A Talk by Ian Caskie from the SS Great BritainTrust

Brunel’s SS Great Britain is one of the most important historic ships in the world.
When she was launched in 1843, she was called ‘the greatest experiment since the Creation’.

No one had ever designed so vast a ship, nor had the vision to build it of iron. Brunel fitted her with a 1000 hp steam engine, the most powerful yet used at sea. Perhaps most daring of all, Brunel rejected using conventional paddle wheels to drive his ship. Instead, he gave the SS Great Britain a screw propeller. This was the newest invention in maritime technology. By seeing how to combine these key innovations, Brunel created a ship that changed history.

In 1886, storms off Cape Horn badly damaged the SS Great Britain and forced her Capitan, Henry Stap, to seek shelter in the Falkland Islands, the first port of refuge. The ship’s owners decided the cost of repairs was far too high and eventually, their insurers sold the SS Great Britain to the Falkland Islands Company.

Despite ferocious gales, an expert salvage team managed to refloat the SS Great Britain on 13th April 1970. The SS Great Britain crossed the Atlantic sitting on a huge floating pontoon pulled by tugs. This amazing salvage brought her 8,000 miles home to her birth place in Bristol.

The Speaker: Ian Caskie
Ian was born and raised on Merseyside, where he spent many an hour watching the arrivals and departures at Liverpool’s busy Pier Head in the 1950’s and 60’s. This led to his lifelong passion for ships – especially ocean liners. He was a Primary Head Teacher and School Improvement Adviser in Bristol for many years, and has been a Visitor Services volunteer with the SS Great Britain Trust since 2007.

Ian’s enthusiasm for his subject is clearly evidenced in his illustrated talk which tells the ship’s remarkable story from her original design through the different phases of her working life. It also describes her incredible salvage and return to Bristol in 1970, and finally her restoration, preservation and ‘re-launch’ as a multi-award-winning museum of international renown.

In building SS Great Britain, the second of his three great ships, Brunel successfully combined and adapted the very best of cutting-edge technologies to create the world’s first transatlantic liner – a true wonder of the Victorian age. She was the first ocean-going steamship with an iron hull, and the first driven by a propeller. This extraordinary ship, launched in 1843 as the largest and fastest afloat, transformed shipbuilding and sea travel forever.