7 Wonders
of the Industrial World
SS
Great Eastern |
|
Industrial
World Wonders |
Laid down:May
1, 1854 |
Launched: January
31,1858 |
Fate: Boken up
1889-1890 |
Length: 692 feet
(211 m) |
Beam: 82 feet
(25 m) |
Speed: 14 knots
(26 km/h) |
Capacity: 4,000 |
Power: 8,000
horsepower |
Propulsion:Four
steam engines for the paddles
and an additional engine for the
propeller. |
Great
Eastern at Heart's Content,
July 1866 [1] |
S.S. Great Eastern,
a 22,500-ton (displacement) iron steamship
designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel
was built on the Thames River, England.
Intended for the passenger and cargo
trade between England and Ceylon,
she was by far the largest ship the
World had yet seen. She was so far
ahead of contemporary commercial requirements,
and industrial capabilities, that
her length (nearly 700 feet) and tonnage
would remain unmatched for four more
decades.
Though christened Leviathan
during a initial launching attempt
in early November 1857, she was thereafter
always known as Great Eastern. Nearly
three month's costly struggle to get
her afloat, and more problems while
she was completing, left her original
company bankrupt. New owners decided
to employ her on the route between
Britain and North America. However,
insufficient capitalization restricted
outfitting to luxury accomodations,
thus ignoring the decidedly non-luxurious,
but very profitable immigrant trade.
The ship financial difficulties continued,
compounded by a series of accidents.
In September 1859 Great
Eastern's first voyage was cut short
by a boiler explosion. Her second
company collapsed under the expense
of repairs and a new firm took her
on. Finally reaching New York in June
1860, for the next two months she
was exhibited to the public and made
voyages along the U.S. coast. Nearly
a year passed before Great Eastern's
next westbound trip in May 1861, by
which time the American Civil War
had begun. During June and July she
transported troops to Quebec to reinforce
Canada's defenses. In September Great
Eastern began another trip to New
York, but was disabled by a severe
storm. In mid-1862 she made three
voyages, but improving commercial
prospects abruptly ceased when she
struck an uncharted rock entering
New York harbor, necessitating more
expensive repairs. She did not resume
service until mid-1863, making two
more trips and bankrupting yet another
company.
Sold at auction, Great
Eastern was chartered for laying a
trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. The
ship finally found her niche. In 1866
Great Eastern brought a cable to North
America, establishing nearly instantaneous
communication between the Old World
and the New that has remained unbroken
ever since. Following a unfruitful
effort by French interests to put
her back into passenger service in
1867, Great Eastern returned to cable
work. Between 1869 and 1874 she strung
six more cables from Europe to America,
repaired two earlier ones, and laid
another across the Indian Ocean.
Great Eastern was laid
up at Milford Haven, Wales in 1874.
In 1886 she steamed to Liverpool to
become an exhibition ship. This prosaic,
but profitable employment continued
during visits to London and Scotland
later in the year. Sold late in 1887,
Great Eastern went back to Liverpool,
where she was stripped and slowly
broken up during 1888 and 1889.[2]
History
Concept
Isambard Kingdom Brunel , The famous
Howlett photo of Brunel against the
launching chains of the Great Eastern
at Millwall in 1857.After the Great
Exhibition of 1851, which had publicized
America's wealth and natural resources,
waves of people were eager to emigrate
from Britain to America and Brunel
realised the potential of a ship purpose-built
to carry emigrants there.
On 25 March 1852, Brunel
had made a sketch of a steamship in
his diary and wrote beneath it: "Say
600 ft x 65 ft x 30 ft" (180
m x 20 m x 9.1 m). These measurements
were six times larger than any ship
afloat; such a large vessel would
benefit from economies of scale and
would be both fast and economical,
requiring fewer crew than the equivalent
tonnage made up of smaller ships.
Brunel realised that the ship would
need more than one propulsion system;
since twin screws were still very
much experimental, he settled on a
combination of a single screw and
paddle wheels, with auxiliary sail
power. Using paddle wheels meant that
the ship would be able to reach Calcutta,
where the Hooghly River was too shallow
for screws.
Brunel showed his idea
to John Scott Russell, an experienced
Naval Architect and ship builder who
he had first met at the Great Exhibition.
