I have a rivet head from the Great Eastern sitting on my mantlepiece from when she was broken up. My great great grandfather was one of the men who oversaw her being broken her up.
“Too Big To Sail” Operated for thirty years, laid the first transatlantic cable, and generally still had a more successful career than most steamships of the time, not to mention much more remembrance of its existence.
@@Slowcause The sails on steamships back then were there as a precaution. Steam power then was still new when she was built . If a ship ran out of coal, why not have sails as backup
@@panda4247 Yes. I believe this video’s clickbait-y title makes it sound like the ship was too useless to even move itself, regardless of its methods of propulsion.
Just a quick note, the SS Great Britain is still around after a long existence. She's on display in the drydock where she was originally built in Bristol England.
It's a fab day out. You get a good feel for what a long voyage would have been like. You can walk "under water" too, I'm sure there are lots of photos on their website.
Amazing how it survived so long, even as a big abandoned rusting hulk (somehow not scrapped/recycled for metal). It was saved and refurbished while in a really derilect state.
To be fair I think that was a joke. We usually user double-decker buses, the cricket pitches, football pitches, then Wales (the country, not the animal). This is also a joke, though true!
It's an east mistake to make but giraffes are only referenced by their height, never anything else because only their height defines them. They are 1-dimensional creatures if you will.
@@kaltaron1284 by that reasoning, if you're gonna go by width, I'd suggest elephant or even hippopotamus. How often do you see giraffes laying next to each other head to feet? ;-}
Time Team did an episode on the Great Eastern. They studied the remains of the slipway (still there) and found an error had been made when the slipway was built which caused the vessel not to be launched as planned. Basically there was a high point and the ships total weight was resting on one spot.
Same for the RMS Titanic. Also, the Titanic's Captain Edward Smith was previously the captain of the Titanic's sister ship the RMS Olympic when she collided with HMS Wolfe while leaving port.
The story of Brunel's death is a bit more tragic than you let on. The boiler explosion and deaths upset him so much that he suffered a fatal heart attack. So, in a way, the Great Eastern killed him, although his design was eventually largely vindicated.
Brunel has been one of my engineering heroes my whole life. The innovations he made set the path for many of the standards and practices today. The fact that a number of his feats stand tall and proud today are a testament to his skill!
Megaproject Suggestion. Longest deep bore ice core in Antarctica. Took years, loads of drama with it and they found some cool stuff like a fresh water lake under the ice containing previously unknown lifeforms. Would go Well with the other hole projects that are popular Speaking of deep holes, how about the Kidd Mine as well?
he also didnt mention the story of the deaths during her construction, nor the story of two bodies sealed between the hulls during construction, the skeletons found during her deconstruction... (note: i believe the story is just a legend, but it wouldnt surprise me if it were true... plus its an interesting part of the ships history)
@@spartan09_Oni Its curious cus, When I was a kid like in kiddergarten i was fascinated by titanic and so i shearched by info arround the matter I then discovered ss great eastern, I knew there was the need for two rebitors(?) To be in both sides of a plate to unify them so I questoned myself as a kid *how could they have put the last plate if there would not be a exit* i as a kid believed someone would have needen to sacrifice themsefs for that (a morbid thought) later abandoned that idea but today i got back to the *ss great eastern and find this* . No worry its a legend mutch debunked
Excellent introduction to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, but you did rather forget to mention that his father, Marc Brunel, was an absolute titan in the world of engineering himself. It really did run in the family.
Yes. There used to be a display - at Greenwich, I think - of the machines that Marc Brunel developed to produce blocks and sheaves (pulleys) for sailing ships. The Royal Navy of the day used hundreds of thousands of these, and of course they wore out, cracked, or were destroyed by flying chunks of iron fired by rude strangers. Brunel took what had been basically a "one-off every time" device, and built a whole system of machines that formed a uniform production line, each machine doing just one thing. Wood went in one end, and finished pulley blocks came out the other. The models were really interesting, and I hope the display still exists. (Note to Henry Ford: sorry, you didn't invent the idea of an assembly line using machinery). I came across the Marc Brunel display by accident; I had gone to see one of the original Harrison #1 or #2 chronometers. And come to think of it, Harrison's Chronometer really was another engineering masterpiece, and qualifies as a technology Mega-Project. although not physically large. Harrison was truly a wizard.
