ss Great Britain

s/s Great Britain

I then had also the chance to visit s/s Great Britain as I was walking along the Canals and Prince's Wharf in Bristol and I arrived just in time for opening. I got my ticket that is valid for one year so I can return anytime I want for more culture and history.

s/s Great Britain

At the ticket counter was also the souvenir shop and I stepped out into the open in front of her stern. There were some guides that gave me some pointers where to start and that there was a lecture in the drydock in an hours time. Well, off I went into a building that had some short facts laid out in a chronological order about her different roles during her lifetime. From there the route went onto a gangway that led onto the deck of Great Britain and there I wandered her open decks awhile before venturing yonder into her cavernous accommodation. 

Port quarter

There was on display rebuilt steerage and 1st class cabins, not much difference to my eye though, maybe it was better on the higher deck with a porthole to look out from and I think the food was much better for her 1st Class guests. The galley was huge with a proper baking oven. She must have also have carried livestock for fresh meat supply. The crew quarters have not seemingly been restored or was behind locked personnel doors, the bow was hollow and one could se daylight seeping in from the various holes in her hull. There one could also see a set up cargo hold and also in the engine room a view of stokers in front of the boiler.

The bowsprit

Then I saw time had come to venture down into the drydock for the lecture by one of the staff. I got off the ship the same way I had come onto it and ventured downwards following the "drydock" signs. The air was very dry there as there is a machinery drying up the air from moisture in order to prevent rapid corrosion. The years stranded in Falkland hadn't done her any favors and the seasalt had permeated the iron riveted sheets, thus making any rust treatment ineffective, so for now the museum is prolonging the eventual decay of the hull by drying the air, possibly another 100years, according to the personnel. We walked around the hull and the most talked about item was the Brunel's propeller and balanced rudder, both were modern inventions at the time and as he didn't want to patent it so the idea was spread far and wide and is still in use today. 

Aft

The graving dock itself was dug out to in 1839 to accommodate the build and now she sits at the same spot she left in 1843, she arrived there in 1970, exactly 127 years to the day. Walking around it one could see nothing much had changed, the dock had been in active use into the 1960's and then gone 

View from aft

Eventually she was built to replace the Great Western paddleship that worked as a railway extension to New York. The dimensions of the mammoth that Brunel planned, wood was not the ideal building material, so he decided on iron and also the paddle wheels seemed clumsy and inefficient in high seas so he also designed a propeller after a lot of arguments with the directors. In her time she was the largest vessel ever built and the propeller and balanced rudder was revolutionizing for future ships that were built later and still in use today. As she was launched in 1843 she took passengers to New York only in 1845 (14 days voyage) and worked on that line until in 1846 when she grounded off Ireland in Dundrum Bay. She sat there for a year before she was salvaged and then put back into traffic in 1850 when she's sold.

Looking aft

The salvage bankrupted the Great Western Steamship Company and new Owners, Gibbs, Bright & Co refitted her for sailing to Australia with a smaller but more efficient engine, a retractable propeller and more square sails to replace her original schooner rig sails, the idea was to have wind power as the main propulsion and the engine as backup. In 1852 GB makes the first trip to Melbourne filled with immigrants.

The bow

In 1855 GB carries troops to the Crimean war. In 1861 she carries the first England cricket team to Australia. In 1872 Capt John Gray dies at sea. He was said to have retired to his quarters one evening saying he's not feeling well and next morning his steward found the cabin empty with the window open. He had served on her since 1854.

Deck looking fwd

Deck looking aft

The undersigned at the wheel, mind you I'm looking aft!

Engine room top

Engine room top

Placque

Engine top

Coal to the boilers and the propeller axle drivetrain

Galley

Bakery

Steerage bunks

The forward part of hull

Hold 

1st Class saloon

Steerage saloon

The aft

1st Class bunks

1st Class

Navigation discussions?

In 1875 she makes her last voyage Liverpool to New York and she loses her passenger class due to changed rules and reg's and maybe her condition. Her Owners maybe made the calculations and thought it is not worth upgrading her to comply, maybe the passenger figures were on the vane as well. She was sold to new Owners Anthony Gibbs & Partners and they decided to convert her to a windjammer and so her engine and funnel was removed and her rig changed into that of a square rigger in 1881. The old 5 masts are removed and replaced by 3 massive masts.

The bow

The bow from the drydock

By 1882 she shipped successfully coal from Wales to San Francisco (Panama Canal didn't exist) around the horn. In her last voyage in 1886 she got hit by a severe storm at Cape Horn and as many ships before her (and after) they headed for the closest downwind port that was Port Stanley in Falklands. 

Bottom of drydock

The stern

She made it there but insurance representatives and Owners thought the cost of getting the requisite material to repair her rig was too costly and wrote her off. The hull was bought by the Falklands Company (FIC) and she sat anchored for many years as a storage hulk for coal and wool until 1933 when she was deemed too hazardous to be used and in 1937 she was finally scuttled in Sparrow Cove. In 1914 whilst still in use by FIC she also supplied the British Navy with coal bunkers.

Original masts stored on the side

The Great Britain sat in Sparrow Cove as a local landmark for locals to visit on a jolly and for penguins to marvel at. But she was not forgotten as Mr Ewan Corlett, a naval architect, helped in 1970 to organize a salvage party and eventually the wreck was refloated and towed on a pontoon some 8000' to Bristol. 

Original masts stored on the side (note the 4 tree trunks)

Original masts stored on the side

As I walked out of the museum I came across this signpost indicating 7339' distance to Falklands and it reminded me that I had seen the original mizzen mast of Great Britain still there in Port Stanley back in May 2023 when I brought FPV Lilibet there.

Below my pictures from Falklands with the s/s GB memorial plaque and mizzen mast:

Memorial plaque for Brunel's s/s Great Britain

The mizzen mast of the s/s Great Britain still remains in Stanley waterfront