Qualla: SS Great Britain

SS Great Britain: Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit mattbuck (category), CC BY-SA 3.0. On 19 July 1843, Prince Albert took the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol - Isambard Kingdom Brunel himself drove the train - to christen a ship the like of which the world had not seen. The royal party walked down to the dry dock. The Princess Royal swung a bottle of champagne at the iron hull, but the tug Avon had already begun to tow the ship into the harbour. The bottle fell ten feet short and dropped unbroken into the water. A second bottle was rushed forward and the Prince Consort hurled it himself. It struck the iron and burst. The largest vessel in the world had a name: Great Britain.

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Image: mattbuck (category) | CC BY-SA 3.0

SS Great Britain: A wooden ship that became an iron one

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 4.0. Brunel had not planned to build her in iron. The original design called for a wooden paddle steamer, sister to his Great Western of 1838. Then, in late 1838, an iron-hulled ship called Rainbow - a packet built by John Laird - put into Bristol on its way to Antwerp. Brunel sent tw...

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Image: Brocken Inaglory | CC BY-SA 4.0

SS Great Britain: And a paddle ship that became a propeller one

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Then, in early 1840, came a second piece of luck. A small ship called Archimedes arrived in Bristol - the first vessel driven by a screw propeller, built by Francis Pettit Smith. Brunel had been worrying about how to improve his paddlewheels. He persuaded Smith to lend him Archim...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

SS Great Britain: The maiden voyage and the wreck at Dundrum

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mark Hopkins, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 26 July 1845, seven years after construction began and five years overdue, Great Britain sailed from Liverpool to New York under Captain James Hosken with forty-five passengers. She made the crossing in 14 days and 21 hours, slower than the prevailing record but a triumph of n...

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Image: Mark Hopkins | CC BY-SA 2.0

SS Great Britain: The Australian years

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Industrial Wales, CC BY-SA 2.0. Her new owners refitted her for the Australia trade. From 1852, Great Britain carried thousands of emigrants from Liverpool to Melbourne - settlers, gold-rush hopefuls, families chasing land and second chances. She made the long passage round the Cape again and again for nearly t...

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Image: Industrial Wales | CC BY-SA 2.0

SS Great Britain: The return

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathan Billinger, CC BY-SA 2.0. She lay there for thirty-three years. In 1970, Sir Jack Hayward - a businessman, philanthropist and owner of the football club Wolverhampton Wanderers - paid for her to be raised, patched, and towed north across the Atlantic on a pontoon. The journey took weeks. She was brought b...

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Image: Jonathan Billinger | CC BY-SA 2.0