SS Great Britain

The SS Great Britain was a world first when she was launched in Bristol in 1843. This uniquely successful ship design brought together new technologies in a way which transformed world travel. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the most daring of the great Victorian engineers, conceived the groundbreaking combination of a screw propeller, an iron hull, and a massive 1000-horsepower steam engine. She was immediately successful - on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic the SS Great Britain easily broke the previous speed record. Although effectively a prototype, she continued sailing until 1886, and travelled thirty-two times around the world and nearly one million miles at sea.

She was finally abandoned in the Falkland Islands, in 1937, after more than 40 years use as a floating warehouse. In 1970 an ambitious salvage effort brought her home to Bristol, where today she is conserved in the dry dock where she was originally built.