SS GREAT BRITAIN: Brunel's Ship, Her Voyages, Passengers

The author is a maritime historian who has published extensively on 19th century sail and steam and lectures at the University of Exeter. In September 1838, it was announced that the Great Western Steam Ship Company was to build a sister ship to its first transatlantic paddle steamer. It launched in Bristol five years later and was the world's first iron-built screw-propelled passenger liner and of giant proportions. Initially known as the Mammoth, this was Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain, probably his masterpiece. The ship survived the rigours of some 32 voyages around the globe, and a million miles at sea during her long working life, and today she lies preserved in the very dry dock where she was built. Overshadowed by the Great Eastern of 1858, SS Great Britain was dramatically grounded for 11 months on a beach in Northern Ireland in 1846 on only her fifth voyage towards New York. She was born at the time of the very infancy of photography so by contrast the Great Eastern enjoyed a heavily and well illustrated life. Dr Helen Doe has done us all a great service in bringing together the whole story of this magnificent ship and the personal histories of many of her passengers and crew, the breakthrough combination of cutting-edge technology envisioned by Brunel, and the international impact and legacy of world travel that the ship symbolises. The book charts her brilliant design and construction, the tribulations of her owners as they battled financial crises, Brunel's passion about his ship and his devastation when a navigational error stranded her in 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. She was salvaged a second time when she was rescued from the Falkland Islands and towed home across the Atlantic. She now sits in splendour and the book is a compelling account of this iconic ship and an important moment in industrial history. 288pp, 16 pages of photos including colour and line drawings and engravings.