SS Great Eastern

SS Great Eastern was an iron-hulledsteamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and built by John Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall Iron Works on the River Thames, London, England. Powered by both sidewheels and a screw propeller, she was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers from England to Australia without refuelling. Her length of 692 feet (211 m) was surpassed only in 1899, by the 705-foot (215 m) 17,274-gross-ton RMS Oceanic, her gross tonnage of 18,915 was surpassed only in 1901, by the 701-foot (214 m) 20,904-gross-ton RMS Celtic and her 4,000-passenger capacity was surpassed only in 1913, by the 4,234-passenger SS Imperator. Her five funnels (later reduced to four) was unusual for the time. She also had the largest set of paddle wheels in existence.

Brunel knew her affectionately as the "Great Babe". He died in 1859 shortly after her maiden voyage, during which she was damaged by an explosion. After repairs, she plied for several years in her intended use as a passenger liner between Britain and North America, her voyages made largely unprofitable by her high initial and operating costs. Within a few years she was repurposed to lay underwater cable, laying the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866. Finishing her life as a floating music hall and advertising hoarding (for the department store Lewis's) in Liverpool, she was broken up on Merseyside in 1889.

It is important to emphasize that, unlike other ships, the Great Eastern was not just a simple record-breaking ship of the 19th century: her dimensions exceeded the previous limits of shipbuilding, making her both the largest ship of her time and a feat in the history of engineering. She did not simply set a new record, but rather represented a breakthrough in the development of ship design that proved difficult to surpass for a very long time. The colossal nature of her dimensions is also emphasized by the fact that not only at the time of her construction, but also when she was scrapped thirty years later, only smaller ships existed in all three main indicators (length, gross tonnage and passenger capacity). In practice, this meant that no similar ship was built between 1858 and 1889. This is particularly remarkable in the history of shipbuilding, as there are few similar examples – in fact, in this sense, the Great Eastern is almost unique to this day.