60°07.05′N 001°58.30′W / 60.11750°N 1.97167°W / 60.11750; -1.97167
111-522: Great Eastern may refer to: Transport [ edit ] SS Great Eastern , a steamship built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1858, the largest ship of its era Great Eastern Railway , a defunct English railway company formed in 1862 First Great Eastern , a defunct train operating company on the Great Eastern Main Line Great Eastern Main Line ,
222-558: A 1990-1992 novel by Andreas Embirikos Other uses [ edit ] Great Eastern Hotel (disambiguation) Great Eastern Life , an insurance company in Singapore and Malaysia See also [ edit ] Great Easton (disambiguation) Grand Est (Great East), a region in France All pages with titles beginning with Great Eastern All pages with titles containing Great Eastern Topics referred to by
333-470: A British railway line The Great Eastern , a bridge laying tank of World War II Arts and entertainment [ edit ] The Great Eastern (radio show) , that ran from 1994 to 1999 on CBC Radio One The Great Eastern (album) , a 2000 album by the Scottish band The Delgados The Great Eastern (Rodman novel) , a 2019 novel by Howard A. Rodman The Great Eastern (Embirikos novel) ,
444-468: A cable layer in exchange for shares in cable companies, ensuring that if Great Eastern succeeded in laying cables, the unprofitable ship could be personally lucrative for her owners. In May 1865, Great Eastern steamed to Sheerness to take on wire for the laying of the Transatlantic telegraph cable . In return for using the ship, her owners wanted $ 250,000 in telegraph company stock, but only on
555-493: A combination of a single screw and paddle wheels , with auxiliary sail power. Although Brunel had pioneered the screw propeller on a large scale with Great Britain , he did not believe that it was possible to build a single propeller and shaft (or, for that matter, a paddleshaft) that could transmit the required power to drive his giant ship at the required speed. Brunel showed his idea to John Scott Russell , an experienced naval architect and ship builder whom he had first met at
666-495: A dock engineer (Frederick Appleby) was able to build a dock around her, using the ship's massive hulk as a station for driving pylons. During her 11 years moored in Milford, she accrued a large amount of biofouling on her hull. Early marine naturalist Henry Lee (best known at the time for his skepticism towards sea monsters) conducted an extensive study of her hull, calculating she had ~300 tons of marine life attached to her. She
777-628: A hasty and ill-informed judgement, as the ship again changed course directly towards the reef. The ship ran aground on the Shaalds on the morning of 8 September, approximately 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 km; 2.9 mi) east of Foula's southern tip. She was wrecked in a flat calm and clear weather. She was the first Allied passenger ship to be lost in the war. She lies at 60°07.05′N 001°58.30′W / 60.11750°N 1.97167°W / 60.11750; -1.97167 , grid reference HU 01172 36937 . The Aberdeen trawler Glenogil
888-425: A heavy gale that had persisted throughout the night of 29 September, just two weeks after the incident the islanders discovered the following day that the ship had been entirely swallowed up by the sea, where she remains to this day scattered as she fell apart under the pressure of the seas on the Shaalds. The disaster was covered up at the time, since it was felt that it would have been embarrassing to make public how
999-594: A livestock pen on deck. After reaching Virginia, the ship steamed back to New York, and from there sailed south again for an excursion cruise in the Chesapeake bay. The ship departed for Annapolis, where it was given 5,000 tons of coal by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad . Great Eastern remained in Annapolis for several days, where she was toured by several thousand visitors and President James Buchanan . During
1110-534: A passenger liner between Britain and North America before being converted to a cable-laying ship and laying the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866. Finishing her life as a floating music hall and advertising hoarding (for the department store Lewis's ) in Liverpool , she was broken up on Merseyside in 1889. After his success in pioneering steam travel to North America with Great Western and Great Britain , Brunel turned his attention to
1221-555: A public house bar, while one mistress at a Lancashire boarding school acquired the ship's deck caboose for use as a children's playhouse. An early example of breaking-up a structure by use of a wrecking ball , she was scrapped near the Sloyne , at New Ferry on the River Mersey by Henry Bath & Son Ltd in 1889–1890—it took 18 months to take her apart, with her double hull being particularly difficult to salvage. The breaking of
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#17327720271791332-491: A rapturous welcome. One disappointing feature which soon became apparent in service was the tendency for the ship to experience excessive vibration at full speed, due in part to her long and narrow design. To avoid this problem it was soon found necessary to operate her at a service speed of 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph), lower than her planned service speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). The early years of Oceanic ' s career were fairly eventful, as she
1443-437: A rather novel design of open berths. Because the berthing of Third Class was distributed at either end of the vessel, the forward compartments each had berths for roughly 100 men, whereas conventional open berth dormitories often berthed up to 300 passengers on other ships. This allowed for a more open layout which was far less crowded, complete with long tables and wooden benches where male passengers were served their meals. In
1554-518: A serious fire in a cargo hold of the Bovic which was docked adjacent to her. The fire was brought under control before it could spread to Oceanic . On 7 August 1901 in a heavy fog, near Tuskar Rock, Ireland , Oceanic was involved in a collision with the small Waterford Steamship Company Kincora , sinking the smaller vessel and killing seven. On 18 November 1904, four days out from New York, Oceanic encountered strong gales, stormy seas and snow,
