Beck asked: How old is the ship? What did the crew eat? How heavy is the anchor? How heavy is the ship?
Dear beck,
We started building the ship in 1839, but it was more than five years before she made her first voyage, so I would put her age at 163 years. The crew were fed from the same kitchen (sailors call it the galley) as all the passengers, but I do not suppose they had the best food. We used to eat quite a lot of meat, and that was the main item, along with bread, cheese and a limited supply of vegetables. Puddings were quite heavy going too, with a lot of flour and suet. It probably sounds rather heavy to you, but the sailors flourished on it. They needed a lot of nourishment as they did heavy work. Because the Great Britain was a fast steamship, she did not stay so long at sea as sailing ships, which could take many weeks to cross the Atlantic. Consequently, they had much more fresh food than on other ships, which used a lot of salted beef and pork. Of course there were no refrigerators in those days.
The ships anchors weighed a little under four tonnes - you can see one of on the dock by the ship. They were of an unusual type, called Trotman anchors after the designer. These were found to be the most effective in trials carried out by the Admiralty when the ship was being built.
The ship on her own, completely empty, weighed just under 2000 tonnes, but by the time you had loaded her up with 1100 tonnes of coal for the engines, and all the equipment, furniture and baggage, she weighed over 3600 tonnes.
With up to 300 people on board, they would have added more than 40 tonnes!
Yours
IKB
21 February 2008
Tel asked: Where did the Captain have his quarters?
Dear tel,
The Captain's quarters were part of the first-class passengers accommodation, on the promenade deck (that is, the deck just below the weather, or upper, deck). He had to be able to respond quickly if an emergency occurred, so his day cabin, where he did much of his work, including navigating the ship, and his sleeping cabin were adjacent to one of the small winding stairways which led to the deck above. His quarters were at the fore end of the great saloon, and so were next to the engine, so they must have been a little noisy. On the other hand there would always be ample warmth coming through from the engines. The rooms were not very spacious by modern standards, I believe, but they were considered very comfortable by the first Captain, Mr Hosken, who had been very successful in command of our first steamship, the Great Western.
On the ship today you can the cabins much as they originally were, although the Captain whom you see there is Hosken's successor, Matthews.
Yours
IKB
21 January 2008
Roy asked: How was the ss Great Britain refloated from Dundrum Bay in Northen Ireland?
Dear Roy,
It was a great challenge, I can tell you! There are several books which give a full description of how it was done, such as Dr Ewan Corlett's "The Iron Ship" (an admirable book), but in brief, it was like this:
To save the ship from further damage, the Captain had driven her high up on the sandy beach, and I had ordered the building of a vast protective fence round the stern, which would save the ship from the pounding of the winter storms. As much weight as possible was removed from the ship - anything moveable was taken off to lighten her and make the refloating easier.
Several of the iron plates on the ship's bottom were damaged, and these had to be repaired somehow before we could pump out the hull. We had long debates on how this was to be done, and all sorts of crackpots offered us their solutions - some of them were quite hilarious! Eventually we appointed a Mr Bremner, an experienced Scottish engineer, to carry out the job, and he was a very able man. He used a system of very large weighted boxes to help lift the ship, so that, at low tide, they could dig under the ship and put temporary covering plates in place and secure them. It was a tedious job which took many months, but eventually he was able to start the refloating.
A channel was dug in the sand out to the open sea, and the hull was pumped out until she started to float. The Royal Navy provided steamships to pull on the ship as soon as she was afloat, so as to get her into deep water before the tide fell again. It sounds quite straightforward, put like that, I know, but in truth it was a difficult and desperate business, and I believe Mr Bremner's skill and determination won the day. The ship was taken to Liverpool and was found to be quite sound. This was very gratifying, as many had said that we had over-reached ourselves in building such a great ship.
I hope you will find time to study the salvage in more detail. Good luck!
Yours
IKB
4 December 2007
Grisher asked: Why did your ship sink and how many men worked on all your inventions?
Dear Grisher,
I am proud to say none of my ships actually sank. I expect you refer to the grounding of the Great Britain on the coast of Ireland, at Dundrum Bay. I still cannot fathom how Captain Hosken could have made such a blunder. He was fortunate to hit the bottom at a place where the rocks were not too terrible, but the force stove in some of the bottom plating, so he was right to put the ship aground safely on a sandy patch, from which all the passengers could be safely put ashore. It took a very long time and a great deal of expense to refloat such a large ship, but once the water had been prevented from coming in, she was safely refloated and taken back to Liverpool for repairs. A wooden ship in those circumstances would, I believe, have been dashed to pieces before three months were out.
