Great Eastern
an English iron steamship, before the "Celtic" the largest vessel constructed, built (1854-1858) at Millwall, on the Thames, for the Eastern Steam Navigation Co., by Scott Russell, from plans by I. K. Brunel; length, 680 feet; breadth, 82½, or, including paddle-boxes, 118 feet; height, 58 feet (70 to top of bulwarks). She had 6 masts, 5 of iron and one of wood, and could spread 7,000 yards of sail, besides having 8 engines, divided between her screws and paddles, and capable of working at 11,000 horse power. From the first her career was unfortunate, the launching process alone lasting three months and costing $300,000. After several unremunerative trips to New York she was employed first as a troopship, and then as a cable-laying ship, for which her size and steadiness specially qualified her. Various attempts were afterward made to utilize her, but she at last came to be a mere holiday spectacle, and was broken up in 1888.