Falklands : Falkland Islands - Brunel's SS Great Britain
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 28.04.2006 (Article Archived on 12.05.2006)
A new issue of stamps will be at the philatelic counter soon.
Falkland Islands – Brunel’s ss Great Britain
The ss Great Britain was a revolutionary ship and is a unique survivor from Victorian times. The ship remains a monument to the boldness of 19th century technical and commercial design and her launch was the turning point in the development of ships and international transport. She combined a host of unique features which had a seminal influence on virtually all modern ships.
Originally conceived as a paddle steamer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel quickly recognised the advantages that the new technology of screw propulsion could give and converted the ship and her engines to power a 16ft iron propeller.
She was not only the largest ship afloat (being more than 100ft longer than her rivals), she was also constructed of wrought iron and was to be the first ocean going screw-propelled ship. She was launched at Bristol on 19th July 1843 in the presence of Prince Albert, who gallantly tossed a spare bottle of champagne against her side when the official bottle missed the bow.
Designed initially for the transatlantic luxury passenger trade, she could carry 252 first and second class passengers and 130 crew. However, her career as a luxury passenger liner was cut short when she ran aground on the sands of Dundrum Bay in Ireland in 1846. Although not badly damaged, her engines were ruined and the expense of re-floating her drained the financial resources of her owners.
Under new owners Gibbs Bright and Co, the ship prospered and her reputation was re-established. It was the height of the Australian gold rush and the company took full advantage of the increase in emigration to that country by rebuilding the ship for use as an emigrant carrier, circumnavigating the globe. The internal accommodation was rebuilt to accommodate 750 passengers in three classes and the ship had a radically different external appearance, sitting lower in the water with a much larger superstructure and twin funnels.
Over the next 24 years and 32 voyages she was a frequent sight in Australian waters, as well as making stops in Cape Town, St Helena and New York. The ship averaged 60 days out and 60 days home, an extremely fast time for the 19th century and carried more than 15,000 emigrants.
Between 1855 and 1856 the vessel was chartered by the British Government to carry more than 44,000 troops to and from the Crimean War. She was then rebuilt, with her hurricane deck expanded breadthways. This was later referred to as the spar deck. Her masts were repositioned and a new, wider funnel replaced the earlier twin funnels. She was chartered again by the British Government in 1857 to carry the 17th Lancers and 8th Hussars to the Indian Mutiny.
In 1861 she carried the first England cricket team to tour Australia. Two years later, she again transported the side which was by then captained by E.M. Grace, brother of Dr. W.G. Grace.
By the late 1870’s the ss Great Britain was showing her age and her owners were unable to maintain their full registration as a passenger vessel. The ship was still serviceable however and her sleek-hulled profile ensured her easy conversion into a fast three-masted sailing ship. Her engines were removed as was her upper spar deck and the hull was clad with pitch pine.
Barely recognisable as the same vessel launched in 1843, she transported Welsh coal to San Francisco around Cape Horn. On her third trip, she ran into trouble around the Cape and was forced to run for shelter in the Falkland Islands. The cost of repairs was considered uneconomic and she was sold to the Falklands Islands Company as a coal and wool storage hulk in Port Stanley. £3,000 was paid for the hull and a further £1,750 for her cargo of coal. Here she remained through the First World War with coal from her hold helping to replenish the battle cruisers HMS Inflexible and HMS Invincible before the decisive battle of the Falkland Islands on 7 December 1914.
By 1937 the Great Britain's hull was no longer watertight and, after being towed a short distance from Port Stanley, she was beached and abandoned to the elements. Part of her decking was even removed and used for a jetty at Stanley and for the bridge over the Fitzroy River.
It was a particularly sad fate for the ship but, even in this condition, her historical significance was recognised as witnessed by attempts to rescue her in the late 1930’s and 1960’s and by the raffle of souvenirs from her during the Second World War to raise funds for the purchase of Spitfires. Many of these souvenirs, such as the Captain’s bath and the ship’s barometer have surfaced and have been presented back to the ss Great Britain Trust. Even the ship’s bell, which for many years resided at Goose Green Farm, has been returned to the museum.
Finally, in 1970, an epic salvage effort re-floated the ship and she was towed 8,000 miles back across the Atlantic to Bristol, where an estimated 100,000 people lined the banks to welcome her home. On 19th July the high spring tide allowed her to be manoeuvred into the Great Western Dock, the original dock built for the sole purpose of constructing her. By coincidence this was the same date that her first plates were laid in 1839, and the day of her launch in 1843. Yet another extraordinary coincidence was that the only available time the Duke of Edinburgh could visit her was that very evening, so a current Prince Consort was able to witness both her launch and her homecoming, the first and only time she had returned to the place of her birth in 127 years.
Her new life had begun but it took 35 years to complete the painstaking conservation and restoration we can all now enjoy. Brunel's only surviving ship has suffered serious damage since she was scuttled and abandoned in the Falklands. Recent conservation work focused on all original, pre-1970 material as it is this original fabric, which provides the most tangible and important link with the ss Great Britain's past. But iron corrosion was as at advanced stage.
Construction of a glass sea at the ship's water line provides the roof of a giant airtight chamber surrounding the ship's lower hull. Beneath the glass plate moisture is removed from the air using special dehumidification equipment. The glass sea is covered with a thin layer of water, so the ship appears to be floating. Visitors can descend beneath the glass plate into the dry dock, to see the ship's vast, curved flanks and her all-important propeller.
Although she will never sail again, Brunel's ss Great Britain is an invaluable educational resource and an international monument to British invention. She stands as a tribute, not only to Brunel in this the Bicentenary year of his birth and the people of Bristol who built her, but also to the grit and determination of those people, who overcame the odds and brought her home for future generations.
Courtesy of the Falkland Islands Association, The Falkland Islands’ flag is flown from the quayside, alongside the ship.
The FDC shows Isambard Kingdom Brunel against a faint background of the ss Great Britain anchored in Port Stanley.
Technical details:-
Designer Andrew Robinson
Photography Mandy Reynolds (Courtesy ss Great Britain Trust)
Printer Enschede
Process Special Fine Stochastic
Perforation 14 per 2cms
Stamp size 31.9 x 48mm
Sheet Layout 50 (2x25)
Release date 19th May 2006
Production Co-ordination Creative Direction (Worldwide) Ltd
We acknowledge with thanks the assistance of the ss Great Britain Trust.
Pobjoy Mint is also delighted to announce the imminent release of a Falkland Islands commemorative coin depicting the ss Great Britain and a cameo portrait of Brunel which will be available from the Mint in Cupro Nickel and Proof Sterling Silver versions.
For further information, please contact John Smith,
Pobjoy Mint Ltd, Tel: (44) 1737 818181 Fax: (44) 1737 818199
e-mail: john@pobjoy.com
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