1665-419: A shifting sand shoal, and after a bilge check Great Eastern continued onto New York without incident. While in port, however, it was noticed that the ship had acquired a slight list to starboard, and so a diver was sent in to inspect the hull. After several days of inspection, the diver reported the large hole in the ship's outer hull, a major issue as no drydock in the world could fit the ship. The ship's hull
1776-445: A ship as large as Oceanic in the dangerous waters around the Scottish islands, he instructed the navigator to plot a course west, and out to sea, away (so he thought) from hidden dangers like outlying reefs. Unbeknown to Smith, this put the ship onto a course between the island and the reef just south of it. Slayter must have felt the course change, as he reappeared on the bridge to countermand Smith's order and made what turned out to be
1887-501: A sketch of a steamship in his diary and wrote beneath it: "Say 600 ft x 65 ft x 30 ft" (180 m x 20 m x 9.1 m). These measurements were six times larger by volume than any ship afloat; such a large vessel would benefit from economies of scale and would be both fast and economical, requiring fewer crew than the equivalent tonnage made up of smaller ships. Brunel realised that the ship would need more than one propulsion system; since twin screws were still very much experimental, he settled on
1998-495: A toll based on ship tonnage – given the size of the ship, the lighthouse levied a toll of $ 1,750 on Great Eastern . Infuriated by the size of the toll, a party went ashore to request that the toll be waived, but the governor of Halifax denied this request. Angered by the refusal, the captain and company leadership ordered the ship to return to Britain immediately, and as such no passengers or visitors were taken on in Halifax. With
2109-420: A topsail schooner with a main gaff sail ( fore-and-aft sail) on each mast, one "jib" on the fore mast and three square sails on masts no. 2 and no. 3 (Tuesday & Wednesday); for a time mast no. 4 was also fitted with 3 yards. In later years, some of the yards were removed. According to some sources she would have carried 5,435 m (58,500 sq ft) in sails. Setting sails turned out to be unusable at
2220-743: A turnaround of only 11 days. However, as noted by sources, the ship's owners struggled to sustain this profitability as they were heavily focused on upper and middle class passenger service. As such, the ship was not used to transport large groups of immigrants travelling to the United States, nor did it take full advantage of the major downturn in the American clipper industry during the American Civil War. On 17 August 1862, Great Eastern departed from Liverpool for New York, carrying 820 passengers and several thousand tons of cargo – given
2331-612: A vessel capable of making longer voyages as far as Australia. With a planned capacity of 15,000 tons of coal, Great Eastern was envisioned as being able to sail halfway around the world without taking on coal, while also carrying so much cargo and passengers that papers described her as a "floating city" and "the Crystal Palace of the sea". Brunel saw the ship as being able to effectively monopolize trade with Asia and Australia, making regular trips between Britain and either Trincomalee or Australia. On 25 March 1852, Brunel made
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#17327720271792442-512: A view to showing that the position of the accused on Oceanic was not clearly defined by the naval authorities, and that he was understood to be acting solely in an advisory capacity. He was acquitted the following day, as he was found not to have been in command on 8 September. Captain Slayter was also acquitted. In 1924, a salvage company which had been engaged on the scuttled German warships at Scapa Flow attempted to salvage what remained of
2553-461: A world-famous liner had run aground in friendly waters in good weather within a fortnight of beginning its service as a naval vessel. The revelation of such gross incompetence at this early stage of the war would have done nothing for national morale. Lt. Blair was court-martialled at Devonport in November 1914, when he was found guilty of "stranding or suffering to be stranded" HMS Oceanic , and
2664-484: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages SS Great Eastern SS Great Eastern was an iron - hulled steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel , and built by John Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall Iron Works on the River Thames , London, England. Powered by both sidewheels and screw propellers, she was by far the largest ship ever built at
2775-468: Is said to have come ashore at the remote island's tiny pier, and on looking back out to sea toward his stranded ship two miles away, commented that the ship would stay on the reef as a monument and nothing would move it. One of the Foula men, wise to the full power and fury of a Shetland storm, is said to have muttered with a cynicism not unknown in those parts "I‘ll give her two weeks". Remarkably, following
2886-732: The Campania and Lucania in 1893, and from 1897 the German Norddeutscher Lloyd began introducing four new Kaiser-class ocean liners which included the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse . In order to compete with these ships the White Star Line needed to produce a new flagship which could rival them. In 1897 White Star put Cymric into service. She was bigger than the Teutonic and Majestic , but not
2997-476: The Blue Riband , as it was the White Star Line's policy to focus on size and comfort rather than speed. Oceanic was designed for a service speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). She was powered by two four- cylinder triple expansion engines , which were when constructed the largest of their type in the world, and could produce 28,000 indicated horsepower (21,000 kW ). In order to build
