Before this week I had never heard of the SS Great Britain, but I’m happy that I have now because she’s a splendid ship. We are moored up next door and I can see her masts from my cabin porthole window. She was the world’s first iron hulled propeller driven ship, designed by the legendary Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and was by far the largest ship in the world when launched in 1845. She was built here in Bristol, and undertook many roles before ending her life in the Falkland Islands. In 1970 the hull was returned to Bristol, to the very location she was built, and restored to her original look, with amazing recreations of the interior.
It’s interesting to compare the cabins on SS Great Britain with those on board the Pelican of London: our cabins are better than those in “steerage”, but not as nice as the ones in first class. It’s clear from one of the notices on the walls that some of the passengers in the lowest “steerage” class found the close proximity of other people for many days to be hard work! Thankfully life on board the Pelican has not been like this!