Why did this happen. Put simply, Captain Hosken maintained a course to pass to the South of the Isle of Man far too long - in fact long after the island was safely astern. He gave the inadequacy of the chart as a reason why he did not turn Northwards when he should have done, but I cannot see how his estimate of the distance run after leaving Liverpool could possibly have justified holding for so long. The whole thing remains a mystery.
You ask how many people worked on my "inventions". If you include all the building projects for railways, bridges, ships, and so on, the total must be many thousands. To build the Great Western Railway, for instance, required many hundreds of men called "navigators", mostly from Ireland, to clear the route, including smoothing out all the slopes to make them suitable for steam trains, to prepare the track bed, lay the iron rails, build stations and other buildings, and to construct the locomotives and carriages or wagons which made up the trains. Even to design all these required a staff of dozens, and I kept a very strict control over all these activities. You will readily see that it took a prodigious amount of work to carry out these tasks. Fortunately, I numbered some very able men among my assistants, some of whom later became famous in their own right, such as Mr Brereton, Mr Froude and others, and I also numbered some of the greatest engineers of the day among my friends and colleagues.
I hope this gives you some idea of the people who worked with me on my projects and inventions
Yours sincerely
IKB
28 November 2007
Paxo asked: What were you doing at the age of 10 years old? Who were your friends? What was it like growing up in the 1800's?
Dear Paxo,
At the age of ten I lived with my father, mother and two older sisters in a small house near the river in Chelsea. In those days there was no embankment along the side of the River Thames, and my friends and I could play down on the river bank and watch all the passing boats - people used the river as a thoroughfare much more in those days. We were carefree, but my poor father suffered misfortune after misfortune, and money became very short.
I received ordinary schooling at home, but my father had detected an aptitude for technical matters at an early age. I could read at the age of four years, and my father taught me Euclid (or geometry, as you would say nowadays) at eight years, and I learned much more by watching him at his work.
I must have been just over ten when I was sent to a boarding school at Hove, in Sussex, to be taught Latin and Greek and the classical stories. I quite enjoyed that, because I was interested in just about everything, but I also put into practice some of the things my father had taught me. On one occasion, some builders had left their construction in an unsafe condition on the other side of the street from our school. I noticed this, and told my friends. When the house fell down the next day, they were deeply impressed.
After that I went to France to learn more about technical matters, which was wonderful, but I still remember with affection the years of my boyhood in Chelsea.
Yours sincerely
IKB
19 November 2007
Catsteve asked: were you ever rich? Did all your work make you a rich man?
Dear catsteve,
What is rich? It depends on your point of view. Certainly I earned a lot of money, particularly from promoters of railway schemes, who employed me to frame their proposals in a way which would ensure that Parliament would give the permission they needed to drive a railway across land belonging to many people (including some very influential individuals). On the other hand I did many schemes for nothing, or nearly so, if I considered them worthwhile.
In Queen Victoria's times, people used to judge wealth by the property you owned. I had a handsome house in Mayfair, and later bought the house next door so that I could live in one and use the other as offices, but I had no great country house and estate. In my last years, I did buy property near Torquay, in Devon, and derived much pleasure from designing a house to be built there. Sadly, it was never completed.
I can only say that I was well enough endowed with worldly goods, but I was indeed rich in having such a wife and family, and in having the privilege of undertaking so many great schemes of engineering. My father sometimes struggled to make ends meet, and you may know that at one period he was cast into prison as a debtor. I counted myself a very fortunate man.
Yours sincerely
IKB
13 November 2007
Josh asked: who saved Isambard from drowning when the thames tunnel flooded in 1828?
Dear Josh,
What an awful night that was! Needless to say, in January the incoming water was icy enough to take one's breath away, and the violence with which the river broke in meant that we were carried willy-nilly towards the access shaft on the Surrey side. I paused by one of the arches where I could seize a hanging rope to prevent myself being carried further, to see that everyone was able to escape. Very soon the water rose until I was out of my depth and forced to swim to the the stairs in the access shaft, and in so doing was carried against the timber so hard that my knee was quite badly hurt. All the same, the rising water lifted me upwards, and those already on the stairs up to the surface were able to help me onto the stairs and up to the surface. I believe Mr Beamish put it about that he had saved me, and it may have been his helping hand, but I do not have a clear recollection. I can only say I was very glad of help, but I believe I could with some difficulty have reached safety unaided.
Yours truly
IKB
19 October 2007
Harriett asked: what did you feel like when you built bridges?
Dear Harriett,
Thank you for your question. Bridges are wonderful things, and I was always excited by the challenge of designing and building a new one. Every one is different, and of course they are all pretty huge. They have to be strong enough to withstand any load they are expected to carry, as well as looking handsome.