3108-530: The Cymric in 1897. She was named after their first successful liner Oceanic of 1870, and was to be the first ship to exceed Brunel's Great Eastern in length, although not in tonnage . At 17,272 gross register tons, the future "Queen of the Ocean" cost one million pounds sterling and required 1,500 shipwrights to complete. However, Oceanic was not designed to be the fastest ship afloat or compete for
3219-541: The North Sea and the Atlantic. From here she proceeded north to Shetland travelling continuously on a standard zigzag course as a precaution against being targeted by U-boats . This difficult manoeuvring required extremely accurate navigation, especially with such a large vessel. In the end it appears to have been poor navigation, rather than enemy action, that was to doom Oceanic . An inaccurate fix of their position
3330-526: The 26 August that year, and when she arrived she was opened to the public and press where she was received with great fanfare. She departed Liverpool on her maiden voyage to New York on 6 September, under the command of Captain John G. Cameron. Thomas Ismay had planned to be on board but was by this stage too unwell. She completed the voyage in 6 days 2 hours and 37 minutes at an average speed of 19.57 knots (36.24 km/h; 22.52 mph) and arrived at New York to
3441-588: The American Line, had experienced great success out of this port due to its proximity to London, and it was ultimately decided Oceanic , along with Teutonic , Majestic and the newly completed Adriatic would terminate from this port, making double calls at the French port of Cherbourg and the line's traditional terminal at Queenstown before setting for New York. In April 1912, during the departure of Titanic from Southampton , Oceanic became involved in
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3552-474: The Eighteen-Fifties and Sixties , Alfred Rosling Bennett writes about the skeleton that "it was then remembered that while on the stocks building a pay-clerk had disappeared with a large sum of money... and was supposed to have fled with it", and questions if the remains could have been deposited by workmen who had murdered the man. Brian Dunning wrote about the legend in 2020, noting that while it
3663-578: The Great Exhibition . Scott Russell examined Brunel's plan and made his own calculations as to the ship's feasibility. He calculated that it would have a displacement of 20,000 tons and would require 8,500 horsepower (6,300 kW) to achieve 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph), but believed it was possible. At Scott Russell's suggestion, they approached the directors of the Eastern Steam Navigation Company with
3774-464: The Hoevdi Grund and so marked on charts), which poses a major threat to shipping, coming within a few feet of the surface, and in calm weather giving no warning sign whatsoever. Captain Slayter had retired after his night watch, unaware of the situation, with orders to steer to Foula. Commander Smith took over the morning watch. Having previously disagreed with his naval superior about navigating
3885-476: The Panama canal by ramming her into the isthmus. She was, again, sold at auction in 1888, fetching £16,000 for her value as scrap. Many pieces of the ship were bought by private collectors, former passengers, and friends of the crew – various fixtures, lamps, furniture, paneling, and other artifacts were kept. Parts of Great Eastern were repurposed for other uses; one ferry company converted her wood paneling into
3996-486: The War Office discontinued the contract, and the ship returned to regular passenger service. In September 1861, Great Eastern was caught in a major hurricane two days out of Liverpool. The ship was trapped in the storm for three days and suffered major damage to her propulsion systems; both her paddle wheels were torn off, her sails stripped away, and her rudder had been bent to 200 degrees and subsequently torn up by
4107-527: The aft end of the superstructure and Third Class divided at the forward and aft ends of the vessel on four decks; Promenade, Upper, Saloon and Main. First Class occupied spaces on all four decks, most of which was dedicated to an array of spacious and comfortable single, two-berth and three-berth cabins. There was a library on the Promenade Deck and a smoke room at the aft end of the Upper Deck, with
4218-583: The aft end of the superstructure provided both open and closed promenade decks and housed a library and smoke room which were scaled-down versions of their First Class counterparts. The same scaling-down was seen with the Second Class dining room, which could seat 148, and the array of comfortable two-berth and four-berth cabins. Third Class, as was customary on all White Star Line vessels on the North Atlantic, strictly segregated at opposite ends of
4329-577: The aft quarters of the ship for Third Class were accommodations for single women, married couples and families located in five compartments (parallel to the forward layout, with two on the Saloon deck and three on the Main deck). As was seen aboard Teutonic and Majestic , as well as the newly completed Cymric , there were a limited number of two-berth and four-berth cabins, these were strictly reserved for married couples and families with children. The smaller of
4440-552: The anchor off an American merchant on her way to her berth. The only fatal casualty of the cruise occurred in port when a man was killed by backspin off the helm. Damage caused by the storm and lost revenue from the trip amounted to $ 300,000. The ship continued a cycle of uneventful cruises, cargo loadings, and brief exhibitions from late 1861 to mid 1862. By July 1862, the ship was turning its first noteworthy profits, carrying 500 passengers and 8,000 tons of foodstuffs from New York to Liverpool, bringing in $ 225,000 in gross and requiring
4551-436: The battering the ship took from the sea stove in two portholes, which allowed a considerable amount of water to enter the ship. In 1905, 45 of the ship's firemen mutinied in protest at the unpleasant working conditions in the ship's boiler rooms, which resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of 33 stokers. In 1907, White Star set in place plans to establish an express service out of Southampton. Another IMM subsidiary,
