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Great Eastern at Heart's Content, July 1866
Career
Builder: Messrs J Scott Russell & Co. of Millwall yards in London, England
Laid down: May 1, 1854
Launched: January 31, 1858
Fate: Broken up 1889-90
General characteristics
Displacement: 32,000 tonnes
Length: 211 metres (690 ft)
Beam: 25 metres (82 ft)
Propulsion: Four steam engines for the paddles and an additional engine for the propeller. Heart's Content ( NST) an incorporated town in Trinity Bay on the Bay de Verde Peninsula of Newfoundland John Scott Russell ( 9 May 1808, Parkhead, Glasgow – 8 June 1882, Ventor, Isle of Wight) was a For the football team see Millwall FC. Millwall is an area in London, on the western side of the Isle of Dogs, in London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Events 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor. Year 1854 ( MDCCCLIV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year Events 1504 - France cedes Naples to Aragon. 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes Year 1858 ( MDCCCLVIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Total power was estimated at 6 MW (8,000 hp)
Speed: 24 kilometres per hour (13 kn)
Capacity: 4,000 passengers
Complement: 418
The SS Great Eastern's launch ramp at Millwall.
The SS Great Eastern's launch ramp at Millwall. The watt (symbol W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one Joule of energy per Second. For the football team see Millwall FC. Millwall is an area in London, on the western side of the Isle of Dogs, in
Isambard Kingdom Brunel , The famous Howlett photo of Brunel against the launching chains of the Great Eastern at Millwall in 1857
Isambard Kingdom Brunel , The famous Howlett photo of Brunel against the launching chains of the Great Eastern at Millwall in 1857
Great Eastern before launch in 1858
Great Eastern before launch in 1858
Brunel Longitudinal Section of the Great Eastern, the cross section of the Leviathan at her launch by IK Brunel in 1858
Brunel Longitudinal Section of the Great Eastern, the cross section of the Leviathan at her launch by IK Brunel in 1858
Great Eastern At Sea, the great ship of IK Brunel as imagined at sea by the artist at her launch in 1858
Great Eastern At Sea, the great ship of IK Brunel as imagined at sea by the artist at her launch in 1858

The SS Great Eastern was an iron sailing steam ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving a Propeller Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (9 April 1806 &ndash 15 September 1859 (ˈɪzəmbɑrd ˈkɪŋdəm brʊˈnɛl was a British Engineer. She was the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers around the world without refueling. Her length was only surpassed in 1899, by the 705 feet (215 m) 17,274 gross ton RMS Oceanic, and her tonnage in 1901, by the 700 feet (210 m) and 21,035 gross ton RMS Celtic. Beginning The Keel was laid in 1897, and the ship was built under the supervision of its designer Thomas Ismay, the shipwright and owner of the Brunel knew her affectionately as the "great babe". He died shortly after her launch in 1858.

Contents

History

Construction

Brunel entered into a partnership with John Scott Russell, an experienced Naval Architect and ship builder, to build the Great Eastern. John Scott Russell ( 9 May 1808, Parkhead, Glasgow – 8 June 1882, Ventor, Isle of Wight) was a 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. "

The Great Eastern was built by Messrs Scott Russell & Co. of Millwall, London, the keel being laid down on May 1, 1854. For the football team see Millwall FC. Millwall is an area in London, on the western side of the Isle of Dogs, in Events 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor. Year 1854 ( MDCCCLIV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year She was finally launched —after many technical difficulties— on January 31, 1858. Events 1504 - France cedes Naples to Aragon. 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes Year 1858 ( MDCCCLVIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common She was 211 m (692 ft) long, 25 m (83 ft) wide, with a draft of 6. The draft (or draught) of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the Waterline and the bottom of the hull ( Keel) with the thickness 1 m (20 ft) unloaded and 9. 1 m (30 ft) fully laden, and displaced 32,000 tons fully loaded. In comparison, SS Persia, launched in 1856, was 119 m (390 ft) long with a 14 m (45 ft) beam. She was at first named the SS 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 SS Great Eastern. It was decided she would be more profitable on the Southampton–New York run, and she was outfitted accordingly. Southampton ( IPA /ˌsaʊθˈhæmptən/ is the largest city in the county of Hampshire, on the south coast of England New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous Her eleven-day maiden voyage began on June 17, 1860, with 35 paying passengers, 8 company "dead heads" (passengers who don't pay) and 418 crew. Maiden Voyage is the fifth Album led by Jazz musician Herbie Hancock, and was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in 1965 for Blue Note Events 1462 - Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II ( The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat Year 1860 ( MDCCLX) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year starting

