Artemide Aste s.r.l.
Auction 46E 23-24 Feb 2019
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Great Britain. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819-1861), Prince Consort. Medal for the launch of SS Great Britain by H. R. H. Prince Albert on July 19 1843. Bristol. WM. mm. 44.00 EF.
SS Great Britain was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), for the Great Western Steamship Company's transatlantic service between Bristol and New York. She was the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic, which she did in 1845, in the time of 14 days.
She was the longest passenger ship in the world from 1845 to 1854.
The ship is 322 ft (98 m) in length and has a 3,400-ton displacement. The four decks provided accommodation for a crew of 120, plus 360 passengers who were provided with cabins, and dining and promenade saloons.
When launched in 1843, Great Britain was by far the largest vessel afloat. 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. In 1852 she was sold for salvage and repaired. Great Britain later carried thousands of immigrants to Australia from 1852 until being converted to all-sail in 1881. Three years later, she was retired to the Falkland Islands, where she was used as a warehouse, quarantine ship and coal hulk until she was scuttled and sunk in 1937, 98 years since being laid down at the start of her construction.
In 1970, after lying under water and abandoned for 33 years half a world away, Sir Jack Arnold Hayward, paid for the vessel to be raised and repaired enough to be towed north through the Atlantic back to the United Kingdom, and returned to the Bristol dry dock where she had been built 127 years earlier. Now listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, the Great Britain is a visitor attraction and museum ship in Bristol Harbour.
SS Great Britain was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), for the Great Western Steamship Company's transatlantic service between Bristol and New York. She was the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic, which she did in 1845, in the time of 14 days.
She was the longest passenger ship in the world from 1845 to 1854.
The ship is 322 ft (98 m) in length and has a 3,400-ton displacement. The four decks provided accommodation for a crew of 120, plus 360 passengers who were provided with cabins, and dining and promenade saloons.
When launched in 1843, Great Britain was by far the largest vessel afloat. 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. In 1852 she was sold for salvage and repaired. Great Britain later carried thousands of immigrants to Australia from 1852 until being converted to all-sail in 1881. Three years later, she was retired to the Falkland Islands, where she was used as a warehouse, quarantine ship and coal hulk until she was scuttled and sunk in 1937, 98 years since being laid down at the start of her construction.
In 1970, after lying under water and abandoned for 33 years half a world away, Sir Jack Arnold Hayward, paid for the vessel to be raised and repaired enough to be towed north through the Atlantic back to the United Kingdom, and returned to the Bristol dry dock where she had been built 127 years earlier. Now listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, the Great Britain is a visitor attraction and museum ship in Bristol Harbour.