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4662-560: The board of directors, who were then replaced by a third group of controlling stockholders. With the new board in place, the ship was recapitalized to raise an additional $ 50,000. The new board was determined to finish the ship, but also bet heavily on making large profits exhibiting the ship in North American seaports. To accomplish this, the company played major American and Canadian cities against each other, goading them into competition over which city would welcome Great Eastern ;
4773-497: The bodies were buried at sea. Oceanic had been built under a deal with the Admiralty , which made an annual grant toward the maintenance of any ship on the condition that it could be called upon for naval work, during times of war. Such ships were built to particular naval specifications, in the case of Oceanic so that the 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns she was to be given could be quickly mounted. "The greatest liner of her day"
4884-531: The bowsprit of HMS Blenheim . She departed for New York in May 1861 (her other potential port, Baltimore, now considered too risky due to the outbreak of the American Civil War ), arriving in the port with little fanfare. Taking on a cargo of 5,000 tons of barrelled wheat and 194 passengers, she departed for Liverpool on 25 May, making an uneventful trip. Upon her return to Britain, it was announced that
4995-518: The building company already in debt, cost cutting measures were implemented; the ship was removed from Russell's shipyard, and many investors requested she be sold. As reported by the Times , one investor openly proposed that the ship be sold to the Royal Navy, noting if the navy employed Great Eastern as a ram, she would easily cleave through any warship afloat. These efforts had mixed success, with
5106-493: The cable end was lost mid-Atlantic in an accident, forcing the ship to return in 1866 with a new line. The ship's first officer, Robert Halpin , managed to locate the lost cable end and the unbroken cable made it to shore in Heart's Content, Newfoundland on 27 July 1866. Halpin became captain of Great Eastern , with the ship laying further cables. In early 1869 she laid a series of undersea cables near Brest. Later that year she
5217-488: The captain offering tickets to view the ship for 2 rupees apiece, distributing proceeds to the crew. Departing from Bombay before the onset of the Monsoon season, she proceeded north to lay a cable between Bombay and Aden. From Aden, she laid another cable to the island of Jabal al-Tair , where a second ship rendezvoused with her to take up the cable to Suez and then on to Alexandria. The Suez Canal , which opened in 1869,
5328-575: The city of Portland , Maine (with additional investment from the Grand Trunk Railway ) went so far as to build a $ 125,000 pier to accommodate the ship. Ultimately New York City – which had quickly dredged a berth for her alongside a lumber wharf – was decided on as the ship's first destination. After some delays, Great Eastern began her eleven-day maiden voyage on 17 June 1860 from Liverpool with 35 paying passengers, 8 company " dead heads " (passengers who do not pay) and 418 crew. Among
5439-421: The company had expected to take in $ 700,000. In addition, the company was facing a daily interest payment of $ 5,000, which ate into any profits the ship made. Hoping to net more profit before returning to Britain, the ship sailed from New York in mid August, bound for Halifax with 100 passengers. However, on approach to the port the ship was hailed by a local lighthouse service, which was empowered by law to collect
5550-419: The condition the wire laying succeeded. To accommodate the 22,450 kilometres (13,950 mi) of cable she was carrying, Great Eastern had some of her salons and rooms replaced with large tanks to hold the cable. In July the ship began laying the undersea cable near Valentia Island , gradually working her way west at a speed of 11 km/h (6 kn). The effort went relatively smoothly for several weeks, but
5661-604: The crowds, the crew established a bar on deck, spread sand to soak up tobacco juice, and prepared to receive thousands of visitors. However, relations between the crew and New Yorkers began to sour – the public was outraged by the $ 1 entry fee (similar excursion trips in New York charged 25 cents) and many would-be visitors decided to forego visiting the ship. Great Eastern left New York in late July, taking several hundred passengers on an excursion trip to Cape May and then to Old Point , Virginia. However, this too raised issues as
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#17327720271795772-490: The disaster in his book The Isle of Foula : The launch of the Lyons, a salvage boat which hurried to the scene, was capable of a speed of ten knots, yet was unable to make any headway against the tide although she tried for fifteen minutes. Even then it was not the top of the tide, and the officer in charge reckoned the full tide would be 12 knots, he confessed he would not have believed it had he been told. Commander Smith
5883-413: The engineering success but financial failure of the 1860 trip, the ship's ownership company again attempted to turn Great Eastern profitable. During the winter of 1860, Scott Russell (who had recently won a $ 120,000 legal judgement against the ship company) refitted the ship and repaired damage sustained during its first year of operations; during the refit, she once broke free from her moorings and cut off
5994-780: The funnels. The funnel was salvaged and subsequently purchased by the water company supplying Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in Dorset, UK, and used as a filtering device. It was later transferred to the Bristol Maritime Museum close to Brunel's SS Great Britain then moved to the SS Great Britain Museum. In October 2007, the recovery of a 6,500-pound (2.9 t) anchor in 70 feet (21 m) of water about four miles (6.4 km) from Great Eastern Rock stirred speculation that it may have belonged to Great Eastern . RMS Oceanic (1899) RMS Oceanic