The hull was an all-iron construction, a double hull of 19 mm (0. 75 inch) wrought iron in 0. 86 m (2 ft 10 in) plates with ribs every 1. Inches redirects here To see the Les Savy Fav album see Inches. 8 m (6 ft). Internally the hull was divided by two 107 m (350 ft) long, 18 m (60 ft) high, longitudinal bulkheads and further transverse bulkheads dividing the ship into nineteen compartments. The Great Eastern was the first ship to incorporate the double-skinned hull, a feature which would not be seen again in a ship for 100 years, but which is now compulsory for reasons of safety. A double hull is a Ship hull design and construction method where the bottom and sides of the ship have two complete layers of watertight hull surface one outer layer She had sail, paddle and screw propulsion. The paddle-wheels were 17 m (56 ft) in diameter and the four-bladed screw-propeller was 7. 3 m (24 ft) across. The power came from four steam engines for the paddles and an additional engine for the propeller. A propeller is essentially a type of fan which transmits power by converting Rotational motion into Thrust for propulsion of a vehicle such as an Total power was estimated at 6 MW (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 m2 (18,148 square feet) of sails (7 gaff and max. A spanker is either of two kinds of Sail. On a Square rigged ship the spanker is a Gaff rigged fore-and-aft sail set from and aft M^2 redirects here For other uses see M². CM2 redirects here 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. A fore-and-aft rig is a Sailing rig consisting mainly of Sails that are set along the line of the Keel rather than perpendicular to it 2 and no. 3 (Tuesday & Wednesday); for a time mast no. 4 was also fitted with three yards (3 m). In later years, some of the yards were removed. According to some sources (see External links) she would have carried 5,435 m² (58,502 sq ft). This amount of canvas is obviously too much for seven fore-and-aft sails and max. 9 square sails. This (larger) figure of sail area lies only a few square meters below that the famous Flying P-Liner Preussen carried - with her five full-rigged masts of 30 square sails and a lot of stay sails. The Flying P-Liner s were the sailing ships of the German shipping company F 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 24 km/h (13 knots).

Launch and maiden voyage

Two people were killed in the difficult sideways-launch of the Great Eastern, and the ship became known to some as the unlucky ship. She was involved in a series of accidents, including an unfortunate incident in which an overheated steam pipe launched funnel no. 1 like a rocket, killing a crew member and five boiler men in the process. A rocket or rocket vehicle is a Missile, Aircraft or other Vehicle which obtains Thrust by the reaction of the It was caused by a valve being left shut by accident after a pressure test of the system[1]. The maiden voyage from Southampton to New York began on 17 June 1860. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous Events 1462 - Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II ( The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat Year 1860 ( MDCCLX) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year starting Among the 35 passengers, eight officials and a crew of 418, were two journalists, Zerah Colburn and Alexander Lyman Holley. Zerah Colburn may refer to Zerah Colburn (math prodigy (1804-1840 American mathematics prodigy Zerah Colburn (locomotive designer Alexander Lyman Holley ( 20 July 1832 &ndash 29 January 1882) was a Mechanical engineer and was considered the foremost Steel

Cable laying

The vessel was sold for £25,000 (her build cost has been estimated at £500,000) and converted into a cable-laying ship. Funnel no. 4 and some boilers were removed as well as great parts of the passenger rooms and saloons to give way to open top tanks for taking up the coiled cable. Under Sir James Anderson[2] she laid 4,200 km (2,600 statute miles) of the 1865 transatlantic telegraph cable. A mile is a unit of Length, usually used to measure Distance, in a number of different systems including Imperial units United States The first transatlantic Telegraph Cable crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Foilhommerum Valentia Island, in western Ireland to Under Captains Anderson and then Robert Halpin, from 1866 to 1878 the ship laid over 48,000 km (26,000 nautical miles) of submarine telegraph cable including from Brest, France to Saint Pierre and Miquelon in 1869, and from Aden to Bombay in 1869 and 1870. Robert Charles Halpin, Master Mariner (born February 16, 1836 in Wicklow, Ireland - died January 20, 1894 in Tinakilly Wicklow as A nautical mile or sea mile is a unit of Length. It corresponds approximately to one minute of Latitude along any meridian. Brest (bʁɛst in French, in Breton) is a city in the Finistère department in Bretagne in northwestern France. The Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon is a group of small islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Aden (ˈeɪdən Arabic: عدن) is a city in Yemen, 170 kilometers east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Mumbai ( Marathi:,, IPA: formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the financial

Notable accidents

The accident of December 1861

This accident was caused by breaking of the main rudder shaft. One of the passengers on the ship, an American engineer by the name of Hamilton Ela Towle who was returning to the states after completing his contract working as a supervising engineer on the Danube River dry-docks in Austria, was instrumental in saving the ship. The Danube (In Donau from earlier Danuvius, Celtic *dānu, meaning "to flow run" Slovak and Polish Dunaj He devised a sort of spider gear on a sling that could be lowered down into the rudder shaft well and was used to remove the broken rudder shaft. Without this device the ship's crew would not have been able to remove the broken rudder shaft. Mr. Towle claimed that his effort saved the ship, and filed a claim under the laws of salvage to receive compensation for his efforts. The case was taken to court, and Mr. Towle was awarded the sum of $15,000, which was quite a considerable sum for that period. The Scientific American published an account of the incident and a description of Mr. Scientific American is a Popular science magazine, published (first weekly and later monthly since August 28, 1845, making it Towle's device. It is uncertain if Mr. Towle ever actually received any of the money awarded to him by the court.