The first really big bridge I designed was the one over the Avon Gorge, near Bristol. The gorge has very steep rocky sides, and it is a very long drop to the river below. My design had towers on each side supporting two very strong chains with iron links. The actual roadway hangs from these chains.
The whole effect is very elegant, even though it is very strong. During the construction we had a strong rope across the gap with a little box about the size of a wheelbarrow hanging from it which had ropes from each side so that it could be pulled across. I remember sitting in the box and being pulled across. It was most exciting!
Yours sincerely
IKB
12 October 2007
Kane and Honesty asked: What was it like escaping from the tunnel?
Dear Kane and Honesty,
How well I recall the flooding of my father's tunnel! There were, of course, two floodings. We were always anxious when driving the tunnel forward through soft ground, so it was really no surprise when water started leaking in as the tide rose in Thames above. We had 160 men working in the tunnel, and such a torrent of slush and water suddenly came in that the men were rolled over and swept back to the mouth of the tunnel. They had only just started to climb up towards the surface when the huge wave rolled back, taking some of the men with them. The old engineman who tended the pumps was right down at the bottom of the shaft and I seized a rope and climbed down to bring him up. Eventually we mustered everyone and no-one was missing.
The second time we were not so fortunate. I was at the work face when the
earth suddenly bulged and a rush of mud and water shot out. I ordered all the
men on the drilling shield to leave, but I and the three men who were last
to leave were knocked down by the increasing rush of water and I swam and
was carried to the mouth of the tunnel, injuring my knee quite badly. I
managed with difficulty to climb onto the stairs up to the surface, but the
three men with me were unable to escape the rising water and were lost, as
well as two older man and one youngster in another part of the working. At the
time my only thoughts were to escape and to save the men and I hardly noticed
my injured leg, but afterwards it turned out to be a toublesome injury,
whose effects stayed with me for the rest of my life, as did the memory of
those men who did not escape. The flooding was a great tragedy, as well as a
disaster in the construction of the tunnel. Those who said it could not
be done believed they had been proved right, but in the end we found a way
to complete the task.
Yours
IKB
20 August 2007
Candygirl asked: Was the ship really abandoned?
Dear Candygirl,
Abandoned? I suppose she was in the end. As you may know, some 43 years after she was launched at Bristol, she was badly damaged while carrying a cargo of coal round the notorious Cape Horn. The nearest port was Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, and Captain Stap made for shelter airs there, but the cost of repair was excessive, and Messrs Gibbs, the owners, sold her to be used a floating store in the harbour. A sad end for one of the most remarkable ships ever built, one very dear to my heart. She served that purpose for nearly 50 years before she was thought to be so old and rusted that she was in danger of sinking in the harbour. To prevent this happening, she was taken out and sunk in very shallow water in a sandy bay where the island people used to go out and visit her on weekend picnics. It was a desolate place though, and at that stage she was certainly abandoned. She lay there for 30 years, right through the Second World War, before she was rescued and brought back to show everybody what brilliant ships we Victorians built!
Yours
IK Brunel
13 July 2007
Khalid asked: How did you come up with making the suspension bridge?
Can you speak different languages?
Did you get married?
When is your birthday?
Can you do magic tricks?
Do you like sweets?
Do you like reading books?
Dear Khalid,
I am delighted you are so interested in learning about me, and the things I did. I will do my best to answer your questions. Your first question was about the suspension bridge over the Avon gorge at Clifton. The first iron bridges had been made of cast iron, and they had very heavy and rigid structures, which I believe made it an unsuitable design for the gorge. My good friend Thomas Telford, whom I much admired, had built a splendid suspension bridge over the Menai strait in North Wales, using wrought iron chains, and this seemed the best way. Sadly the bridge was never completed as I had designed it, with some fine architectural features, but it was finished and has stood the test of time. My facility in languages is limited, but of course I was fluent in French, which was my father's first language. You may know I was sent to France at the age of fourteen for an important part of my education. I had only slight knowledge of other languages.
I was born in Portsmouth on 9th April, 1806, and I married Miss Mary Horsley, the sister of a great friend, in 1836, on 5th July. I had some facility with "magic" tricks, with which I sometimes entertained my children and their friends, but on one occasion I got into trouble by swallowing a half-sovereign (50p in your money) which I had caused to "disappear". It became lodged in my throat for several days, and I had to design a special apparatus which turned me upside down to dislodge it!
I was fond of all kinds of food, and indeed I needed plenty of energy to sustain me as I worked very long hours, and I did eat sweets, though not a great many. In my day there was nothing like the variety of sweets you have nowadays - we only had things like sugared plums or almonds, or large boiled sweets.
I was fond of reading when I could find the time. Indeed it was essential to keep up with the latest literature when one was mixing with the leading people in every walk of life in London. The Misses Bronte were publishing their famous novels at the time, and of course Mr Dickens seemed to produce a new story as soon as one had finished the last!
Of course my life was very bound up with engineering and my family, but I'm glad to say I was able to enjoy life in London to the full.
Yours
IK Brunel
29 June 2007
Bethany asked: Where did the cooks kill the animals? Why did you paint the ship black?
Dear Bethany,
Thank you for your two excellent questions. The ship had a butcher, who used to kill the animals on deck, usually very early in the morning so that the passengers were not so disturbed by it. On deck there were hoses to wash away the blood and other waste, and scuppers (or drains) in the side of the deck so that everything was washed straight over the side. Of course the smaller creatures, like hens and ducks, were probably dealt with down below, as they did not present too much of a problem.
The reason for painting the ship black was very practical. Because the hull was made of iron it had to be painted, and black paint showed marks much less. In earlier days sailing ships often used tar to make the hull look smart, and to preserve the timber at the same time, so it had become an accepted custom to have a black hull. However, we painted white imitation gun-ports along the side, to discourage piratical vessels, though I doubt if they would have dared to tackle the world's largest ship! Indeed we carried several large guns on board to show she could defend herself.
Yours
IK Brunel
22 June 2007
Simpsons asked: What was it like in the South Atlantic ocean?
Dear Simpsons,
The South Atlantic, so my sea-going friends tell me, is a rather wild place.
If you look at a globe you will see that, whereas in the Northern hemisphere at, say, 50 degrees latitude, there are very large land masses, in the Southern hemisphere there is almost nothing to interrupt the West-to-East progress of the storms. As a result, there are many more stormy days down there, and a great deal of cloud, which, when the Great Britain was sailing, meant there were sometimes long periods when the Captain could not observe the sun, moon and stars to determine the ship's position. These waters were always difficult and dangerous. Their only advantage was that you could rely on mainly Westerly winds. This is why the Great Britain used to sail out to Australia across the Southern Indian Ocean, and return across the Southern Pacific. Round the tip of South America, at Cape Horn, was notorious for its stormy weather, and it was there that the Great Britain, as a sailing ship, was so badly damaged that she had to put back to the Falkland Islands, and was sold as a floating storeship. We were fortunate when the ship was being salvaged. Although there were some awful gales, they eased off to allow the salvage to be successful.
Yours
IK Brunel
15 June 2007
Walker asked: Did you build anything better than the ss Great Britain?
Dear Walker,
You have me in difficulty by your question, because what a man thinks is his best work usually depends on so many matters: the beauty and success of the result, the nature and scale of the difficulties which had to be overcome, even the harmony of the team with which he works, since nothing great is achieved by one person alone. On all these counts, the Great Britain rates very highly, but there were others: for the great railway from London to Bristol for instance, finding the very best route to avoid too many steep inclines, persuading all the landowners that they should allow it across their land, building the track, the engines and carriages, designing handsome stations to suit each place along the line, the great tunnel at Box - these took some of the best years of my life, and were crowned with success. Likewise my bridges. How do you compare such things? In the end, I must confess a deep affection for my ships, particularly the Great Britain, because although she was so huge (for her time) she seemed like a living thing of such strength and endurance as she carried thousands safely around the world. I truly think I never made anything better.
Yours truly
IK Brunel
8 June 2007
dj jamie asked: what would it be like if the ship was never built?
Dear dj jamie
I cannot claim that if we had never built the Great Britain there would never have been great iron steamships circling the whole world and opening up far countries to ordinary people who, unable to overcome the disadvantages of humble birth and poverty in the established societies of Europe, wanted to make a new start in new countries such as the United States and Australia. Eventually someone would have succeeded in building such vessels, but what we did with the Great Britain was to take the business of steam propulsion, which had been tried for forty years and more without great effect, and in one step to create a quite new kind of ship, far bigger than any previous steam vessel, built of iron for enduring strength, using a screw propeller which worked equally well in calm or rough seas, unlike the paddlewheels which had previously been employed. Because we did it as soon as the state of knowledge and manufacturing made it possible, the era of safe and reliable sea passages from continent to continent came in the 1840s and not twenty years later. This may not seem very much to you in 2007, but it altered the history of the world, and the consequences were tremendous.
Yours truly
IK Brunel
20 April 2007
Pricernator asked: How many people did it take to build the ss Great Britain?
Dear Pricernator,
It is difficult to give an accurate answer, even if we confine ourselves to those who actually worked at the Great Western Steamship Company's shipyard, and take no account of all those who worked on producing the iron plates and bars, the timber, and all the manufactured parts which were brought to the shipyard and installed on board. In the shipyard we had local men, as well as shipyard workers from Liverpool and Tyneside who had worked on iron ships before. They came and went as the work progressed, and the greatest number must have been employed about the beginning of 1843, when the hull was still being constructed, and in the workshops the parts for the great engine were being made and assembled. I remember the weekly wages bill about that time approached £400, so I would estimate the total number of men at about 240 in our direct employment.
Yours
IK Brunel
13 April 2007
Darcey asked: Why did you want your trains to be so fast?
Dear Darcey,
Railways were so different from the means of travelling which had been available before. Trains ran on a smooth set of rails, with nothing to obstruct their passage like gates or herds of cattle. With a steam engine to pull the train, you could make the engine as powerful as you needed, provided the expense was not too great. It was an opportunity to transform the way people and goods could move over long distances. Remember it would take a day or more to travel by a coach or on horseback from London to Bristol. Our trains could do it in about two hours. When Prince Albert came down to Bristol for the launching of the "Great Britain" he was able to travel down in the morning, carry out a number of engagements in Bath and Bristol, and return home to London the same day. They even had to alter the Bristol clocks to keep the same time as London once the railway was built.
Yours
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
6 April 2007
Darcey asked: How did you die?
Dear Darcey,
I will do my best to answer your melancholy question. After a busy life it was distressing to me in the early part of the year 1858 to find that my energy, both of mind and body, were much impaired. My doctors discovered that I had an affliction of the kidneys, called Bright's disease (In fact one of my doctors was Dr Bright, after whom the disease was named). As you will know, one's body cannot long function properly if the kidneys are not doing their job of removing all the harmful substances in the circulation, and I found it very difficult to complete all the work I had in hand, despite a long holiday in Egypt. My greatest concern was to see the "Great Eastern" finished, and a few days after her first trial voyage my end came as I lay surrounded by my family at the house we had taken in Sydenham, to be out of the hubbub of central London. The date was 15th September, 1859.
Yours
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
23 March 2007
Dan Da Man asked: Did you make anything good when you were 12?
Dear Dan Da Man
I was gratified to hear from you again, especially after revealing to you some small part of my inner secrets. In truth, I cannot recall anything particular that I achieved at the age of 12, but it must have been at about that age that I won a great reputation among my fellows in an unusual way.
My father had sent me to a boarding school at Hove. As I told you, I had learned to make careful drawings of interesting structures, and I made a sketch of a building which was being erected just opposite our school. I could tell, having observed the building carefully in order to make my drawing, that it was not well-constructed, so I told my form-mates that it would not stand for long. The next day, the building fell down, and my reputation for inside knowledge was made.
Yours
IKB
27 February 2007
Dan Da Man asked: Did you have any weird habits or do anything unusual?
Dear Dan Da Man
Many people accused me of weirdness, because in truth the matters which fascinated me were not those which most people enjoyed. Indeed I loved the outdoor life, riding and swimming like any other boy or young man, but from a very early age I wanted to understand how things were built, and what gave them strength. My father taught me geometry by the time I was eight, and from him I learned the habit of making drawings of what I observed. I wanted to be the best, so I practiced such things as drawing a perfect circle without the use of any instruments until I thought I could have given the famous artist Giotto a run for his money. I have to confess to one secret habit which you might consider "weird". When meeting or passing another person, even if I was riding home on a dark night, I held myself up very straight so that the other person would not think me of small stature. I know I was called "the little giant", but I would rather have been full sized!
Yours
IKB
Sammy asked: Did you like school or did you find it difficult to concentrate?
Dear Sammy,
What an interesting question! What I remember about my childhood is wanting to know everything. Of course my greatest love was for practical matters. My father taught me how to measure and draw buildings, so that you could understand why they had been built in a certain way - he taught me geometry when I was only eight years old. But we lived in London, meeting distinguished people with all kinds of interests, and I wanted to know about the things which interested them too. I think perhaps I felt that if I wanted to realise my ambition of being as great a man as my father, I would need to be able to meet and make friends with influential people, and I needed to understand the wider world, not just the mechanics of structures and machines, fascinating as those were.
I admit that perhaps, when I was sent off to a boarding school at Hove, not everything I was taught interested me greatly, but I can say that I never had any difficulty in concentrating in class - the ability to concentrate is one of the things which helped me to make a successful career. Naturally, I sometimes spent time dreaming of what might be, but I found my greatest satisfaction, day by day, in getting to the root of any and every question, and carrying all my plans into a successful conclusion.
My best wishes to you - I hope you enjoy learning as much as I did.
Yours sincerely
IK Brunel
23 February 2007
Mary asked: How wide is the ss Great Britain?
Dear Mary
My steamship Great Britain is 50ft 6ins wide, or 15.4metres in Napoleonic terms. This great width almost spelled disaster when we had to take the ship out of the Floating Harbour at Bristol, where she had been built. The Dock Company had, so we supposed, undertaken to widen the lock through which she had to pass, but had failed to do so. When we tried to take her out she stuck firmly, and my good friend and colleague Captain Claxton had to have her pulled back again quickly before the tide fell. We got her out on the next tide by taking all possible weight out of the ship so that she floated higher. Even then it was necessary to take away the top course of masonry from the sides of the lock to let her through, and the Dock Company had the impertinence to sue us for the cost of reinstating them. No wonder we decided to use the port of Liverpool thereafter!
Yours
IK Brunel
16 February 2007
The Dog Paw asked:
1.Who did you spend more time with you when you where younger? Your father or your mother?
2.Which of your constructions did you most enjoy?
Dear Dog Paw,
I had two older sisters, so perhaps it was natural that my father took a special interest in his only son. His hope was that I would follow his career as an engineer and inventor, and fortunately that was exactly what I showed an aptitude for, as well as great enthusiasm. In consequence, I suppose I spent somewhat more time with my father than with my mother, even before I was sent of to school in Hove and then to France. I must confess that my father and I had a few disagreements when I began to work with him, but we were always at one where the task in hand was concerned.
I enjoyed nearly all of the many projects I undertook. Because of the years of extremely hard work involved, the Great Western Railway must count among the projects which gave me the greatest satisfaction, but I particularly enjoyed those tasks where the design of a large structure to take heavy loads was required. My bridges, particularly the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, and my ships, allowed me to feel that I was using the most modern techniques and materials to accomplish what had never been done before, and some of my smaller projects, like the pre-fabricated hospital for soldiers wounded in the Crimean War, and the work on the Great Exhibition of 1851, gave me intense satisfaction.
Yours,
IK Brunel
1 February 2007
Dog Boy asked: Did you have any pets when you were younger?
Dear Dog Boy,
I always regretted that I never had a dog or a cat as a companion. As a boy we lived in the centre of London, and then I was sent away to school, first in Hove, and then in Paris. When I came home, aged seventeen, we had moved to the riverside village of Chelsea, where I would have been glad of a dog to share my swimming expeditions in the Thames. Later, when I toured the countryside surveying the routes for various great Railways, I would have welcomed a four-footed companion, but it was never to be.
With my best Wishes
IK Brunel
18 January 2007
JB Baby asked: Why did you build your projects? How many years did it take to build the suspension brige and the ss Great Britain? Did you like being 5 because I do?
Dear JB Baby,
I am delighted you like being 5, because I have very happy memories from when I was that age. We had just moved to London from Portsmouth, and my father was visited by many grand people in their carriages. You ask why I built the ships and bridges and so on. I was an engineer, and always tried to excel in making things better and more useful than ever before. I spent only quite a short time on the suspension bridge, because the gentlemen who had ordered it ran short of money. The bridge had to be finished by others, many years later. The Great Britain was exactly four years building, up to her launch. I am proud that she has lasted more than 160 years since then.
Your friend
IK Brunel
11 January 2007
DTF asked: what happened to the captain after beaching?
Dear DTF,
Words cannot express my feelings for that rascally Captain Hosken who stranded my beautiful ship on a desolate beach in Ireland. An official enquiry was ordered, but no convincing explanation for the disaster was given, other than excuses relating to a light-house on which he might have relied not being shown on his navigational chart, in consequence of it being out of date. No blame was attached to the Captain. I understand he subsequently resumed his career in the Royal Navy, and distinguished himself in the Crimean War, rising to the rank of Vice-Admiral!
Yours in some indignation
IKB
4 January 2007
EMZ asked: What does the S.S stand for in S.S Great Britain?
Dear EMZ,
There was great dispute in my day as to whether the "S.S." signified "steamship" or "screw ship", since the Great Britain was the first really large ship to use a screw propeller to drive her along. I have always used "S.S." in the first sense, that is to say to mean Steam Ship. You will find steam ships with paddle wheels referred to as "P.S.S." sometimes, and even occasionally I have seen "S.S.S." used to make it clear that it was a Screw Steam Ship.
Yours truly
IKB
7 December 2006
Wicked Ali_G asked: How many years did it take to build some of your projects (the suspension bridge)?
Dear Wicked Ali_G
I was much grieved by the length of time many of my tasks took. The Great Western Railway took more than twenty years of my life all told, and even the Great Britain was four years in the building. I was engaged on the suspension bridge for only a short time, until the promoters' money ran out. I had some good fun with the bridge, riding across the Avon Gorge on a wire, but the bridge was completed by others many years later.
My kind regards to you
IKB
30 Nov 2006
GIRLS ROCK and Rob asked: How did you get the idea of making the ss Great Britain?
My dear Girls Rock and Rob,
I had long entertained a desire to build a ship, perhaps because my father was very interested in naval matters. After we had joined London to Bristol with our Great Railway, it was suggested that we should use the latest engineering to continue the service to New York, so I built the Great Western steamship. This vessel was very successful, but I could see that a much larger ship would answer better still, and be more profitable. Therefore I designed the Great Britain to be the biggest ship in the world, and made her of iron, because good timber was getting quite scarce. So she became the forerunner of a multitude of ships, an achievement of which I am particularly proud.
Yours truly
IKB
13 October 2006
'Fizzy' asked: 1. When did Brunel build the ss Great Britain? 2.When did it set sail? 3.When did it become a museum? 4.Do you think IKB would be proud that we all love him and his works?
Dear Fizzy,
Many thanks for your questions. Work comenced on my new steam ship the Great
Britain on July 19th 1839 and she was launched on July 19th 1843. So she took exactly four years to build. Her engines were installed after her launch and she made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York in 1845. In 1970 she was returned to her original dry dock which is where she rests today. Coincidently she was floated back into her dock on July 19th 1970, a lucky date in the ships history.
Mr. Brunel would be extremely proud of the way his legacy has been celebrated this year, the anniversary of his birth in 1806.
Hope this answers your question Fizzy.
All good wishes
Isambard K. Brunel.
25 September 2006
"Boom Boom"asked: What is best bridge?
Dear Boom Boom,
Many thanks for your question. Although the Clifton Suspension Bridge was my first independent project, it is not necessarily my favourite!
The reasons being I never saw it completed in my lifetime and the people who did complete it did not do so to my original proposed designs because of the great costs involved in its construction.
However, I am delighted to inform you that my favourite bridge was the "Royal Albert Bridge" at Saltash near Plymouth, linking Devon to Cornwall. The Bridge was opened on the 3rd May 1859. Unfortunately I was too ill to attend and so HRH Prince Albert opened the bridge without me. This bridge is one of my greatest and most elegant achievements and still looks impressively advanced in its appearance today. It was also completed on time, to a very economical budget and with mercifully few injuries to the workmen.
All good wishes to you.
Isambard K. Brunel
18 August 2006
Harry asked: Why does the rudder and hull rust?
Dear Harry,
Many thanks for your question.
When she was launched on July 19th 1843 and for a good few years to come the ss Great Britain was the largest ship in the world. In order to construct a ship of this size, and make her strong enough to cope with her proposed Atlantic crossings I designed her to be built from iron.
Iron is a very strong material and no ocean going ship in the world of any great size had been constructed from iron at that time.
Yet despite its many advantages, when iron is exposed to water and oxygen, a process called oxidation - or rusting - occurs. If there is any salt present, beneath the waterline of a ship for example, this process is accelerated many times.
As the Great Britain was afloat for 127 years it is a credit to the quality and thickness of the iron plating and the method of her construction that the ship is still here today.
The only way we could hold back rust in the old days was to rub down the affected area and give her a fresh coat of paint. This isolated the metal from water and oxygen and slowed the process of rusting considerably. Now we blow air as dry as the Arizona Desert around the ship’s hull to stop the rust and make sure she will last for a very long time indeed.
All good wishes.
Isambard K. Brunel.
4 August 2006
Stinky Rat and Sugar Plum asked: How did the ss Great Britain work? How loud is the horn? How many miles per hour did she go?
Dear Stinky Rat and/or Sugar Plum
What very interesting nick names you have !!!
My ss Great Britain was a steam ship meaning that she was driven through the water by an enormous steam engine that propelled a six bladed screw propeller. She also carried sails as another or extra mode of power. The ship carried no horn but had a large ships bell made of solid brass. The bell would be sounded by hand in thick fog to warn any vessels in the vicinity of the Great Britain's presence. As regards speed the Great Britain could attain a speed of 12 nautical miles an hour. This is roughly 1.15 land miles to the nautical mile.
All the very best to you and thanks
I.K. Brunel
28 July 2006
Kirstypom asked: What date did Royal Albert bridge open linking Devon and Cornwall?