6105-498: The largest in the world. Cymric was larger than Campania and Lucania , but not faster. Cymric introduced the strategy of luxury over speed. White Star Line used this strategy on the Oceanic . The RMS Oceanic was built at Harland and Wolff ’s Queen's Island yard at Belfast , as was the tradition with White Star Line ships, and her keel was laid down in 1897. She used the luxury over speed strategy, which first began with
6216-405: The launch for January 1858, hoping to use the tide in the next launch attempt. In the leadup to the second launch, Brunel and Great Eastern 's backers gathered a significant number of chains, jacks, hydraulic rams, and windlasses to assist in launching the ship. Some were obtained from sympathetic engineers, others through returned favours, and yet more for increasing sums of money; so lucrative
6327-521: The massive Bronze Horseman had been erected in Saint Petersburg. High winds prevented the ship from being launched on 30 January, but the next morning a fresh attempt successfully launched the ship around 10:00 in the morning. Following her launch, Great Eastern spent a further 8 months being fitted out. However, the cost of the fitting out ($ 600,000) concerned many investors, who had already spent nearly $ 6,000,000 constructing her. With
6438-552: The mast was originally moved there by Everton F.C. , prior to their departure from Anfield in 1892. It still stands there today at the Kop end. In 2011, the Channel 4 programme Time Team found geophysical survey evidence to suggest that residual iron parts from the ship's keel and lower structure still reside in the foreshore. During 1859, when Great Eastern was off Portland conducting trials, an explosion aboard blew off one of
6549-578: The most impressive feature being the elegant dome which capped the First Class dining room on the Saloon Deck. The First Class Dining Room boasted both a piano and an organ. There were berths for valets and ladies' maids in close proximity to the first class accommodation. Similar to what was seen aboard Teutonic and Majestic , Second Class accommodations aboard were of more modest elegance, but spacious and comfortable. A separate deckhouse at
6660-404: The most number of people aboard a single ship to that point in history. The voyage was a success and the ship made it to Quebec, where it took two days for the city's steamers to ferry the passengers from the ship. The crossing was made in record-setting time, taking 8 days and 6 hours. Great Eastern 's durable design was praised by the military officers aboard, but soon after her return to Britain
6771-434: The near collision of Titanic with SS New York , when Oceanic was nearby as New York broke from her mooring and nearly collided with Titanic , due to the large wake caused by Titanic ' s size and speed. A month later, in mid-May 1912, Oceanic picked up three bodies in one of the lifeboats left floating in the North Atlantic after Titanic sank. After their retrieval from Collapsible A by Oceanic ,
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#17327720271796882-438: The new design plan. The James Watt Company would design the ship's screw, Professor Piazzi Smyth would design its gyroscopic equipment, and Russell himself would build the hull and paddle wheel. Brunel entered into a partnership with John Scott Russell , an experienced naval architect and ship builder, to build Great Eastern . Unknown to Brunel, Russell was in financial difficulties. The two men disagreed on many details. It
6993-408: The next big four White Star ships, Cedric , Celtic , Baltic and Adriatic , with their odd but distinguishable 'island' bridges. "Nothing but the very finest" was Ismay's policy toward this new venture. The architect Richard Norman Shaw was employed as the consultant for the design of much of the interiors of the ship, which were lavishly decorated in the first-class sections. Oceanic
7104-544: The order was postponed and then cancelled. Instead the company decided to deploy the resources to produce a set of larger liners which would become the " Big Four " class. The name Olympic was later bestowed upon the Olympic of 1910. Oceanic was launched on 14 January 1899, an event watched by over 50,000 people. She would be the largest and last British liner to be launched in the 19th century. Following her fitting out and sea trials , she left Belfast for Liverpool on
7215-412: The outer sides of each compartment. At the centre of each compartment, a widened corridor was fashioned as a dining room with long fitted tables and swivel chairs running lengthwise through each compartment. As White Star typically ordered ships in pairs, a sister ship for Oceanic to be named Olympic was proposed. However, following the death of the company chairman Thomas Ismay in November 1899,
7326-540: The paddle engines measured 1.87 m (74 in) bore and 4.3 m (14 ft) stroke. The four cylinders for the screw engine measured 2.13 m (84 in) bore and 1.21 m (4.0 ft) stroke. Total power was estimated at 6,000 kilowatts (8,000 hp). She had six masts (said to be named after the days of a week – Monday being the fore mast and Saturday the spanker mast ), providing space for 1,686 square metres (18,150 sq ft) of sails (7 gaff and maximum 9 (usually 4) square sails), rigged similar to
7437-455: The passengers were two journalists, Zerah Colburn and Alexander Lyman Holley . Her first crossing went without incident, and the ship's seaworthiness was proven again when she easily survived a small gale. Great Eastern arrived in New York on 28 June and was successfully docked, though she did damage part of a wharf. The ship was received with great aplomb, with many vessels and tens of thousands of people crowding to see her. In preparation for
7548-418: The presidential visit, one member of the company board discussed sending the ship to Savannah to transport Southern cotton to English mills, but this idea was never followed up on. Upon its second return to New York, the company decided to sail from the United States. From a financial perspective, the American venture had been a disaster; the ship had taken in only $ 120,000 against a $ 72,000 overhead, whereas
7659-491: The required curvature. Internally the hull was divided by two 107 m (351 ft 1 in) long, 18 m (59 ft 1 in) high, longitudinal bulkheads and further transverse bulkheads dividing the ship into nineteen compartments. Great Eastern was the first ship to incorporate a double-skinned hull, a feature which would not be seen again in a ship for 100 years, but which would later become compulsory for reasons of safety. To maximize her fuel capacity, stored coal
