SS Great Britain

SS Great Britain in dry dock at Bristol in 2005, preserved for exhibition as a museum ship
History
United Kingdom
Name	Great Britain
Owner	Great Western Steamship Company
Port of registry	Bristol
Builder	William Patterson
Cost	Projected: £70,000 Actual: £117,000
Laid down	July 1839
Launched	19 July 1843
Completed	1845
Maiden voyage	26 July 1845
In service	1845–1886
Homeport	Bristol, England 51°26′57″N 2°36′30″W / 51.4492°N 2.6084°W / 51.4492; -2.6084
Status	Museum ship
General characteristics
Type	Passenger steamship
Displacement	3,674 tons load draught
Tons burthen	3,443 bm
Length	322 ft (98 m)
Beam	50 ft 6 in (15.39 m)
Draught	16 ft (4.88 m)[1]
Depth of hold	32.5 ft (9.9 m)
Installed power	2 × twin 88-inch (220 cm) cylinder, bore, 6 ft (1.83 m) stroke, 500 hp (370 kW), 18 rpm inclined direct-acting steam engines
Propulsion	Single screw propeller
Sail plan	Original: Five schooner-rigged and one square-rigged mast After 1853: Three square-rigged masts
Speed	10 to 11 knots (19 to 20 km/h; 12 to 13 mph)
Capacity	360 passengers, later increased to 730 1,200 long tons (1,300 short tons; 1,200 t) of cargo
Complement	130 officers and crew (as completed)

SS Great Britain is a museum ship and former passenger steamship that was advanced for her time. She was the largest passenger ship in the world from 1845 to 1853. She was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), for the Great Western Steamship Company's transatlantic service between Bristol and New York City. While other ships had been built of iron or equipped with a screw propeller, Great Britain was the first to combine these features in a large ocean-going ship. She was the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic Ocean, which she did in 1845, in 14 days.

The ship is 322 ft (98 m) in length and has a 3,400-ton displacement. She was powered by two inclined two-cylinder engines of the direct-acting type, with twin cylinders 88 in (220 cm) bore, of 6-foot (1.8 m) stroke. She was also provided with secondary masts for sail power. The four decks provided accommodation for a crew of 120, plus 360 passengers who were provided with cabins, and dining and promenade saloons.

When launched in 1843, Great Britain was by far the largest vessel afloat.^[2] But her protracted construction time of six years (1839–1845) and high cost had left her owners in a difficult financial position, and they were forced out of business in 1846, having spent all their remaining funds refloating the ship after she ran aground at Dundrum Bay in County Down near Newcastle in what is now Northern Ireland, after a navigation error. In 1852 she was sold for salvage and repaired. Great Britain later carried thousands of emigrants to Australia from 1852 until being converted to all-sail in 1881. Three years later, she was retired to the Falkland Islands, where she was used as a warehouse, quarantine ship and coal hulk until she was scuttled in 1937, 98 years after being laid down.^[3]

In 1970, after Great Britain had been abandoned for 33 years, Sir Jack Arnold Hayward, OBE (1923–2015) paid for the vessel to be raised and repaired enough to be towed north through the Atlantic back to the United Kingdom, and returned to the Bristol dry dock where she had been built 127 years earlier. Hayward was a prominent businessman, developer, philanthropist and owner of the English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers. Now listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Great Britain is a visitor attraction and museum ship in Bristol Harbour, with between 150,000 and 200,000 visitors annually.