Scott Russell examined Brunel's plan
and made his own calculations as to
the ship's feasibility. He calculated
that it would have a displacement
of 20,000 tons and would require 850
horsepower (630 kW) to achieve 14
knots (26 km/h), but believed it was
possible. At Scott Russell's suggestion,
they approached the directors of the
Eastern Steam Navigation Company.
Eastern Steam Navigation Company
The Eastern Company was formed in
January 1851 with the plan of exploiting
the increase in trade and emigration
to America. To make this plan viable
they needed a subsidy in the form
of a mail contract from the British
General Post Office, which they tendered
for. However, in March 1852 the Government
awarded the contracts to the Peninsular
and Oriental Steam Navigation Company,
even though the Eastern Company's
tender was lower. This left them in
the position of having a company without
a purpose.
Brunel's large ship
promised to be able to compete with
the fast clippers that currently dominated
the route, as she would be able to
carry sufficient coal for a non-stop
passage and the company invited him
to present his ideas to the board.
He was unable to attend due to illness
and Scott Russell took his place.
The Company then set
up a committee to investigate the
proposal, and they reported in favour
and the scheme was adopted at a board
meeting held in July 1852. Brunel
was appointed Engineer to the project
and he began to gather tenders to
build the hull, paddle engines and
screw engines. Brunel had a considerable
stake in the company and when requested
to appoint a resident engineer refused
in no uncertain terms:
...I cannot act under
any supervision, or form part of any
system which recognises any other
advisor than myself...if any doubt
ever arises on these points I must
cease to be responsible and cease
to act.
He was just as firm
in the terms for the final contract
where he insisted that nothing was
to be undertaken without his express
consent, and that procedures and requirements
for the construction were specifically
laid down.
Construction
Sectional plan of Great EasternAlthough
Brunel had estimated the cost of building
the ship at £500,000, Scott
Russell offered a very low tender
of £377,200: £275,200
for the hull, £60,000 for the
screw engines and boilers, and £42,000
for the paddle engines and boilers.
Scott Russell even offered to reduce
the tender to £258,000 if an
order for a sister ship was placed
at the same time. Brunel accepted
Scott Russell's tender in May 1853,
without questioning it; Scott Russell
was a highly skilled shipbuilder and
Brunel would accept an estimate from
such an esteemed colleague without
question.
In the spring of 1854
work could at last begin. The first
problem to arise was where the ship
was to be built. Scott Russell’s
contract stipulated that it was to
be built in a dock, but Russell quoted
a price of £8-10,000 to build
the necessary dock and so this part
of the scheme was abandoned, partly
due to the cost and also to the difficulty
of finding a suitable site for the
dock. The idea of a normal stern first
launch was also rejected because of
the great length of the vessel, also
because to provide the right launch
angle the bow of the ship would have
to be raised 40 feet (12 m) in the
air. Eventually it was decided to
build the ship sideways to the river
and use a mechanical slip designed
by Brunel for the launch. Later this
scheme, too, was dropped on the grounds
of cost.
Having decided on a
sideways launch, a suitable site had
to be found, Scott Russell's Millwall,
London, yard being too small. The
adjacent yard belonging to David Napier
was empty, available and suitable,
so it was leased and a railway line
constructed between the two yards
for moving materials.
The Great Eastern's
keel was laid down on 1 May 1854.
The hull was an all-iron construction,
a double hull of 19 mm (0.75 inch)
wrought iron in 0.86 m (2 ft 10 in)
plates with ribs every 1.8 m (6 ft).
Internally the hull was divided by
two 107 m (350 ft) long, 18 m (60
ft) high, longitudinal bulkheads and
further transverse bulkheads dividing
the ship into nineteen compartments.
The Great Eastern was the first ship
to incorporate the double-skinned
hull, a feature which would not be
seen again in a ship for 100 years,
but which is now compulsory for reasons
of safety.
She had sail, paddle
and screw propulsion. The paddle-wheels
were 17 m (56 ft) in diameter and
the four-bladed screw-propeller was
7.3 m (24 ft) across. The power came
from four steam engines for the paddles
and an additional engine for the propeller.
Total power was estimated at 6 MW
(8,000 hp).
She also had six masts
(said to be named after the days of
a week - Monday being the fore mast
and Saturday the spanker mast), providing
space for 1,686 m2 (18,148 square
feet) of sails (7 gaff and max. 9
(usually 4) square sails), rigged
similar to a topsail schooner with
a main gaff sail (fore-and-aft sail)
on each mast, one "jib"
on the fore mast and three square
sails on masts no. 2 and no. 3 (Tuesday
& Wednesday); for a time mast
no. 4 was also fitted with three yards.
