|
THE GREAT EASTERN - ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL |
|
HOME SITE INDEX CATAMARAN HULL SOLAR PANELS ELECTRIC MOTORS BATTERIES CREW EXPEDITION SPONSORS GOODIES |
|
The Great Eastern
From the first, Brunel worked on the project with the gifted but less scrupulous marine engineer and shipbuilder John Scott Russell, who described the ship as "a museum of inventions" and who was awarded the contract to build the vessel on the Isle of Dogs in the Thames. As in his earlier ships, Brunel made sure that the ship had great longitudinal strength and the hull was double-hulled throughout, a fact that saved the ship in 1862 when an unmarked reef off Montauk, New York, tore an 85-by-5-foot gash in the outer hull. (It is not true that a riveter was accidentally shut into the ship's double bottom.) In addition, the ship was designed with bulkheads that divided her into ten watertight compartments. Great Eastern's propulsion machinery included both side paddles and a single screw; with diameters of 56 feet and 24 feet, respectively, these were the largest marine paddles and screw ever built. While this combination was dictated by the limits of engine efficiency of the time, the paddles and screw gave the ship a maneuverability that was invaluable in her eventual career as a cable layer. The sidewheels and propeller were driven by separate engines, too, the sidewheels by a four-cylinder oscillating steam engine built by Russell, and the screw by a four-cylinder horizontal direct-acting engine built by James Watt & Company.
Isambard Kingdon Brunel (center right)
The extraordinary dimensions of the ship dictated that she be built on an inclined way parallel to the river so that she could be launched sideways. Russell's financial incompetence nearly destroyed the project, and only through direct supervision did Brunel bring it to completion, though the effort is said to have killed him. Despite Brunel's reluctance, circumstances dictated that the ship be launched on November 3, 1857, and though it was first attempted on that date, she did not take the water until January 31, 1858. Fitting out lasted until September 1859. In failing health, Brunel was again forced to oversee Russell's work. During trials on September 5—four days before Brunel's death—there was a disastrous explosion, and repairs forced the postponement of Great Eastern's maiden transatlantic voyage until June 1860.
The Great Eastern side on
Great Eastern made ten voyages in the North Atlantic passenger trade, but two accidents (neither of them fatal) that cost the company £130,000 forced her out of that trade, and in 1864 she was sold to the newly formed Great Eastern Steamship Company. After alterations, including the removal of one set of boilers and one funnel, Great Eastern embarked on a career as a cable-laying ship. The first transatlantic cable had failed shortly after it had been laid down by HMS Agamemnon and USS Niagara in 1858, and when American inventor Cyrus Field visited England in connection with his plan, Brunel reportedly pointed to Great Eastern's unfinished bulk and said, "There is your ship."
Under charter to the Telegraph Construction Company, on June 24, 1865, Great Eastern lay off southern Ireland with 7,000 tons of cable and 500 crew, including Field. After the European end of the cable was laid near Valentia, Ireland, by the smaller HMS Caroline, Great Eastern sailed in company with HMS Terrible and Sphinx. On August 2, three-quarters of the way to Newfoundland, the cable broke and after several failed attempts to recover it, Great Eastern returned to Ireland. Undaunted, the Atlantic Telegraph Company had already ordered 1,990 miles of new cable, and after some alterations to her gear, Great Eastern sailed again from Valentia on Friday, July 13, 1866. Twelve days later, in Heart's Content, Newfoundland, communications between Europe and North America had dropped from one month to a few minutes. By the end of August, Great Eastern's crew had recovered the submerged cable from the 1865 expedition, and spliced it to a cable running from Newfoundland. By the end of her career, Great Eastern had laid a total of five transatlantic cables, and one between Bombay, Aden, and Suez.
In 1874, she was sold to a French company that sought to use Great Eastern for first-class passenger service between New York and France, but the project was abandoned after one voyage. Laid up in Milford Haven from 1875 to 1886, she was sold for use as an exhibition ship in Liverpool. She was broken up at Henry Bath & Sons two years later.
The Great Eastern shipwrecked
SHIPPING RELATED LINKS
Baltic and International Maritime Council Australian Maritime Safety Authority California Maritime Academy Maine Maritime Museum Maritime and Coastguard Agency Maritime Companies Maritime History and Naval Heritage Homepage Maritime Schools Pacific Maritime Group PORT - Maritime Information Gateway The International Maritime Organisation The Maritime History Virtual Archives The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic The Mother of All Maritime Links Welcome to Maritime Global Net
MARINE INSURANCE: SAIL, POWER, TRAWLERS, LINER, YACHTS, RIBs, TENDERS, TANKERS, CARGO, CONTAINERS
Nelson Kruschandl says: "We all need insurance to protect our investments. So, why don't you give the Lloyds broker: Bennett Gould & Partners a try online."
Move up to a better service and help keep this project funded. For every policy sold through us, Bennett Gould & Partners will make a generous contribution to our project.
Nelson recommends them: "Great value and superior service."
Paddle & screw steamship (5f/6m). L/B/D: 692 × 82.7 (117ew) × 30 (210.9m × 25.2m (35.7m) × 9.1m). Tons: 18,915 grt. Hull: iron. Comp.: 1st 200, 2nd 400, steerage 2,400. Mach.: oscillating steam engine driving sidewheels & horizontal direct-acting engine, 4,890 ihp, driving 1 screw; 13 kts. Des.: Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Built: Scott, Russell & Co. and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Millwall, Eng.; 1858. CONTACT: nelson@solarnavigator.net 07905 147709 (UK)
|
