Great Eastern
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Great Eastern. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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. See Steamship ; Cable
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
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.