A PIONEER SHIP'S MISFORTUNE

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32975, 22 July 1972, Page 10

A PIONEER SHIP'S MISFORTUNE

The Saga of the S.S. Great Britain. By John O'Callaghan. Hart-Davies. Illustrations. Appendices. Index. 190 pp. As a new idea in shipbuilding she startled the world and signalled the eventual though reluctant departure of wood and sails from marine architecture except for small vessels such as yachts and other pleasure craft. Yet, shadowed by prejudice, fate, and inexperience in working with a new medium, the steam ship Great Britain never made a profit for her owners. Nevertheless, as the school books used to say, and perhaps still do, she made an indelible mark on marine history. This is her story from the beginning until now; it is a story of achievement and misfortune, adventure and intrigue. Built in a graving dock at Bristol, England, for the Great Western Steam Ship Company and launched by the Prince Consort in 1843, the Great Britain startled the shipping world in more ways than one. She was the world’s first iron ship. When she joined the paddle steamer Great Western on the Atlantic she became the first propeller-driven ship to cross an ocean. It is probable also that the Great Britain was the first ship, and perhaps the last, to be built so big that she could not reach the sea until the waterways thereto had been enlarged for her passage. Because of her size the

Great Britain was imprisoned in her graving dock for eight months while argument went on about who was to enlarge the channel to the floating harbour, the River Avon and the sea. The trouble seems to have risen because the measurements of the ship were increased in certain respects while it was being built under the direction of the famous engineer and designer, Isambard Brunel. Her original measurements, big for those days, were: Length overall, 322 ft; keel, 289 ft; beam, 50ft 6in; depth of hold, 32ft 6in; gross tonnage, 3270. In those earliest days of marine engines, steam was used as auxiliary power for calms and light winds. So the Great Britain was given six masts, subsequently reduced to five, then four and finally three. Superstitious old salts would say that fate was against the Great Britain from the beginning. The traditional bottle of champagne was to be broken against the side by Mrs Miles, mother of a Bristol member of the House of Commons, but she missed the target and the bottle fell into the water. Fortunately the Prince Consort seized a reserve bottle and his aim was true. Nevertheless, it seems to this reviewer after reading Mr O’Callaghan’s painstaking researches that the ill-omen let loose by a lady’s bad aim dogged the destiny of the Great Britain from then onwards.

There were not wanting staunch advocates of sail who predicted that no steam-driven ship could show a profit on long voyages because so much coal had to be carried that, there was insufficient room for enough payable passengers and cargo. But, even if she did not make a profit to suit her owners, the Great Britain did sail to and from America with passengers and cargo—unprofitably because, in spite of representations to the British Post Office, Mr Cunard’s ships were always favoured with the contracts for the carriage of mail.

In spite of being wrecked on the coast of Ireland and a costly rescue, the Great Britain was restored to ferry troops to the Crimea and gold seekers and emigrants to Australia. On her last voyage (round Cape Hom) she was so battered that she sought refuge in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, and there she stayed as a floating store until 1937, when her hulk was towed to Sparrow Cove and left to rust and rot in the tidal mud.

There she remained until 1970, when the Great Britain Project, with the, financial help of Mr Jack Hayward and Urlich Harmous's pontoon recovery invention, she was floated back to England to find restoration and an honoured resting place in the Bristol dockland where she had been bom 127 years before.