Skip to main content

Primary sourceArtifact1843 (launched)

SS Great Britain

Isambard Kingdom Brunel · 1843 (launched)

A pioneering iron-hulled, screw-propelled passenger ship designed by Brunel, launched in 1843 and now preserved as a museum ship in Bristol.

Brunel designed this ship, one of his major technical achievements, now preserved as a museum ship.

Ask Isambard Kingdom Brunel about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
The iron steamship SS Great Britain, black hull and tall masts with flags, moored in a dry dock in Bristol beside industrial buildings, with a sign reading SS GREAT BRITAIN on the dock edge. Blue sky above.
SS Great Britain, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, launched 1843. Bristol City Docks.

About this source

What it is

SS Great Britain is an iron steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Steamship Company's transatlantic service. Launched in 1843 after six years of construction, she was the largest ship in the world at the time and the first to combine an iron hull with screw propulsion on a large ocean-going vessel. After a long working life and decades abandoned in the Falkland Islands, she was brought back to Bristol in 1970 and is now a museum ship in the dry dock where she was built.

Why it matters

The ship shows Brunel's willingness to abandon earlier plans - he switched from wood to iron and adopted screw propulsion after seeing other vessels in action. Her financial troubles and eventual rescue, funded by businessman Jack Hayward, also show how expensive and risky Brunel's ambitious projects could be.

Look closer

  • What risks did Brunel take by changing his design so late in planning?
  • Why might a ship's survival depend as much on later rescue efforts as on its original design?
  • What does the ship's long working life, including as a coal store, tell you about how technology gets reused or abandoned?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Isambard Kingdom Brunel on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Isambard Kingdom Brunel sources

Meet the AI Isambard Kingdom Brunel →
Sepia photograph of a man in a tall top hat, dark frock coat, waistcoat and trousers, with a cigar in his mouth and hands in his pockets, standing full length in front of large rusted iron chain links. He looks off to the side. A wooden block is at the lower right.Photograph

Primary source

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Standing Before the Launching Chains of the Great Eastern

Robert Howlett · November 1857

View of the Clifton Suspension Bridge spanning a gorge over a muddy river, with brick towers, suspension cables and a deck, wooded cliffs on the left and terraced houses on the right, under a cloudy sky.Artifact

Primary source

Clifton Suspension Bridge

William Henry Barlow and John Hawkshaw, after a design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel · 1864 (completed)

Interior of a long brick-lined tunnel with a curved arched ceiling, narrowing into the distance. Two railway tracks run along a central walkway, with pipes along the right wall and wall lamps on the left. Two people walk down the tunnel, and a third person in a bright vest stands farther away.Artifact

Primary source

Thames Tunnel

Marc Brunel, with Isambard Kingdom Brunel as resident engineer · 1825-1843

Sepia photograph of several ships moored together in a harbor with hills behind. Masts and rigging rise above the hulls. A paddle steamer with a large paddle wheel is at right, and a sailing vessel is at left.Artifact

Primary source

SS Great Eastern

Isambard Kingdom Brunel · 1858 (launched)

Interior of London Paddington station seen from an overbridge: a long curved iron and glass roof with lattice ribs, two GWR intercity trains at platforms with passengers and signage for Platform 4 and Underground.Artifact

Primary source

London Paddington station

Isambard Kingdom Brunel · 1854

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Isambard Kingdom Brunel now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions