She was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), for the Great Western Steamship Company's transatlantic service between Bristol and New York City.

[2] But her protracted construction time of six years (1839–1845) and high cost had left her owners in a difficult financial position, and they were forced out of business in 1846, having spent all their remaining funds refloating the ship after she ran aground at Dundrum Bay in County Down near Newcastle in what is now Northern Ireland, after a navigation error.

Brunel dispatched his associates Christopher Claxton and William Patterson to make a return voyage to Antwerp on Rainbow to assess the utility of the new building material.

The practical limit on the length of a wooden-hulled ship is about 300 ft (91 m), after which hogging—the flexing of the hull as waves pass beneath it—becomes too great.

Boys of the City School and girls of Red Maids were stationed in a neat orderly formation down the entire length of the Exchange.

The Prince Consort, dressed as a private gentleman, was accompanied by his equerry-in-waiting, personal secretary, the Marquess of Exeter, and Lords Wharncliffe, Liverpool, Lincoln and Wellesley.

[11] At noon, the Prince arrived at the Great Western Steamship yard only to find the ship already "launched" and waiting for royal inspection.

Unfortunately, the steam packet Avon had started to tow the ship into the harbour and the bottle fell about 10 feet (3.0 m) short of its target and dropped unbroken into the water.

The tow rope snapped and, due to the resultant delay, the Prince was obliged to return to the railway station and miss the end of the programme.

Only the seamanship of Captain Claxton - who after naval service held the position of quay warden (harbour master) at Bristol - enabled her to be pulled back and severe structural damage avoided.

[22] Brunel, anxious to ensure the avoidance of hogging in a vessel of such unprecedented size, designed the hull to be massively redundant in strength.

Safety features, which also contributed to the structural strength of the vessel, included a double bottom and five watertight iron bulkheads.

[23][26] Steam power was provided by three 34-foot (10 m) long by 22-foot (6.7 m) high by 10-foot (3.0 m) wide, 5 psi (34 kPa) "square" saltwater boilers, forward of the engines, with eight furnaces each – four at each end.

On the crankshaft between Great Britain's two engines, he installed an 18-foot (5.5 m) diameter primary gearwheel,[30] which, by means of a set of four massive inverted-tooth or "silent" chains, operated the smaller secondary gear near the keel, which turned the propeller shaft.

[31] Great Britain's main propeller shaft, built by the Mersey Iron Works, was the largest single piece of machinery.

[35] The overall finish of the passenger quarters was unusually restrained for its time, a probable reflection of the proprietors' diminishing capital reserves.

[40] In her second season of service in 1846, Great Britain successfully completed two round trips to New York at an acceptable speed, but was then laid up for repairs to one of her chain drums, which showed an unexpected degree of wear.

Embarking on her third passage of the season to New York, her captain made a series of navigational errors that resulted in her being run hard aground in Dundrum Bay on the northeast coast of Ireland on 22 September.

After languishing in Prince's Dock, Liverpool for some time, she was sold to Gibbs, Bright & Co., former agents of the Great Western Steamship Company, for a mere £25,000.

The ship, with a crew of 143, put out from Liverpool on 21 October 1861, carrying 544 passengers (including the English cricket team that was the first to visit Australia), a cow, 36 sheep, 140 pigs, 96 goats and 1,114 chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys.

[53] Her passengers and crew witnessed a total solar eclipse in 1865 while passing the coastline of Brazil en route from Australia to England;[54][better source needed] they were able to observe stars in the daytime.

On 8 October 1868 The Argus reported "To-day, at daylight, the fine steamship Great Britain will leave her anchorage in Hobson's Bay, for Liverpool direct.

[64] After a fire on board en route she was found, on arrival at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands where she ran aground, to be damaged beyond economic repair.

[62][65] She was sold to the Falkland Islands Company and used, afloat, as a storage hulk (coal bunker) until 1937, when she was towed to Sparrow Cove, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Port Stanley, scuttled and abandoned.

[67] In the Second World War, some of her iron was scavenged to repair HMS Exeter, one of the Royal Navy ships that fought Graf Spee and was badly damaged during the Battle of the River Plate.

[87][88] Perhaps the most memorable moment for the crowds that lined the final few miles was her passage under the Clifton Suspension Bridge, another Brunel design.

She waited for two weeks in the Cumberland Basin for a tide high enough to get her back through the locks to the Floating Harbour and her birthplace, the dry dock in the Great Western Dockyard (now a Grade II* listed building, disused since bomb damage in the Second World War).

[89] The recovery and subsequent voyage from the Falklands to Bristol were depicted in the 1970 BBC Chronicle programme, The Great Iron Ship.

The chairman of the judging panel, Professor Robert Winston, commented:[99] SS Great Britain got our unanimous vote for being outstanding at every level.

It combines a truly groundbreaking piece of conservation, remarkable engineering and fascinating social history plus a visually stunning ship above and below the water line.