Great Eastern
an immense iron steamship. This ship was built on the Thames in 1854-58 for the Australian trade. The equipment included both paddlewheels and screws. Though exceeded in size by screw propellers built since, the dimensions were something remarkable. The Great Eastern was in its day the largest craft ever afloat. Length, 680 feet; breadth, 82 feet, or including paddlewheel, 118 feet; height, or depth from deck to keel, 58 feet. There were five iron masts and one of wood. Seven thousand square yards of sail were carried to aid eight engines. The smoke funnels were 110 feet high and 6 feet in diameter. The interior was divided into eleven water-tight compartments.
The hull was designed to carry coal enough for a voyage to Australia and return, besides 1,000 emigrants and freight enough to bring its owner a fortune. The ship was so bulky that it cost three months of time and $300,000 to get it from the shipyard into deep water. On the trial trip an explosion of steam pipes brought the voyage to an end ere out of sight of land. A number of trips were made across the Atlantic to New York. Considerable speed was developed. The ocean voyage was reduced to eleven days, but the cost of coal and repairs exceeded the receipts from freight.
The British government employed the Great Eastern to transport troops. The decks and cabins were capable of accommodating 5,000 men and officers. The steadiness of the ship and its enormous storage and carrying capacity led to its employment in laying the Atlantic cable. It was also used in paying out cables in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. At the conclusion of this service the ship was degraded to the rank of a coal hulk in the harbor of Gibraltar. It was finally brought back to England and exhibited as a curiosity, a charge being made for admission. In 1888 it was brought to Liverpool, sold to the highest bidder, and broken up for old iron. It brought $280,720.