Dear Kirstypom
Many thanks for your question. It's nice to get a question from Saltash. My Royal Albert Bridge opened on 14th May 1859 and the ceremony was performed by HRH Prince Albert the Prince Consort. This was the date that Devon and Cornwall were officially linked as the first train crossed. I was unable to be there for the Grand opening as my health was rapidly deteriorating. I had crossed the completed bridge lying on a couch on a flat bed railway wagon that was pulled over the bridge. This was the only way I could see my completed bridge as I was so very unwell.
All good wishes Isambard K. Brunel
21 July 2006
Hope asked : How did you think up the ss Great Britain?
Dear Hope
Many thanks for your excellent question. The idea for my steamship, the Great Britain really grew out of my experience building my first ship the much under-rated, but equally great ship the ss Great Western. She was a solid and very strong ship built from oak,
strengthened with iron and powered by steam driven paddle wheels.
However, I was always wanting to push the very limits of the technology that we Victorians had at our finger tips and out of my optimism was born the Great Britain.
She was originally designed by myself to be a paddle driven steamship much
along the lines of the Great Western, only much greater in size. She was of such a size that construction from wood would not have been suitable and so I chose to construct her from iron, a relatively new material for ship building at the time.
I decided against paddle wheels as a method of propulsion when I came across a revolutionary little steamboat in Bristol docks called the "Archimedes" that was driven by a screw propeller. So impressed was I by this marvellous innovation in engine design that I proceeded to redesign the engine of my Great Britain and convert it from paddle to screw propeller propulsion. In order to prove to my financiers that screw propeller was a more superior choice for my engine I contrived to stage a tug of war between two identical steamboats, their only difference being that
one was paddle driven and the other screw propeller. As you may have already have guessed the screw propeller won and the rest as they say is history.
I hope this answers your question.
All good wishes
Isambard K. Brunel.
14 July 2006
'22' asked: How fast was ss Great Britain? How far did she travel?
Dear Brunel admirer,
Many thanks for your question. My Steam Ship Great Britain could travel at around 12 knots although she once obtained a speed of 13 knots. A knot is a measure of speed used in sea navigation. 1 knot is equal to one
nautical mile an hour. A nautical mile is roughly equivalent to 1.15 miles, thus making 1 knot equals 1.15 miles an hour. She was exceptionally fast for her period and most impressive if I say so myself. In terms of how far she travelled in her life time I have been reliably informed that she covered a million ocean miles in her career and that is equivalent to 32 times around the earth.
All good wishes
Isambard K. Brunel.
1 July 2006
Meg Harris asked: How long did it take to build the ss Great Britain?
Dear Meg,
Many thanks for your question. We began work on the SS Great Britain by laying her keel plate on July 19th 1839 and she was launched amid great celebration on July 19th 1843 exactly four years later. Exactly four years, what a coincidence!
All good wishes to you and thanks.
Isambard K. Brunel.
29 June 2006
Class 1 S, Stanbridge Primary School asked:
How fast was the ss Great Britain and what was the furtherest she travelled?
Dear Class 1 S,
Many thanks for your question. The fastest my ship, the SS Great Britain could cut through the waves was 12 knots ( sea miles ) although she once obtained a speed of 13 knots that I was rather proud of.
The furthest she travelled was Australia which took a total of 63 days.
This was the quickest way to get to that part of the world at this time.
All good wishes and good luck in all you do.
Sincerely yours
Isambard K. Brunel.
22 June 2006
Annabel asked: How did you stop the ship rusting?
Dear Annabel,
In Victorian times even though we were extremely clever fellows we did not have the wonderful technology that you have today. In order to prevent my Iron ship from rusting we simply had to repaint her over and over to make the iron waterproof. Although I never sailed far on my great ship I have been reliably informed that as she neared a port after a long voyage crew members were to be seen scurrying all over her armed with paint and brushes to cover any rust and make her look as handsome as possible.
All good wishes and thankyou for your question.
Isambard K. Brunel
15 June 2006
Sammy Dodger asked: What was the launch like?
Dear engineering enthusiast
Regarding the launch day of my steam ship Great Britain and how it went. It was a truly magnificent day and one of the most rewarding of my career. It was July 19th 1843 exactly four years to the day since we started work on her on July 19th 1839. I drove the Royal train down from London with my good friend Daniel Gooch in one of his superb engines. Prince Albert was on board and had agreed to perform the launching ceremony. All went smoothly even though HRH had a little trouble smashing the Champagne across her bow. We ended the day in suitable style and celebration up at Bristol Zoo gardens, of which I was one of the first subscribers. We had a magnificent firework display in the shape of my SS Great Britain.
All good wishes and thanks for your question
I.K.Brunel.
Bookmark this page
What's this?