7770-423: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Great Eastern . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Eastern&oldid=1197207248 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
7881-439: The same time as the paddles and screw were under steam, because the hot exhaust from the five (later four) funnels would set them on fire. Her maximum speed was 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). She was involved in a series of accidents during construction, with 6 workers being killed. Great Eastern was planned to be launched on 3 November 1857. The ship's massive size posed major logistical issues; according to one source,
7992-442: The ship a new 500 ton overhead gantry crane had to be constructed at the yard in order to lift the material necessary for the ship's construction. Another innovation was the use of hydraulic riveting machines , which were used for the first time at Harland and Wolff during her construction. Oceanic ' s bridge was integrated with her superstructure , giving her a clean fluid look; this design feature would be omitted from
8103-450: The ship and won it, thus acquiring personal control of the vessel. The group then allowed the ship company to go bankrupt, thus separating the ship from the now defunct shipping company and divesting many smaller stockholders. The ship was then contracted out to Cyrus West Field , an American financier, who intended to use it to lay underwater cables. The ship's owners developed a business model whereby they would rent out Great Eastern as
8214-426: The ship caused a minor labour dispute as workers – who were paid by the ton of ship scrapped – became frustrated with the slow pace of breaking and went on strike. After Great Eastern 's scrapping, rumours spread that the shipbreakers had found the remains of trapped worker(s) entombed in her double hull—likely inspired by tales spread by her crew of a phantom riveter who had been sealed in the ship's hull. The legend
8325-448: The ship did not have enough provisions (a burst pipe in a storeroom had ruined much of the ship's food) to make the short trip comfortable, while the ship's rudimentary bathrooms posed a sanitation issue. Duplicate tickets were sold for some berths, families were separated and remixed in improperly assigned cabins, and five plainclothes police officers (put on by New York Police Department to deter pickpockets) were discovered and chased into
8436-660: The ship eventually being sold to a new company for £800,000, equating to a loss of $ 3,000,000 for investors in the Eastern Steam Navigation Company. The new company modified parts of its predecessor's design, most notably cutting the ship's coal capacity as it intended to use the ship for the American market. Fitting out concluded in August 1859 and was marked with a lavish banquet for visitors (which included engineers, stockholders, members of parliament, 5 earls, and other notables). In early September 1859,
8547-456: The ship had remained as an "exhibition ship" for tourists in the Thames. Great Eastern successfully rode out the infamous Royal Charter Storm , after which it was moved to Southampton for the winter. The start of 1860 led to a further change of ownership when the owning company was found to be badly in debt and the value of the ship depreciated by half. This revelation forced the resignation of
8658-411: The ship sailed from her dock towards the channel, accompanied by many spectators. However, off Hastings she suffered a massive steam explosion (caused by a valve being left shut by accident after a pressure test of the system) that killed five crewmen and destroyed the forwardmost funnel. She proceeded to Portland Bill and then to Holyhead , though some investors claimed more money could have been made if
8769-676: The ship's 19,000 tons (12,000 inert tons during the launch) made it the single heaviest object moved by humans to that point. On 3 November, a large crowd gathered to watch the ship launch, with notables present including the Comte de Paris, the Duke of Aumale , and the Siamese ambassador to Britain. The launch, however, failed, and the ship was stranded on its launch rails – in addition, two men were killed and several others injured, leading some to declare Great Eastern an unlucky ship. Brunel rescheduled
8880-497: The ship's company had been contracted by the British War Office to transport 2,000 troops to Canada, part of a show of force to intimidate the rapidly-arming United States. After a further refit to carry troops, Great Eastern departed Britain for Quebec City carrying 2,144 soldiers, 473 passengers, and 122 horses; according to one source, this number of passengers – when coupled with Great Eastern 's crew of 400 – marked
8991-475: The ship's single propeller. A jury-rigged propeller was installed by Hamilton Towle (an American engineer returning from Austria), allowing the ship to steer for Ireland powered only by her screw. Arriving in Queenstown, (now Cobh ), she was denied entry to the harbour as it was feared high winds would cause her to smash her anchorage; she was granted entry three days later and towed in by HMS Advice , tearing
9102-514: The size of her load, she was drawing 9 metres (30 ft) of water. After outrunning a small squall, the ship approached the New York coast on the night of 27 August. Fearing that Great Eastern was resting too low in the water to pass by Sandy Hook, the ship's captain instead chose the nominally safer route through Long Island Sound. While passing by Montauk Point around 2:00 AM, the ship collided with an uncharted rock needle (later named Great Eastern Rock) that stood around 8 metres (26 ft) below
9213-414: The surface. The rock punctured the outer hull of the ship, leaving a gash 2.7 metres (9 ft) wide and 25 metres (83 ft) long – it was later calculated that the needle was large enough to contact the inner hull, but that the outer hull and strong transverse braces had prevented the inner hull from being breached. The collision was noticed by the crew, who guessed that the ship had struck
