The SS Great Britain
The SS Great Britain was a revolutionary ship. Designed by the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, she was not only the largest ship afloat, she was also constructed of iron and was to be the first ocean going propeller-driven ship. Launched at Bristol on July 19th 1843 she was built to serve the growing transatlantic passenger trade. She was launched in the presence of Prince Albert, who gallantly tossed a spare bottle of champagne against her side when the official bottle, swung out by Mrs. Miles the wife of one of the Directors, missed the bow.
The Great Britain undertook her maiden voyage across the Atlantic on the 26th July 1845, and completed the crossing in an impressive 14 days. This marked the start of 31 years as a passenger ship. Disaster struck in 1846 when she ran aground heavily in Dundrum Bay, and it would be nearly a year before she could be re-floated. Furthermore, due to her being greatly under insured, her owners were forced to sell her. Gibbs, Bright & Co. who were running services to Australia finally purchased her in 1850. After a major re-fit, the Great Britain first sailed for Australia on 21st August 1852. She completed 32 such voyages before becoming obsolete in 1876 when she was laid up awaiting sale.
In 1882 A. Gibbs & Son’s purchased her to use for transporting coal and wheat from San Francisco. She finally came to grief in 1886 in a storm off Cape Horn which forced her to return damaged to Port Stanley in the Falklands. As repairs were no longer cost effective, she was put up for sale never to go to sea again unaided. She was subsequently purchased by the Falklands Trading Company to be used as a floating storage depot for wool and coal, a service she provided for the next 50 years. Finally, her fate should have been sealed when, on April 12th 1937, she was towed out to Sparrow Cove and scuttled.
Amazingly, she was not forgotten and, in 1968, a recovery group was formed who attempted to salvage the Great Britain and bring her home to Bristol. Against all odds on April 12th 1970, exactly 33 years to the day, she was re-floated with the aid of a submersible pontoon. Next step was a nerve racking 8,000-mile journey, taking a further 2 months, to bring her back to Avonmouth.
As she was towed up the river Avon towards Bristol, 100,000 people lined the banks to welcome her home. On July 19th the high spring tide allowed her to be manoeuvred into the Great Western dock, the original dock built for the sole purpose of constructing the Great Britain. By an astounding coincidence this was the same date that her first plates were laid in 1839, and the day of her launch in 1843. Yet a further extraordinary coincidence was that the only available time the Duke of Edinburgh could visit her was that very evening, so a current Prince Consort was able to witness both her launch and her homecoming - the first, and only time, she had returned to the place of her birth in 127 years.
Today the SS Great Britain is being lovingly restored to her original plan, and stands as a tribute, not only to Brunel and the people of Bristol who built her, but also to the grit and determination of those people, who overcame the odds to bring her home. For that we should always be grateful.
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