With the advent of telephonic
communication cables were being laid to link continents and
considerable experience had been gained during the laying
of some short ocean cables. There had always been a dream
to lay a cable between Europe and the United States and in
1864 the Atlantic cable project was revived. Because of her
size and the relative stability she could provide the Great
Eastern was chosen for the task. The 18,915grt vessel was
equipped with three cylindrical tanks to hold 2000 nautical
miles of cable. The machinery required to pay out the cable
and the dynamometer which enabled a brakesman to maintain
an even strain on the cable was was situated aft. Machinery
for recovering broken cable was situated forward which meant
that there had to be laborious manhandling of the cable from
forward to aft and vise versa to rectify defects.
In May1865 the Great Eastern
took on 1,395 nautical miles of cable at Sheerness in Kent
and headed towards Valentia near Bantry Bay in Ireland. On
23rd July she headed out across the Atlantic Ocean for Hearts
Content in Newfoundland to start laying the transatlantic
cable. Ten days later on 2nd August and approximately half
way across, the cable was lost. Attempts were made to recover
the cable but without success and the ship returned to Crookhaven.
A second attempt was not made
until 1866 when, after taking on coal at Bereshaven, the Great
Eastern sailed from Valentia towards Heart Content. On 22nd
July 1866 the halfway mark was passed and on 27th July the
ship arrived in Newfoundland and the first transatlantic cable
had been successfully laid. A few days later she sailed from
Hearts Content and returned to the point where the first cable
had been lost After grappling 330 times the cable was recovered
and buoyed off.
In 1867 the Great Eastern briefly
reverted back to carrying passengers and on one voyage which
departed from Liverpool for New York on 26th March 1967 the
writer Jules Verne and his brother Paul were among the 123
passengers.
An engraving from a 19th century book depicting the Great
Eastern in a storm off Cape Clear
(K.Fenwick Collection)
However, such was her success
as a cable layer that she was converted back to cable laying
and, in 1869, chartered to the French Telegraphic Company
to lay the French transatlantic cable. On or about 20th June
1869 she sailed from Brest and on the 22nd day arrived at
Miquelin where the cable was spliced to the shore cable The
Great Eastern returned to Portland, England from where, in
November 1869, she sailed to Bombay, a voyage which lasted
83 days. On 14th February, 1870, she began laying a cable
between Bombay and Aden, a task that was completed in 2 weeks.
Her last transatlantic cable
was laid from west to east in 1874. Sailing from Hearts Content
on 26th August,1874, she proceeded to Valentia where she arrived
14 days later. Between 1865 and 1874 the Great Eastern laid
five transatlantic cables and repaired four of them in mid
ocean. However, by 1874 the charterers, Telegraph Construction
and Maintenance Co., had ordered a purpose built cable ship,
the Faraday, and, as a result the Great Eastern and was paid
off and 'mothballed' until, in 1886, she was sold at auction
and, for a short period, became a floating fair.
In the autumn of 1886 she was
towed to Dublin where she stayed for a short time before being
moved to Greenock. In 1887 she was sold at auction to ship
breakers who moved her to Liverpool where in May 1889 the
breaking up commenced, a process which lasted for 18 months.
However, there was one final drama for the Great Eastern before
the dismantling was completed in 1890; a body was discovered
in the double bottom.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel will
always be remembered for his achievements not least, his three
'great' ships. Without his vision it is possible that the
development of the ship in terms of size may have been considerably
slower. The Great Britain, now permanently berthed in Bristol,
is a fitting memorial to an engineer who saw the potential
and constantly strove to achieve it. The shipping world has
a lot to thank Brunel for.
Painting by E.Weeden entitled 'Der Leviathan'
(Hamburg-Information, Hamburg)
We have briefly recounted
the story of Brunel and his three "great" ships
but for more about the man read the first biography to portray
Brunel how he really was. Adrian Vaughan's book reveals not
just an engineer of genius, a born actor and a courageous
leader, but also a man who was obstinate, unjust, dictatorial
and, in the end, paranoid.-
Isambard Kingdom Brunel - by Adrian Vaughan
HOME