SS Great Britain

Brunel's Ship, Her Voyages, Passengers and Crew

Helen Doe

• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Year: 2019
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• eBook ISBN:
  9781445684529
• Subtopic: Engineering General
• Index: Technology & Engineering

In SS Great Britain, Helen Doe provides a narrative account of this famous and historically important ship. Experimental and controversial, Great Britain led the way for iron shipbuilding and screw propulsion. The book charts the ship's brilliant design and construction, and the tribulations of her owners as they battled financial crises to turn Isambard Kingdom Brunel's vision into reality. Brunel was passionate about this ship and was devastated when a navigational error stranded her in Dundrum Bay, Ireland. She was rescued in a great feat of salvage and went on to a long life at sea, carrying passengers to New York, troops to the Crimea and India, and thousands of emigrants to Australia. Helen Doe highlights the contribution of the many individuals connected to the ship, ranging from crew members to passengers, at least one grand Victorian scandal, and the mysterious disappearance of her long-serving captain. In this way, the ship's life and times are recreated and the history of a technical marvel is given a human face. The ship was salvaged a second time, when she was rescued from the Falkland Islands and towed home across the Atlantic. She now sits in splendour in her original dock in Bristol and is one of the most visited attractions in Britain. This a compelling account of an iconic ship and of an important moment in industrial history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Foreword
• Introduction and Acknowledgements
• 1 - ‘Your Other Ship’: A Second Vessel
• 2 - ‘This Extraordinary Vessel, the Wonder of the World’
• 3 - ‘Monarch of the Ocean’: The Great Britain Goes to Sea
• 4 - ‘A Useless Saucepan’: Disaster on an Irish Shore
• 5 - ‘This Majestic Vessel, Queen of the Ocean’: New Owners
• 6 - Her Majesty’s Troopship: War Service
• 7 - ‘This Splendid Craft’: Owners, Masters and Crew
• 8 - ‘Queen of the Waters’: Passengers to Australia
• 9 - ‘This Celebrated Steam Ship’: Finished with Engines
• 10 - ‘A Unique Nautical Antique’: In the Twentieth Century and Today
• Plates
• Appendix 1: Timeline
• Appendix 2: Voyages of the Great Britain
• Appendix 3: The Great Western Steam Ship Company and Limited Liability
• Appendix 4: The Great Western Steam Ship Company Shareholders/Proprietors
• Appendix 5: In Defence of Captain Hosken
• Appendix 6: Captain Claxton’s Household Sale, 1849
• Appendix 7: Emigrant Regulations (Orders in Council) 1852
• Appendix 8: Surgeons on Board the Great Britain
• Appendix 9: A Description of the Great Britain in 1870
• Appendix 10: Trade and Wages in Victoria, Statistics of Australia in 1870
• Appendix 11: The Last Sale of items from the Great Britain
• Endnotes
• Sources and Bibliography
• List of Illustrations