SS Great Britain - Sepia Saturday

When launched by Prince Albert at Bristol on 19th July 1843 Isambard Kingdom Brunel's revolutionary ship became the world's first great ocean liner.

Launch of SS Great Britain, Bristol 1843
(Painting - Lordprice collection - CC BY-SA 2.5)

In 1845 New York was to greet the SS Great Britain when she completed her first Atlantic crossing, having left Liverpool 14 days and 21 hours earlier.

Disaster struck in 1846 when Captain James Hosken ran the ship aground in Dundrum Bay, Northern Ireland.

Stranded in Dundrum Bay, County Down
(Science & Society Picture Library - Author unknown)

The great ship was not rescued for nearly a year and in 1850 the Great Western Steamship Company sold her to Gibbs, Bright & Company. Two years later she started her life as an emigrant steam clipper carrying people to a new life in Australia.

SS Great Britain, 1853
(Source Arthur J Maginnis (1900) - The Atlantic Ferry Men)

In the years between 1852 and 1875 the SS Great Britain carried around 14000 people to Australia, besides acting as a troop ship for the Crimea War (1856) and carrying troops needed in response to the Indian Mutiny.(1857). On a lighter note she carried the first English cricket team to Australia.

He role changed again in 1882 when her engine and funnel were removed and she was converted to carry cargo. She carried Welsh coal to San Francisco. She suffered bad storm damage off Cape Horn in 1886 and limped into the Falkland Islands. Bought by the Falkland Islands Company, she remained economic to run until 1933. By then she had become unsafe to even be used as a floating warehouse for coal and wool. In 1937 she was scuttled in Sparrow Cove, a remote shallow bay.

SS Great Britain at Sparrow Cove. 1968

Her masts were removed and on 19 July 1970, 127 years to the day after her launch the SS Great Britain returned home to Bristol. 

Restored to all her glory she was relaunched on her 162nd birthday in 2005. Today she can be seen in her original dock on Bristol's Historic Quayside.

SS Great Britain

This is a Sepia Saturday post inspired by another later launching.

I wonder whether any of our Australian Sepians can trace their roots back to Brunel's great ship.

For other flotations sail over to Sepia-Saturday-198.

Broken - Thematic Photography

Once broken, never forgotten but rescued and restored to all her glory Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain sits today in the dry dock at Bristol's Historic Quay

When launched by Prince Albert in 1843 she was the biggest ship in the world, At the time she was the world's first ocean liner and completed her first trip to New York in 1845 in 14 days and 21 hours.

Brunel had designed the ship to be run chiefly by steam but but she could also use her sails.Between 1852 and 1875 she undertook the role of Emigrant Steam Clipper taking families to a new life in Australia. !856 saw SS Great Britain carry troops to fight in the Crimea; in 1861 she carried the first England cricket team to Australia.

In 1882 her role changed again as she was converted to carry cargo, her engine and funnel were removed. With three tall masts and broad square sails she became a 'windjammer' carrying coal to San Fransico.

Badly damaged by storms  rounding Cape Horn in 1886 she took shelter in the Falkland Islands where she was used as a floating warehouse for coal and wood. Her working life ended in 1933. In 1937 holes were made in her hull and she was scuttled in a remote windswept bay.

If you visit the restored ship in its Bristol dry dock you can see the 'broken' state of the great ship below the 'waterline.'

SS Great Britain Scuttling Holes

SS Great Britian - c1968 'broken' but rescued

The ship came back to England in 1970 on a pontoon and now takes centre stage on Bristol's Historic Quay.

SS Great Britain - Bristol 2011

 A long way from that Falkland's windswept cove.

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 For more broken artifacts don't forget to look in on Carmi's thematic-photographic-205