a breakthrough in the development of ship design that proved difficult to surpass for a very long time. The colossal nature of her dimensions is also emphasized by the fact that not only at the time of her construction, but also when she was scrapped thirty years later, only smaller ships existed in all three main indicators (length, gross tonnage and passenger capacity). In practice, this meant that no similar ship was built between 1858 and 1889. This is particularly remarkable in the history of shipbuilding, as there are few similar examples – in fact, in this sense, the Great Eastern is almost unique to this day.
Contents
History
Concept
After his success in pioneering steam travel to North America with Great Western and Great Britain, Brunel turned his attention to a vessel capable of making longer voyages as far as Australia. With a planned capacity of 15,000 tons of coal, Great Eastern was envisioned as being able to sail halfway around the world without taking on coal, while also carrying so much cargo and passengers that papers described her as a "floating city" and "the Crystal Palace of the sea". Brunel saw the ship as being able to effectively monopolize trade with Asia and Australia, making regular trips between Britain and either Sri Lanka or Australia.
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. Although Brunel had pioneered the screw propeller on a large scale with Great Britain, he did not believe that it was possible to build a single propeller and shaft (or, for that matter, a paddleshaft) that could transmit the required power to drive his giant ship at the required speed.
Brunel showed his idea to John Scott Russell, an experienced naval architect and ship builder whom he had first met at the Great Exhibition. Scott Russell examined Brunel's plan and made his own calculations as to the ship's feasibility. He calculated that it would have a displacement of 20,000 tons and would require 8,500 horsepower (6,300 kW) to achieve 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph), but believed it was possible. At Scott Russell's suggestion, they approached the directors of the Eastern Steam Navigation Company with the new design plan. The James Watt Company would design the ship's screw, Professor Piazzi Smyth would design its gyroscopic equipment, and Russell himself would build the hull and paddle wheel.
1854–1859: Construction to launch
Brunel entered into a partnership with Scott Russell to build Great Eastern. Unknown to Brunel, Russell was in financial difficulties. The two men disagreed on many details. It was Brunel's final great project, and he collapsed from a stroke after being photographed on her deck, and died only ten days later, a mere four days after Great Eastern's first sea trials. About the ship, Brunel said "I have never embarked on any one thing to which I have so entirely devoted myself, and to which I have devoted so much time, thought and labour, on the success of which I have staked so much reputation."
Great Eastern was built by Messrs Scott Russell & Co. of Millwall, Middlesex, England, the keel being laid down on 1 May 1854. She was 211 metres (692 ft 3 in) long, 25 metres (82 ft 0 in) wide, with a draught of 6.1 metres (20 ft 0 in) unloaded and 9.1 metres (29 ft 10 in) fully laden, and displaced 32,000 tons fully loaded. In comparison, SS Persia, launched in 1856, was 119 m (390 ft 5 in) long with a 14 m (45 ft 11 in) beam. She was at first named Leviathan, but her 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 Great Eastern.
The hull was an all-iron construction, a double hull of 19-millimetre (0.75 in) wrought iron in 0.86 m (2 ft 10 in) plates with ribs every 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in). Her roughly 30,000 iron plates weighed 340 kilograms (1⁄3 long ton) each, and were cut over individually made wooden templates before being rolled to the required curvature. Internally the hull was divided by two 107 m (351 ft 1 in) long, 18 m (59 ft 1 in) high, longitudinal bulkheads and further transverse bulkheads dividing the ship into nineteen compartments. Great Eastern was the first ship to incorporate a double-skinned hull, a feature which would not be seen again in a ship for 100 years, but which would later become compulsory for reasons of safety. To maximize her fuel capacity, stored coal was bunkered around and over her 10 boilers; which provided steam at 172 kPa (25 PSI). She had sail, paddle and screw propulsion. The paddle-wheels were 17 m (55 ft 9 in) in diameter and the four-bladed screw-propeller was 7.3 m (23 ft 11 in) across. The power came from four steam engines for the paddles and an additional engine for the propeller. The cylinders for the paddle engines measured 1.87 m (74 in) bore and 4.3 m (14 ft) stroke. The four cylinders for the screw engine measured 2.13 m (84 in) bore and 1.21 m (4.0 ft) stroke. Total power was estimated at 6,000 kilowatts (8,000 hp). She had six masts (said to be named after the days of a week – Monday being the fore mast and Saturday the spanker mast), providing space for 1,686 square metres (18,150 sq ft) of sails (7 gaff and maximum 9 (usually 4) square sails), rigged similar to a topsail schooner with a main gaff sail (fore-and-aft sail) on each mast, one "jib" on the fore mast and three square sails on masts no. 2 and no. 3 (Tuesday & Wednesday); for a time mast no. 4 was also fitted with 3 yards. In later years, some of the yards were removed. According to some sources she would have carried 5,435 m2 (58,500 sq ft) in sails. Setting sails turned out to be unusable at the same time as the paddles and screw were under steam, because the hot exhaust from the five (later four) funnels would set them on fire. Her maximum speed was 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). She was involved in a series of accidents during construction, with 6 workers being killed.