9324-408: The time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers from England to Australia without refuelling. Her length of 692 feet (211 m) was surpassed only in 1899 by the 705-foot (215 m) 17,274-gross-ton RMS Oceanic , her gross tonnage of 18,915 was only surpassed in 1901 by the 701-foot (214 m) 20,904-gross-ton RMS Celtic and her 4,000-passenger capacity
9435-409: The two Saloon deck compartments was designated for married couples. On the main deck, a section of another compartment was designated for families with children. Each of the two compartments also had small dining rooms fashioned with fitted tables and swivel chairs similar to that in Second Class. In the remaining three compartments, single women were berthed in 20-berth dormitory-style cabins situated on
9546-569: The vessel on the Upper, Saloon and Main decks. On the Upper Deck, entrances were located adjacent to the forward and aft well decks, where most of the lavatories were located. At the very aft end of the deck were the Third Class Smoke Room and General Room, as well as the galley . Single men were berthed in five compartments at the forward end of the vessel (two on the Saloon deck, three on the Main deck), each of which were laid out in
9657-546: The waiting armed merchant cruiser HMS Alsatian , and HMS Forward . Charles Lightoller , the ship's First Officer (and also the most senior officer to survive the sinking of the Titanic ), was the last man off, taking the navigation room's clock as a souvenir. The 573-ton Admiralty salvage vessel Lyons was dispatched to the scene hurriedly, and in the words of the Laird of Foula, Professor Ian Holbourn , writing about
9768-593: The waters from the North Scottish mainland to Faroe . On 8 September she ran aground and was wrecked off the island of Foula , in the Shetland Islands . In the late 1890s the White Star Line's existing prestige ocean liners Majestic and Teutonic , both launched in 1889, had become outmoded due to rapid advances in marine technology: Their competitors, the Cunard Line , had introduced
9879-436: The wreck; however they were unsuccessful. In 1973 another attempt was made to salvage parts of the wreck and the propellers for scrap. Over the next six years, Simon Martin and Alec Crawford, with wet-suits and Scuba gear, and initially working from an inflatable dinghy, recovered more than 200 tonnes of non-ferrous metal. Martin told the story in his best-selling book, The Other Titanic . In 2016, Oceanic ' s Lifeboat 6
9990-780: Was 119 m (390 ft 5 in) long with a 14 m (45 ft 11 in) beam . She was at first named Leviathan , but her high building and launching costs ruined the Eastern Steam Navigation Company and so she lay unfinished for a year before being sold to the Great Eastern Ship Company and finally renamed Great Eastern . The hull was an all-iron construction, a double hull of 19-millimetre (0.75 in) wrought iron in 0.86 m (2 ft 10 in) plates with ribs every 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in). Her roughly 30,000 iron plates weighed 340 kilograms ( 1 ⁄ 3 long ton) each, and were cut over individually-made wooden templates before being rolled to
10101-449: Was Brunel's final great project, and he collapsed from a stroke after being photographed on her deck, and died only ten days later, a mere four days after Great Eastern ' s first sea trials . About the ship, Brunel said "I have never embarked on any one thing to which I have so entirely devoted myself, and to which I have devoted so much time, thought and labour, on the success of which I have staked so much reputation." Great Eastern
10212-476: Was a transatlantic ocean liner built for the White Star Line . She sailed on her maiden voyage on 6 September 1899 and was the largest ship in the world until 1901. At the outbreak of World War I she was converted into an armed merchant cruiser . On 8 August 1914 she was commissioned into Royal Navy service. On 25 August 1914, the newly designated HMS Oceanic departed Southampton to patrol
10323-495: Was a setback for the ship, as at the time the channel was too shallow for Great Eastern to navigate. Going around Africa it would not be able to compete with ships that could use the canal. Ali Rischdi, a famed Arab navigator, proposed taking the ship through the canal, but this was never attempted. At the end of her cable-laying career – hastened by the launch of the CS Faraday , a ship purpose-built for cable laying – she
10434-543: Was appointed in command. Her former merchant master , Captain Henry Smith, with two years' service, remained in the ship with the rank of commander RNR . Many of the original crew also continued to serve on Oceanic . In effect therefore Oceanic had two captains, and this would lead to confusion about the chain of command. Oceanic headed for Scapa Flow in Orkney , Britain's main naval anchorage, with easy access to
10545-415: Was built by Messrs Scott Russell & Co. of Millwall , Middlesex, England, the keel being laid down on 1 May 1854. She was 211 metres (692 ft 3 in) long, 25 metres (82 ft 0 in) wide, with a draught of 6.1 metres (20 ft 0 in) unloaded and 9.1 metres (29 ft 10 in) fully laden, and displaced 32,000 tons fully loaded. In comparison, SS Persia , launched in 1856,
10656-411: Was built to accommodate 1,710 passengers: 410 First Class, 300 Second Class and 1,000 Third Class, plus 349 crew. In his autobiography Titanic and Other Ships , Charles Lightoller gives an account of what it was like to be an officer on this vessel. Her passenger accommodations were laid out in a manner similar to that of Teutonic and Majestic , with First Class amidships, Second Class situated at
10767-403: Was bunkered around and over her 10 boilers; which provided steam at 172 kPa (25 PSI). She had sail, paddle and screw propulsion. The paddle-wheels were 17 m (55 ft 9 in) in diameter and the four-bladed screw-propeller was 7.3 m (23 ft 11 in) across. The power came from four steam engines for the paddles and an additional engine for the propeller . The cylinders for