The Great Eastern Rock

On August 27, 1862, the Great Eastern suffered an accident similar to that of the Titanic, but did not sink. Events 479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan Year 1862 was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting on Monday Construction The Titanic was a White Star Line ocean liner built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland She scraped on an uncharted rock needle (afterwards named the Great Eastern Rock) a mile east of Montauk, New York on Long Island, opening a gash in the outer hull over 9 feet (2. Montauk is a hamlet (and Census-designated place) in Suffolk County, New York on the South Shore of Long Island. Long Island is an island located in southeastern New York, USA, its western shores directly across from Manhattan, from which the island stretches 7 m) wide and 83 feet (25 m) long. However, the Great Eastern's inner hull was unbroken, and she made her way into New York the next day under her own steam. Nobody was hurt, indeed the passengers never even knew what had happened. A smaller rip sank the Titanic. The enormous size of the Great Eastern precluded the use of any drydock repair facility in the US, and the brothers Henry and Edward S. Renwick devised a daring plan to build a watertight cofferdam. Edward Sabine Renwick (1823 – 1912 was a mechanical engineer inventor and patent expert Construction A cofferdam (also called coffer) is an enclosure beneath the water constructed to allow water to be displaced by air for the purpose of creating a dry Repairs took five months.

Because of this accident, some analysts claim that the Titanic was not so much an unsinkable ship, but rather a symbol of the diminishing safety standards of the late 19th century.

In October 2007, the recovery of a 6,500-pound (2. 9 t) anchor in 70 feet (21 m) of water about four miles (6 km) from the rock has stirred speculation that it may have belonged to the Great Eastern. [3]

Break up

At the end of her cable laying career she was refitted once again as a liner but once again efforts to make her a commercial success failed. She was used as a showboat, a floating palace/concert hall and gymnasium. By the time she was sold piecemeal at auction in 1888 she had become an embarrassment.

She was broken up for scrap at Rock Ferry on the River Mersey by Henry Bath & Son Ltd in 1889–1890 —it took 18 months to take her apart. Rock Ferry is an area of Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. See also Mersey River (Tasmania and Mersey River (Nova Scotia.

While it is rumoured that a skeleton was found inside the Great Eastern's double hull, the same thing has been said of the Titanic and the Hoover Dam (among others); and inspection hatches in the inner hull would have provided an easy escape. Construction The Titanic was a White Star Line ocean liner built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland Hoover Dam, also sometimes known as Boulder Dam, is a Concrete Arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the The ship was the subject of one programme in the BBC documentary series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World which repeated the tale about two dead bodies in the hull, including a child worker, presenting it as fact (even though stating it as a rumour). Seven Wonders of the Industrial World is a BBC Docudrama television series that examines seven great feats of engineering that took place during the An episode of Haunted History also implied that the find of the skeleton was indeed factual. Haunted History was a 1998 UFA/Cafe Productions series exploring the supernatural One of the narrators of the segment read an article published from the time when the Great Eastern was being dismantled. The article stated that the workers broke into a compartment in the inner shell on the port side, and did find a skeleton. [4] The idea of one or more skeletons sealed inside the hull traces back to the construction of the Great Eastern, when it was discovered that two of the riveters, a worker and his apprentice, had mysteriously vanished. It was believed that they had been sealed on the inside by accident.

Liverpool Football Club were looking for a flag pole for their Anfield ground, at the time of her local break up and consequently purchased the top mast. Liverpool Football Club are an English professional Association football club based in Liverpool England. Anfield is an all-seater Association football Stadium in the district of Anfield, in Liverpool, England It still stands there today, at the Kop end. Anfield is an all-seater Association football Stadium in the district of Anfield, in Liverpool, England [5]

References

  1. ^ "Brunel's ships p147"
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Mysterious Humongous Anchor Snagged Big haul for dragger off Montauk Point - October 11, 2007
  4. ^ Dugan's The Great Iron Ship reports in its last pages that David Duff wrote the author: They found a skeleton inside the ship's shell and the tank tops. It was the skeleton of the basher who was missing. Also the frame of the bash boy was found with him.
  5. ^ http://www.liverweb.org.uk/g.htm

See also

External links

Records
Preceded by
Adriatic		 World's largest passenger ship
1858 – 1867		 Succeeded by
Great Republic
SS Adriatic may refer to one of several notable Steamships named after the Adriatic Sea:, operated by the Black Ball Line in A passenger ship is a Ship whose primary function is to carry passengers
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