2012

Here's a look down through the glass. The red thing you see is the rudder.

Here's a shot further back. The way it's displayed is reasonably convincing from a distance, in that it looks like it's still in the water.

Unfortunately, having been abandoned from the 1930's to the 1970's, and having been run into the ground (literally) before that, the S.S. Great Britain is in such bad condition that preservationists have given up hope of relaunching it. The hull is riddled with rust holes, in spite of repainting, dehumidifiers in the drydock, and so on. I noted that the Great Britain's condition was much worse than the Olympia's, and by a wide margin. I think this is something the Olympia's custodians should bear in mind, that the Great Britain was preserved in spite of its condition.

This is the propellor. However, this one's a replica of the original, which was not used for very long. The reason it was replaced was that it had too much pull for the alloys of the time, and tended to damage itself. The engine was also not quite powerful enough for it. The rudder is also a replacement, as the original is in extremely bad condition.

This is the Caisson of the drydock, which is a real one, but is actually backed by concrete to both preserve it, and protect the S.S. Great Britain from an implosion. As I already said, the custodians of the Great Britain have no plans to relaunch it.

This is the ship's bell, although I don't know if it's original. It looks worn enough to be real, though.

This is the anchor winch, if I'm not mistaken. It isn't connected to anything, and it isn't clear if it was steam powered. More information would be interesting.

These are some of the gears in the engine, which is turned over by an electric motor for display purposes. The engine is actually not original, as the original was lost when the ship was converted to a sailing ship in 1881. The new engine is a replica that appears operable, but which actually is a very convincing fake. It was constructed and financed by a coalition of companies and charities that included Rolls Royce.

Here's the helm, presumably no longer connected.

This is the sick bay. They chose to make it a far less disgusting display than would be realistic. The blue cast is, I think, a result of the lighting, which isn't original. While the Great Britain had a higher level of technology than the typical 1840's hotel, electric lighting simply wasn't made yet. In all likelihood, the original oil lamps wouldn't have caused the blue cast.

To correct the blue cast, I fiddled with the photo a bit in Gimp, with only limited luck. The auto levels feature didn't work, so I tried to do it manually. It probably could still use some tweaking.

This is the deck immediately below the topside. The plaques claimed these were the first class cabins, although they seem very numerous for first class. On the other hand, the lower decks haven't been preserved (see my later photos for details). In all likelihood, these cabins would have been a small percentage of the ship's capacity.

This cabin doesn't look first class, but it is one of the ones on the corridor shown earlier. It may have been that first class didn't provide a huge amount of space. In reality, all passengers on the Great Britain would have enjoyed far more comfort than on other ships of the time.

Here's another view of the engine. It looks absolutely real, but isn't.

The propeller on the S.S. Great Britain wasn't directly driven, as the engine was mounted transversely. This was probably a legacy of the design being changed during construction, from a paddlewheeler to a screw steamer. As a result, a Brunel (the designer) had to devise a chain drive. When his steam engine was replicated for the S.S. Great Britain's restoration, this had to be replicated as well, and here's part of it. The flywheel is one of the biggest single parts of the ship.

Here you can see the flywheel in motion, with the Brunel-style chain wrapped around it. The Clifton Suspension Bridge (which I posted photos of earlier) used similar chains, in spite of the application being quite different.

Here's another, sharper view of the flywheel. When I took these pictures, everything was in motion, so I presume my shutter was faster in Pictures 25 and 27 than in Picture 26.

Here's a variation of the connecting rod photo I took earlier.