Great Eastern Gallery

Choose from 48 items in our Great Eastern Collection for your Wall Art and Photo Gifts

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Standing Before the Launching Chains of the Great Eastern

$Great Eastern on the stocks at Millwall on the Thames, 1857. View from the stern, showing the vessel in John Scott Russells (1808-1882) yard. Double-hulled, of all iron construction, and powered by four steam engines driving both paddle wheels and screw propeller, the Great Eastern was intended for the passenger trade between Britain and Australia and India. After a few troubled passenger voyages she was sold for £ 25, 000, a fraction of the building cost of probably £ 500, 000, and converted to a cable laying ship. In this role she was used in laying the Atlantic Telegraph Cable in 1865-1866, and other similar projects. The Great Eastern was Isambard Kingdom Brunels (1806-1859) last great project. He collapsed on her deck on her launch in 1858 and died a few days later. From The Illustrated London News. (London, 7 November 1857)$

Great Eastern on the stocks at Millwall on the Thames, 1857

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, civil engineer, c1850s

The Great Eastern, 1860: The Vessel leaving Southampton on her First Voyage, June 17, (1901)

$The Great Eastern, 1886. Isambard Kingdom Brunel proposed to the Eastern Steam Navigation Company the construction of a steamship five or six times the size of any then in use. It would use two forms of power: paddle-wheels and screw-engines. Constructed from iron at Millwall, London, between 1853 and 1858, the Great Eastern was the largest vessel afloat until she was broken up in 1888. Only in 1899 were her dimensions exceeded by the SS Oceanic. The Great Eastern was not a success as a passenger vessel and was sold for a fraction of her building cost. She was used as a cable-laying ship, most notably laying the Transatlantic telegraph cable in 1865-1866. Illustration from Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, Mechanical and Chemical, Manufactures, Mining, and Engineering, by Charles Tomlinson, Volume I, (Jamess Virtue, London, 1886)$

The Great Eastern, 1886

$SS Great Eastern, 1859. Pictured at the port of Le Havre, France. Isambard Kingdom Brunel proposed to the Eastern Steam Navigation Company the construction of a steamship five or six times the size of any then in use. It would use two forms of power: paddle-wheels and screw-engines. Constructed from iron at Millwall, London, between 1853 and 1858, the Great Eastern was the largest vessel afloat until she was broken up in 1888. Only in 1899 were her dimensions exceeded by the SS Oceanic. The Great Eastern was not a success as a passenger vessel and was sold for a fraction of her building cost. She was used as a cable-laying ship, most notably laying the Transatlantic telegraph cable in 1865-1866$

SS Great Eastern, 1859

The Atlantic Telegraph, [1866]. Creator: Robert Charles Dudley

Men at Work Beside the Launching Chains of the Great Eastern, November 18

The Atlantic Telegraph Cable Fleet Assembled at Berehaven (Southwest Coast of Ireland)

Telegraph Cable Fleet at Sea, 1865, 1865-66. Creator: Robert Charles Dudley

View Looking Aft from the Port Paddle-box on the Deck of the Great Eastern... 1865-66

In the Bows of the Great Eastern: The Cable Broken and Lost, Preparing to Grapple

Coiling the Cable in the After-tank on Board the Great Eastern at Sheerness: Visit

The Old Frigate Iris with Her Freight of Cable Alongside the Great Eastern at Sheerness

Splicing the Cable (after the First Accident) on Board the Great Eastern, July 25th, 1865

Forward Deck of the Great Eastern Cleared for the First Attempt to Grapple... 1865-66

The Forge on Deck, Night of August 9th: Preparing the Iron Plating for Capstan, 1865-66

The Paying-out Machinery in the Stern of the Great Eastern, 1865

Getting Out One of the Large Buoys for Launching, August 2nd, 1865, 1865

Interior of One of the Tanks on Board the Great Eastern: The Cable Passing Out, 1865-66

Launching the Buoy from the Bow of the Great Eastern on August 8th, 1865, 1865-66

Getting Out One of the Great Buoys: The Deck of the Great Eastern Looking From

View of the Interior of One of the Tanks on Board the Great Eastern, 1865-66

View, Looking Aft, from the Port Paddle Box of the Great Eastern, Showing the Trough

Deck of the Great Eastern, the Cable Trough, etc. 1866, 1865-66

News Received Through the Atlantic Cable From All Parts of the World, etc. 1866

The breaking of the Atlantic Cable on board the Great Eastern, August 2, 1865, (1901)

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British engineer, 1857. Artist: Robert Howlett

The laying of the transatlantic telegraph cable, August 8th, 1866. Artist: Robert Dudley

$Isambard Kingdom Brunel beside the Great Eastern, c1857. Brunel (1806-1859) proposed to the Eastern Steam Navigation Company the construction of a steamship five or six times the size of any then in use. It would use two forms of power: paddle-wheels and screw-engines. Constructed from iron at Millwall, London, between 1853 and 1858, the Great Eastern was the largest vessel afloat until she was broken up in 1888. Only in 1899 were her dimensions exceeded by the SS Oceanic. The Great Eastern was not a success as a passenger vessel and was sold for a fraction of her building cost. She was used as a cable-laying ship, most notably laying the Transatlantic telegraph cable in 1865-1866$