The Voyages of the Great Britain, Life at Sea in the World's First Liner

Publisher: Chatham Publishing, 2002 £ 20 .

When built, in 1843, Brunel’s iron, propeller-driven ship was the largest ever.  Her first captain was somewhat incompetent and a severe grounding on her fifth voyage bankrupted the Great Western Steamship Company.  New owners put her on the Australian run at the time of the Ballarat gold rush.  She made thirty-two such voyages usually returning via Cape Horn.  A comfortable, well-run, popular ship she carried the ancestors of some quarter of a million Australians and England’s first, touring, Cricket XI.  She served as a troopship in the Crimean War and Indian Mutiny.  Her engine was removed in 1881 and as a sailing ship she took coal to California, returning with grain.  On the third voyage she suffered storm-damage off Cape Horn and became a coal-storage hulk in the Falklands.  H.M.S. Invincible was refuelling alongside in 1914 when von Spee’s squadron was sighted.  In 1970 she was returned to the dock at Bristol in which she was built. 

This is a fascinating, well-researched, social history of the times and of her crew and passengers but technical detail is rather vague.  The illustrations include early photographs.  - JLC

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