10878-678: Was commissioned into Royal Navy service on 8 August 1914 as an armed merchant cruiser . On 25 August 1914, the newly designated HMS Oceanic departed Southampton on naval service that was to last just two weeks. Oceanic was to patrol the waters from the North Scottish mainland to the Faroes , in particular the area around Shetland . She was empowered to stop shipping at her captain's discretion, and to check cargoes and personnel for any potential German connections. For these duties, she carried Royal Marines and Captain William Slayter
10989-512: Was first widely noted on by James Dugan in 1952, who quoted a letter from a Captain David Duff, and many later sources cite Dugan's work. Other authors, notably L. T. C. Rolt in his biography of Brunel, have dismissed the claim (noting such a discovery would have been recorded in company logs and received press attention), but the legend has become widely mentioned in books and articles about nautical ghost stories. In London and Londoners in
11100-473: Was made on the night of 7 September by navigator Lieutenant David Blair . While everyone on the bridge thought they were well to the southwest of the Isle of Foula , they were in fact an estimated thirteen to fourteen miles (21 to 23 km) farther north than they believed and to the east of the island instead of the west. This put them directly on course for a reef , the notorious Shaalds of Foula (also known as
11211-419: Was ordered to be reprimanded. He offered in his defence that he was exonerated by the evidence given by Captain Slayter and Commander Smith that he was under their supervision, and that the stranding was due to abnormal currents. A similar charge was made against Commander Smith at a second court-martial; the evidence for the prosecution was the same as in the previous case, but witnesses were cross-examined with
11322-864: Was outfitted to lay undersea cables in the Indian Ocean; most of the operation's expenses were covered by the British government and banks in India, which hoped to circumvent the unreliable overland cables linking Britain to India. In preparation for operations in the hot climate, the ship was painted white to deflect heat away from the ship's cable tanks. Great Eastern departed from Britain in December 1869, arriving in Bombay (now Mumbai) 83 days later to lay her first cable anchor. Upon her arrival in port, Great Eastern 's size generated considerable public interest, with
11433-471: Was refitted as a liner, but once again efforts to make her a commercial success failed. She remained moored in Milford Harbour for some time, annoying the Milford harbour board, which wanted to build dockyards in the area. Many proposals for the ship were raised; according to one source, pubs were full of talk of filling her with gunpowder and blowing her up. The ship was ultimately saved, however, as
11544-472: Was renting out of supplies for the ship's launch that engineer Richard Tangye was able to found his own engineering firm (Tangye & Co) the next year, remarking that "We launched Great Eastern , and she launched us ". Advice sent to Brunel on how to launch the ship came from a number of sources, including steamboat captains on the Great Lakes and one admirer who wrote an insightful description on how
11655-414: Was repaired by metalworkers in a cofferdam , but cost the company $ 350,000 and delayed the ship's return to Britain by several months. She would make one more trip to New York and back in 1863 before being laid up until 1864 due to her operating costs. In January 1864, it was announced that the ship would be auctioned off. During the auction, four members of the company board of directors bid $ 125,000 for
11766-561: Was sold at auction, at Lloyd's on 4 November 1885, by order of the Court of Chancery . Bidding commenced at £10,000, rising to £26,200 and sold to Mr Mattos, a city merchant. Sold again, she was used as a showboat, a floating palace/concert hall and gymnasium. She later acted as an advertising hoarding – sailing up and down the Mersey for Lewis's Department Store, who at this point were her owners, before being sold. The idea
11877-411: Was surpassed in 1913 by the 4,234-passenger SS Imperator . The ship having five funnels (which were later reduced to four) was unusual for the time. The vessel also had the largest set of paddle wheels . Brunel knew her affectionately as the "Great Babe". He died in 1859 shortly after her maiden voyage, during which she was damaged by an explosion. After repairs, she plied for several years as
11988-445: Was technically impossible to prove or disprove, the incident could not have happened given the lack of evidence being found during the numerous times Great Eastern was being repaired. Football historian Stephen Kelly states that in 1928, Liverpool Football Club were looking for a flagpole for their Anfield ground, and consequently purchased her top mast. However, further investigation by local journalist Simon Weedy has shown that
12099-411: Was the first vessel on the scene, and although she attempted to pull off the massive ship, it proved an impossible task, and with the hull already ruptured, Oceanic would not have stayed afloat long in open waters. Other ships in the area were called in to assist in the rescue operation that was to follow. All of the ship's crew transferred to the trawler via the ship's lifeboats and were then ferried to
12210-585: Was to attract people to the store by using her as a floating visitor attraction. In 1886 she was sailed to Liverpool for the Liverpool Exhibition of 1886 – during the transit, she struck and badly damaged one of her tugs, the last of 10 ships she would damage or sink. On 10 May 1887, the steamship G. E. Wood collided with her in the Mersey. Sold again after the exhibition, one company considered using her to raise shallow shipwrecks, while one humorist suggested that Great Eastern be used to help dig
12321-401: Was well received by the public on both sides of the Atlantic. Between 1900 and 1906, she bested her main rivals, Cunard's speed queens Campania and Lucania , as well as her own running mates for westbound crossings. In 1900, she was struck by lightning while at dock at Liverpool and lost the top of her mainmast. On 4 August that year while berthed at New York harbour, she was threatened by
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