The _Great Western_ Steamship Company having, so far back as 1838, resolved to build a second ship much larger than their first, aimed at realizing in her the greatest improvements the art of naval construction could then command. Nor were they disappointed in their expectations, the _Great Britain_ when launched being not merely much the largest, but also the finest vessel up to that period built for ocean steam navigation.[184] [Sidenote: Building of the _Great Britain_ iron-ship, 1843.] In proportion to all other vessels hitherto constructed of iron, the dimensions of the _Great Britain_ were altogether colossal and, at the time, she excited quite as much public interest as that vast leviathan, the _Great Eastern_, did at a later period. She was built at Bristol, and her lines were furnished by Mr. Patterson of that place, who had planned and constructed the _Great Western_. Nor was the public interest in her at all lessened when it became known that, though originally intended for a paddle-wheel steamer, her builder had boldly resolved to adopt the screw, then comparatively little known as a means of propulsion. [Sidenote: Advantages of iron ships.] As there were still many unbelievers in the suitability of iron, for the construction of sea-going vessels, and still more who had no faith whatever in the value of the screw, this second step in advance on the part of the directors of the _Great Western_ Steamship Company led to much discussion among scientific men, and created many evil forebodings as to the ultimate fate of the _Great Britain_, all of which she, however, falsified. On her passage from Bristol to the Thames, though she encountered very severe weather, she braved the storm in a manner (see following illustration,) which ought to have silenced for ever the opponents of iron as a suitable material for the construction of vessels of every description, as well as those men of science who still, and for many years afterwards, maintained that the screw, under all circumstances, was an inferior motive power to that of the paddle-wheel. [Illustration: STEAMER “GREAT BRITAIN” OFF LUNDY ISLAND.] So great, indeed, was the interest felt in this vessel that, on her arrival in the Thames, Her Majesty and Prince Albert with great numbers of the nobility, and thousands of other persons, paid her a visit. Nor was her fame confined to England, forming as she did the subject of discussion among the learned and scientific societies of Europe, which was taken up with unusual fervour in the United States of America when it became known that she was to be employed as one of the Transatlantic steamers destined to eclipse the still celebrated American sailing clippers.[185] [Sidenote: American auxiliary screw-steamer _Massachusetts_, 1845.]