SS GREAT BRITAIN

So, what we understand from this wonderful exhibition ss the SS Great Britain was launched in 1843 in Bristol to serve her first 30 years as a passenger vessel.  At this time she was the biggest ship in the world.  Her designer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opted to fit a screw propellor instead of the usual paddle wheels and this proved to be a great success.  In 1857 a structure was fitted so the prop could be raised or lowered depending on whether she was going to sail (as she was also fitted with sails) or use her enormous steam engine, and raising the prop out of the water would thus create less drag.  The option of an engine plus sails meant that the ship could travel to a timetable making a journey from Liverpool to Melbourne, Australia in around 60 days every time.  She sailed around the world 32 times.

In 1881 her new owners removed her engine and converted her totally to sail.  She was then used as a supply ship and during WW1 used to supply British warships with coal and later was a floating storage hulk.  In 1933 her working career came to an end and in 1937 she was scuttled in Sparrow Cove, Falkland Islands where she sat rotting until Ewan Corlett, a naval architect, decided to salvage her and bring her back to Bristol in 1970.  This was done by refloating her and hauling what was left of the ship back on a huge floating pontoon. 

Now she sits in the dry dock that she was originally built in.  Her hull is extremely vulnerable to corrosion being iron and so a humidity-controlled environment has been built below water level to prevent further deterioration.  From the dock-level it looks like the ship is floating but if you look closer you notice that the hull is protected by glass sheets with only an inch of water floating on top.  From there up she has been protected by anti-corrosion paint and totally restored.

Going below water level her hull has rotted through in a few places but amazingly the majority is in good condition. 

Of course you enter the exhibition through the Gift Shop (as you do everywhere else in UK) and walk through the doors back in time as the dock has been set up to re-create the 1843 era.  From here you enter the ship and can choose audio-tours – given either by a First Class or Steerage Class passenger, the Ship’s cat or Engineer and spend the next 4 hours getting lost in ship life in1843. 

As most people had these audio-tour gadgets, the exhibition was very quiet which enabled the soft noises that emanated along the tour to make the exhibition very realistic.  Mannequins were set up in cabins and the galley to represent crew, passengers, the Captain having a discussion with the First Mate, a doctor attending a crew member, a barber and even a baby being delivered.  Every now and then a cat could be heard meowing and being chased by the cook and the wind and sea can be heard softly lashing the hull.

The audio-tour information has been taken from diaries kept by various parties sailing in the ship over her many years of service and so has allowed authentic reconstruction.

Your entry tickets allow re-entry for one year so if you miss anything the first time a return visit is easy and free.  After 4 hours at the exhibition, the poor skipper was dragged kicking and screaming into the shop for the crew to buy herself a few trinkets.  He did however, buy her a cat - no - not a real one, but 'Sinbad' now sits proudly in his new home.