The _Great Britain_, designed by Brunel, and built at Bristol by Mr. Patterson, was the first iron steamship of large dimensions. She was very large for her time, being 322 feet long, 48 feet wide, and 31½ feet deep; her tonnage was 3,270 tons, and her engines 1,500 horse-power. As originally rigged she had six masts; she had a six-bladed screw-propeller, 15½ feet in diameter, which made 18 revolutions per minute, giving her a maximum speed of twelve knots an hour. A very handsome model, of prodigious strength, and a fine sea-boat was the _Great Britain_. She commenced plying to New York, July 26th, 1845, and was a pronounced success. On the 22nd of September, 1846, on her outward voyage, she was stranded on the Irish coast, and became deeply embedded in the sands of Dundrum Bay, where she lay all winter, exposed to violent storms; but she withstood the strain, was raised from her watery grave, was refitted and placed on the Australian route, where she sailed successfully until 1882, when her machinery was taken out and she closed her remarkable career as a full-rigged sailing ship, when nearly fifty years old! and was finally used as a coal-hulk at the Falkland Islands, where her remains are still to be seen. [Illustration: THE “GREAT BRITAIN,” 1845.] [Illustration: THE “GREAT EASTERN,” 1857.] _The Great Eastern._—The British Government having in 1853 advertised for tenders to carry the mails to India and Australia, a number of wealthy and scientific men formed themselves into a company called the Eastern Steam Navigation Company, with a capital of £1,200,000, and sent in a tender, but it was not accepted.[10] The company, however, resolved to build a fleet of steamers, of which the _Great Eastern_ was to be the first. Mr. Brunel, who had designed the _Great Britain_, was selected as the architect, and Mr. Scott Russell, as the builder of the pioneer ship. The proposal suited Mr. Brunel’s sanguine temperament, and he recommended the building of a monster iron steamship, that should eclipse all previous efforts in marine architecture, a vessel that should run, say, to Ceylon at an average speed of fifteen knots, and carry coal enough to take her out and home again. From Ceylon smaller boats would continue the service to India and Australia. The embodiment of Mr. Brunel’s magnificent conception was the _Great Eastern_, skilfully wrought out, but destined to prove a gigantic failure.