1860–1862: Early career
After some delays, Great Eastern began her eleven-day maiden voyage on 17 June 1860 from Liverpool with 35 paying passengers, 8 company "dead heads" (passengers who do not pay) and 418 crew. Among the passengers were two journalists, Zerah Colburn and Alexander Lyman Holley. Her first crossing went without incident, and the ship's seaworthiness was proven again when she easily survived a small gale. Great Eastern arrived in New York on 28 June and was successfully docked, though she did damage part of a wharf. The ship was received with great aplomb, with many vessels and tens of thousands of people crowding to see her. In preparation for the crowds, the crew established a bar on deck, spread sand to soak up tobacco juice, and prepared to receive thousands of visitors. However, relations between the crew and New Yorkers began to sour – the public was outraged by the $1 entry fee (similar excursion trips in New York charged 25 cents) and many would-be visitors decided to forgo visiting the ship. Great Eastern left New York in late July, taking several hundred passengers on an excursion trip to Cape May and then to Old Point, Virginia. However, this too raised issues as the ship did not have enough provisions (a burst pipe in a storeroom had ruined much of the ship's food) to make the short trip comfortable, while her rudimentary bathrooms posed a sanitation issue. Duplicate tickets were sold for some berths, families were separated and remixed in improperly assigned cabins, and five plainclothes police officers (put on by New York Police Department to deter pickpockets) were discovered and chased into a livestock pen on deck. After reaching Virginia, the ship steamed back to New York, and from there sailed south again for an excursion cruise in the Chesapeake bay. The ship departed for Annapolis, where it was given 5,000 tons of coal by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Great Eastern remained in Annapolis for several days, where she was toured by several thousand visitors and President James Buchanan. During the presidential visit, one member of the company board discussed sending the ship to Savannah to transport Southern cotton to English mills, but this idea was never followed up on.
Upon its second return to New York, the company decided to sail from the United States. From a financial perspective, the American venture had been a disaster; the ship had taken in only $120,000 against a $72,000 overhead, whereas the company had expected to take in $700,000. In addition, the company was facing a daily interest payment of $5,000, which ate into any profits the ship made. Hoping to net more profit before returning to Britain, the ship sailed from New York in mid August, bound for Halifax with 100 passengers. However, on approach to the port the ship was hailed by a local lighthouse service, which was empowered by law to collect a toll based on ship tonnage – given the size of the ship, the lighthouse levied a toll of $1,750 on Great Eastern. Infuriated by the size of the toll, a party went ashore to request that the toll be waived, but the governor of Halifax denied this request. Angered by the refusal, the captain and company leadership ordered the ship to return to Britain immediately, and as such no passengers or visitors were taken on in Halifax.
1862–1884: Later career
On 17 August 1862, Great Eastern departed from Liverpool for New York, carrying 820 passengers and several thousand tons of cargo – given the size of her load, she was drawing 9 metres (30 ft) of water. After outrunning a small squall, the ship approached the New York coast on the night of 27 August. Fearing that Great Eastern was resting too low in the water to pass by Sandy Hook, the ship's captain instead chose the nominally safer route through Long Island Sound. While passing by Montauk Point around 2:00 AM, the ship collided with an uncharted rock needle (later named Great Eastern Rock) that stood around 8 metres (26 ft) below the surface. The rock punctured the outer hull of the ship, leaving a gash 2.7 metres (9 ft) wide and 25 metres (83 ft) long – it was later calculated that the needle was large enough to contact the inner hull, but that the outer hull and strong transverse braces had prevented the inner hull from being breached. The collision was noticed by the crew, who guessed that the ship had struck a shifting sand shoal, and after a bilge check Great Eastern continued onto New York without incident. While in port, however, it was noticed that the ship had acquired a slight list to starboard, and so a diver was sent in to inspect the hull. After several days' inspection, the diver reported the large hole in the ship's outer hull, a major issue as no drydock in the world could fit the ship. The ship's hull was repaired by metalworkers in a cofferdam, but cost the company $350,000 and delayed the ship's return to Britain by several months. She would make one more trip to New York and back in 1863 before being laid up until 1864 due to her operating costs.
In January 1864, it was announced that the ship would be auctioned off. During the auction, four members of the company board of directors bid $125,000 for the ship and won it, thus acquiring personal control of the vessel. The group then allowed the ship company to go bankrupt, thus separating the ship from the now defunct shipping company and divesting many smaller stockholders. The ship was then contracted out to Cyrus West Field, an American financier, who intended to use it to lay underwater cables. The ship's owners developed a business model whereby they would rent out Great Eastern as a cable layer in exchange for shares in cable companies, ensuring that if Great Eastern succeeded in laying cables, the unprofitable ship could be personally lucrative for her owners.
