Great Britain

Great Britain was the second of three highly innovative steamships designed by I. K. Brunel. It was intended by the Great Western Steamship Company as a sister ship to Brunel's Great Western, which had been launched in Bristol as a wooden-hulled paddle steamer in 1837. But Brunel conceived a much bigger vessel, the first large iron ship and the first large screw-propelled ship. Launched in Bristol by the Prince Consort on 19 July 1843 (3, 270 tons, compared with 1, 340 for the previous ship), the Great Britain entered service between Liverpool and New York in 1845. She was eventually abandoned in the Falkland Islands in 1886, but survived to be brought home to Bristol in 1970, where she is on show.