SS Great Eastern

SS Great Eastern

SS Great Eastern was an 1858 steam engine ship, built in London. This ship was special because she was the longest ship at that time and was about 3 times in volume than all the other ships at floating at that time and also was the first ship in the world to use double layered iron hull and have both screw and paddle propulsion system. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the designer of the ship who showed the design to Eastern Steam Navigation Company at the suggestion of Scott Russell, a talented and experienced ship builder. The Eastern Steam Navigation Company brought investors and fund for the ship and Brunel built it under his own supervision. Project started in 1854 after facing many challenges and later the work was delayed and halted many times because of lack of fund and bankruptcy, though the project was completed finally in 1857 and finally launched in 1858. One third of the total assumed budget was spent in launching alone.

After launch, this ship went to many voyages from North America to Australia. Later in its life she was used to lay telegraph cables and laid the first lasting transatlantic in 1866. Later, it became uneconomical to use and was used a floating museum and was finally broke into scrap in 1889. The topmast of the ship was bought by Liverpool Football Club and rest of the ship was dismantled.


Because of the challenges in building it and its rank in the world in its time, it is known as one of the ‘Seven Wonders of the Industrial World’.

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