Finished with engines

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hello Bob

How did you manage to get the dishing effect in the hull plating?

Shame about the rust though perhaps you should use a better paint next time as I am sure that Brunel would not have tolerated such a lived in appearance on his maiden voyage 

Paul

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Paul

Hello Paul

Thanks for having another  look at the Great Eastern gallery

The dishing effect was due to one plate overlapping two plates, like a bridge effect. The PVA having softened the card….stuck itself to the hull……..as simple as that!

I often wonder about that boat………What a tremendous achievement?………..For instance…..how did they get the 20 ton engines in?…………Impossible!

And another mystery……….How could they afford the constant ongoing costs?

Please enlighten me?

Bob

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hi Bob

The history of the Great Eastern is quite fascinating.

The building costs bankrupt the shipyard that built it and almost drove Brunel into poverty, the investors who put up the money for the build never saw a decent return as the ship never achieved its goal of taking passengers to the Far East.

The running costs were so high that without a full compliment of paying passengers it became uneconomical to sail her.

The ship had one commercial use and that was to lay a transatlantic cable and it turned out that the combination of propeller and paddle wheel made her very stable in heavy seas and so ideal for cable laying.

She ended her days as a floating advertising board on the Mersey in Liverpool (advertising pies of all things)

I don’t know about the engines but I suspect that, like the Titanic, they were first built and tested in the workshop then taken apart and reassembled within the hull as the ship was being built. But I shall have to check out that assumption.

Paul

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thank you Paul

It`s worth mentioning that the Far East destinations were scuppered………because Great Eastern was too big to pass through the SUEZ CANAL! 

 Bob

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hi Bob

Slight problem with your Suez theory

The Great Eastern was launched on January 31st 1858.  A full 11 years before the Suez Canal was opened.

The Great Eastern was 211 m (692 ft) long, 25 m (83 ft) wide, with a draft of 6.1 m (20 ft) The Suez Canal is 60m (198 ft) wide and so could easily accomodate 2 ships such as the Great Eastern passing side by side.

Furher to our last chat I have found out that the company decided she would be more profitable on the Southhampton to New York run run, and she was outfitted accordingly. Her eleven-day maiden voyage began on June 17th 1860 with 35 paying passengers (so not cost effective)

Due to the non appearance of the expected cross Atlantic trade the vessel was sold for £25,000 (her build cost has been estimated at £500,000) and converted into a cable-laying ship. Funnel no. 4 and some boilers were removed as well as great parts of the passenger rooms and saloons to give way to open top tanks for taking up the coiled cable. In 1865 she laid 2,600miles of the transatlantic cable, from 1866 to 1878 the ship laid over 26,000 miles of submarine telegraph cable.

She was broken up for scrap at Rock Ferry on the Mersey in 1889–1890 —it took 18 months to take her apart.

There is an ironic tie to the Titanic in that the ship suffered an accident similar to that of the Titanic but did not sink. She scraped on an uncharted rock needle (afterwards named the Great Eastern Rock) opening a gash in the outer hull over 9 feet wide and 83 feet long. However, the inner hull was unbroken, and she made her way into New York the next day under her own steam. Nobody was hurt, indeed the passengers never even knew what had happened. A smaller rip sank the Titanic. The enormous size of the Great Eastern precluded the use of any drydock repair facility in the US and so a plan was devised to build a watertight cofferdam. The repairs took 5 months.

Here ends the history lesson

Paul

PS If you want to see a piece of the Great Eastern then travel to Liverpools football ground because at the time that she was being broken up the football club were looking for a flag pole so they bought the top mast. It is still there today at the Kop end

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Paul….Your up late?………Gerrup them stairs!

I have read somewhere that the Great Eastern could not pass through the Suez Canal……..and that`s that!

I know your calcs appear to prove me wrong……..Shortly, I`ll have the evidence………btw…..Any locks on the canal?

All the best………………….Bobrunel

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Good Morning Captain Bob

In answer to your last question there are no locks on the Suez Canal as the Mediterranean is at the same level as the Gulf of Suez (Red Sea) and the land between is flat.

However I had uncovered some conflicting information regarding the Suez Canal and the Great Eastern as follows:

Extract from Port Cities LONDON http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.61/chapterId/1244/The-Great-Eastern-as-a-passenger-liner.html

The recent opening of the Suez Canal meant that the long sea route to India around the bottom of Africa was now uneconomical. This would not have mattered had the Great Eastern been able to use the canal. Unfortunately, though, the ship was too wide to go through!

Needless to say that there is a problem somewhere along the line and seeing that the ship remained unchanged then I shall have to further investigate the construction of the canal.

Meanwhile here is a nice picture of the Great Eastern

Paul

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Good morning Paul…….

You`re bright and early this morning……….Hope you`re feeling a little better today

Think I can smell eggs again!!!!………………..lol

I`ve seen this ptcture before and also a photo of the same view…….the photo shows the Rudder Wheels housed in a shed

Note the square openings down below

I`ve found an eching showing how the engines were loaded into the hull….with a primitive crane…..and it`s in the GE gallery this morning

 Bye……………Bob

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

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