In later years, some of the yards
were removed. According to some sources
(see External links) she would have
carried 5,435 m² (58,502 sq ft).
This amount of canvas is obviously
too much for seven fore-and-aft sails
and max. 9 square sails. This (larger)
figure of sail area lies only a few
square meters below that the famous
Flying P-Liner Preussen carried -
with her five full-rigged masts of
30 square sails and a lot of stay
sails. Setting sails turned out to
be unusable at the same time as the
paddles and screw were under steam,
because the hot exhaust from the five
(later four) funnels would set them
on fire. Her maximum speed was 24
km/h (13 knots).
Scott Russell bankruptcy
The SS Great Eastern's launch ramp
at Millwall.At the beginning of February
1856 Brunel advised the Eastern Company
that they should take possession of
the ship to avoid it being seized
by Scott Russell's creditors. This
caused Scott Russell's bankers to
refuse to honour his cheques and foreclose
on his assets and on 4 February Scott
Russell suspended all payments to
his creditors and dismissed all his
workmen a week later.
Russell's creditors
met on 12 February and it was revealed
that Russell had liabilities of £122,940
and assets of £100,353. It was
decided that his existing contracts
would be allowed to be completed and
the business would be liquidated.
He issued a statement to the Board
of the Eastern Company in which he
repudiated his contract and effectively
handed the uncompleted ship back to
them. When the situation was reviewed
it was found that three quarters of
the work on the hull had not been
completed and that there was a deficit
of 1200 tons between the amount of
iron supplied and that used on the
ship.
Brunel meanwhile wrote
to John Yates and instructed him to
negotiate with Scott Russell for the
lease of his yard and equipment. Yates
replied that Scott Russell had mortgaged
the yard to his banker and that any
negotiation would have to be with
the bank, who after weeks of wrangling
agreed to lease the yard and equipment
until 12 August 1857.
The Eastern Company
began the task of completing the ship.
Work recommenced in May and took longer
than expected to complete. Brunel
reported in June 1857 that once the
screw, screw shaft and sternpost had
been installed the ship would be ready
for launching. However, the launch
ways and cradles would not be ready
in time since the contract for their
construction had only been placed
in January 1857. Under pressure from
all sides, the lease of the shipyard
costing £1,000 a month, and
against his better judgement, Brunel
agreed to launch the ship on 3 November
1857 to catch the high tide.
Launch
Great Eastern before launch in 1858.Brunel
had hoped to conduct the launch with
a minimum of publicity but many thousands
of spectators had heard of it and
occupied vantage points all round
the yard. He was also dismayed to
discover that the Eastern Company's
directors had sold 3,000 tickets for
spectators to enter the shipyard.
As he was preparing
for the launch some of the directors
joined him on the rostrum with a list
of names for the ship. On being asked
which he preferred, Brunel replied
"Call her Tom Thumb if you like".
At 12:30 pm Henrietta (daughter of
a major fundraiser for the ship, Henry
Thomas Hope) christened the ship Leviathan
much to everyone's surprise since
she was commonly known as the Great
Eastern; her name subsequently changed
back to Great Eastern in July 1858.
The launch, however,
failed, as the steam winches and manual
capstans used to haul the ship towards
the water were not up to the job.
Brunel made another attempt on the
19th and again on the 28th, this time
using hydraulic rams to move the ship,
but these too proved inadequate. The
ship was finally launched at 1:42pm
on 31 January 1858, using more powerful
hydraulic rams supplied by the then-new
Tangye company of Birmingham, the
association with such a famous project
giving a useful fillip to the fledgling
company.[4]
She was 211 meters (692
ft) long, 25 meters (83 ft) wide,
with a draft of 6.1 m (20 ft) unloaded
and 9.1 m (30 ft) fully laden, and
displaced 32,000 tons fully loaded.
In comparison, SS Persia, launched
in 1856, was 119 m (390 ft) long with
a 14 m (45 ft) beam.[3]
The SS Great Eastern
was an iron sailing steam ship designed
by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. She was
the largest ship ever built at the time
of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity
to carry 4,000 passengers around the
world without refueling.