After breakfast we drove the 20 odd miles to Bristol. On our last trip we passed through the place and saw the SS Great Britain in its resting place on the Severn River and decided at some point in the future we would go and check it out. So todays that point!

Danger, danger, history warning........

When completed in 1845, Great Britain was a revolutionary vessel built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel—the first ship to combine an iron hull with screw propulsion, and at 322 ft (98 m) in length and with a 3,400-ton displacement, more than 100 ft (30 m) longer and 1,000 tons larger than any ship previously built. Her beam was 50 ft 6 in (15.39 m) and her height from keel to main deck, 32 ft 6 in (9.91 m). She had four decks, including the spar (upper deck), a crew of 120, and was fitted to accommodate a total of 360 passengers, along with 1,200 tons of cargo and 1,200 tons of coal for fuel.

This is a photo taken in 1845 by one of the founders of photography, William Fox Talbot.

Here she is 166 years later after a working life of over 90 years in the same dock in Bristol in which she was built.

Instead of plagiarising all of wikipedia here is the link.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Britain

From above the ship looks as though she is floating in the dock, but she is in fact in dry dock, the water you can see is only 6 inches deep sandwiched between sheets of glass, this forms a roof for the humidified area below and gives the false impression.

First class accommodation, with 2 foot wide bunks...

Another new hat, call me Sir Peter......

Iron plates with pre stamped rivet holes, and the clinker construction, the build was so good that there was no caulking between the plates and the ship was completely watertight for a working life of over 90 years.