In May 1865, Great Eastern steamed to Sheerness to take on wire for the laying of the Transatlantic telegraph cable. In return for using the ship, her owners wanted $250,000 in telegraph company stock, but only on the condition the wire laying succeeded. To accommodate the 22,450 kilometres (13,950 mi) of cable she was carrying, Great Eastern had some of her salons and rooms replaced with large tanks to hold the cable. In July the ship began laying the undersea cable near Valentia Island, gradually working her way west at a speed of 11 km/h (6 kn). The effort went relatively smoothly for several weeks, but the cable end was lost mid-Atlantic in an accident, forcing the ship to return in 1866 with a new line. The ship's first officer, Robert Halpin, managed to locate the lost cable end and the unbroken cable made it to shore in Heart's Content, Newfoundland on 27 July 1866.
1885–1890: Break up
At the end of her cable-laying career – hastened by the launch of the CS Faraday, a ship purpose-built for cable laying – she was refitted as a liner, but once again efforts to make her a commercial success failed. She remained moored in Milford Harbour for some time, annoying the Milford harbour board, which wanted to build dockyards in the area. Many proposals for the ship were raised; according to one source, pubs were full of talk of filling her with gunpowder and blowing her up. The ship was ultimately saved, however, as a dock engineer (Frederick Appleby) was able to build a dock around her, using the ship's massive hulk as a station for driving pylons. During her 11 years moored in Milford, she accrued a large amount of biofouling on her hull. Early marine naturalist Henry Lee (best known at the time for his skepticism towards sea monsters) conducted an extensive study of her hull, calculating she had ~300 tons of marine life attached to her. She was sold at auction, at Lloyd's on 4 November 1885, by order of the Court of Chancery. Bidding commenced at £10,000, rising to £26,200 and sold to Mr Mattos, a city merchant.
Sold again, she was used as a showboat, a floating palace/concert hall and gymnasium. She later acted as an advertising hoarding – sailing up and down the Mersey for Lewis's Department Store, who at this point were her owners, before being sold. The idea was to attract people to the store by using her as a floating visitor attraction. In 1886 she was sailed to Liverpool for the Liverpool Exhibition of 1886 – during the transit, she struck and badly damaged one of her tugs, the last of 10 ships she would damage or sink. On 10 May 1887, the steamship G. E. Wood collided with her in the Mersey. Sold again after the exhibition, one company considered using her to raise shallow shipwrecks, while one humorist suggested that Great Eastern be used to help dig the Panama canal by ramming her into the isthmus. She was, again, sold at auction in 1888, fetching £16,000 for her value as scrap. Many pieces of the ship were bought by private collectors, former passengers, and friends of the crew – various fixtures, lamps, furniture, paneling, and other artifacts were kept. Parts of Great Eastern were repurposed for other uses; one ferry company converted her wood paneling into a public house bar, while one mistress at a Lancashire boarding school acquired the ship's deck caboose for use as a children's playhouse.
An early example of breaking-up a structure by use of a wrecking ball, she was scrapped near the Sloyne, at New Ferry on the River Mersey by Henry Bath & Son Ltd in 1889–1890—it took 18 months to take her apart, with her double hull being particularly difficult to salvage. The breaking of the ship caused a minor labour dispute as workers – who were paid by the ton of ship scrapped – became frustrated with the slow pace of breaking and went on strike.
In popular culture
Great Eastern is the subject of the Sting song, "Ballad of the Great Eastern" from the 2013 album The Last Ship.
The history of Great Eastern is chronicled in detail in James Dugan's non-fiction book The Great Iron Ship.
An Atlantic crossing on Great Eastern is the backdrop to Jules Verne's 1871 novel A Floating City
The 1867 ten-day maiden trip from Liverpool to New York forms the backdrop of the posthumously published eight-volume erotic novel, The Great Eastern, by the Greek writer Andreas Embirikos
Great Eastern and its creator Isambard Kingdom Brunel are central to Howard A. Rodman's 2019 novel The Great Eastern, in which Captain Ahab is pitted against Captain Nemo.
The Great Eastern was the name of a radio comedy show on CBC Radio One from 1994 to 1999, named for the steamship.
In the trade management video game Anno 1800, released in 2019 by Ubisoft, the player has the opportunity to construct Great Eastern as an addition to their naval fleet. Great Eastern has the largest cargo capacity of any ship in the game with a total of eight cargo slots.
In China Miéville's fantasy stories set in Bas-Lag, the pirate city of Armada contains a ship named The Grand Easterly, based on SS Great Eastern.
The launching of the ship, Brunel's illness & subsequent death feature as the initial setup for the 2019 novel The Great London Conspiracy by Jordan Mooney.