To be honest because of great eastern we had Lusitania, Mauretania, the Olympic class and all of he others great ocean liners. Because of this guy that made so much for developing England In the XIX century we have not only the ships as we know today but a huge number of any other things. So thanks so much rich eccentric English engineer.
There was a paranormal twist to the Great Eastern story. Decades ago in high school, i read a ghost book that had about it. Supposedly, the reason for all the bad luck with the ship was that she was haunted/cursed by those who died building her. It was said that one could hear pounding and muffled screams from the double hull. When she was scrapped, two skeletons were found in the space between the double hulls along with shipbuilding tools.
You should know that some books are purely works of fiction written for entertainment and, while taking place at real locations, are not based on facts or even actual rumours.
I read that story too. Given that Simon didn't even mention it I doubt there's any truth to it. Pretty sure that 'worker trapped between the hulls' meme has appeared a lot since the advent of iron and steel shipbuilding.
The Great Eastern may have been "too big to sail," but it turned out to be just the right size to lay the Transatlantic Cable (in fact, no other ship at the time was large enough to carry that much cable.) And, since it was out of service for so long, the cable-laying company was able to get it for a song, which made it economical as well. Which just goes to show that even the most useless-looking of things can still have some uses.
My 2nd Great Uncle, Capt. John F. Clooney began his ship-building career in Boston, MA. and later was employed on the SS Great Eastern, which helped lay the first telegraph cable beneath the Atlantic Ocean. He later had his own ship-building company in Moss Bluff, Louisiana and became one of the most prominent ship-builders of the area. He was well known to the traders all along the Gulf and Atlantic coast and was praised for his workmanship. He was presented with a piece of the Trans Atlantic cable as a souvenir, which he always treasured. He has an island on the Calcasieu River and a street named in his honor in Lake Charles, LA. .
This ship sounds a lot like another in a maritime story I read as a child some 50 years ago. Most of this ships life sounds just like that story with a few details changed though. 1st the cause of the disasters was attributed to the ghost of a worker inadvertently sealed between the hulls, his hammer could be heard tapping inside the hulls, he was never retrieved. Preceding each disaster the tapping of the hammer was heard throughout the ship. The boiler explosion rings a bell and an incident related to the cable laying operation, specifically the failure of the ship to stop in time to make a splice from one cable coil to the next before losing the end over the stern. Retrieving the cable end took weeks of activity. Finally during ship breaking the skeleton of the riveter was found between the hulls. Thanks for another great video. Really enjoyed it.
Sadly, if the 'unsinkable' Titanic had incorporated the Great Eastern's double-hull, things might have turned out much better for her passengers in 1912!
@@TheCaptainSplatter Unlike reports in contemporary newspapers and 1950s movies, expert opinion today is that the Titanic did not suffer a long continuous gash, but most likely a series of punctures, sheared rivets and separated plates. Also, in addition to the double hull, the Great Eastern's watertight bulkheads extended up to the main deck, while many of the Titanic's only went up part-way. After the sinking, Titanic's sister-ship Olympic was pulled from service and internal hull-plating was added to extend the double-bottom into a double hull above the waterline, and several internal bulkheads were increased in height. My sources include the book "Falling Star", a history of the White Star Line, and the 1953 book "The Great Iron Ship" detailing the story of the Great Eastern. Interestingly, the Great Eastern did suffer a deep gash when it struck that uncharted rock off Long Island in 1861. It concluded it's voyage to New York with only a slight list, but might have wound up marooned there indefinitely, as no facilities existed in the US to handle a vessel that size, and with the Civil War raging, no 1-inch iron hull-plate was available to make the repairs. Eventually, some 7/8-inch boiler-plate was found, deemed acceptable, and a very unique method of 'underwater' repair was employed.
You beat me to a rant on the rail aqueductics plus the Thames tunnel was surely started by his father Marc, with another engineer credited for the tunneling shield ?
The SS United States would make a great video. One of the last great ocean liners, potential weapon in WW3, fastest passenger ship ever, it's got everything you need!
@Jan Brady she was built to Navy specs in case the government needed a giant troopship in another war, the way the Royal Navy used British liners before. That's why she has such a strong hull and was so crazy fast.
@@Alexanderthe_Ok One detail that's stuck in my memory about her fitting out was her designer's insistence on developing a grand piano made of Aluminum, to save weight. That by itself must have been a challenge.
I would say today's modern equivalent to the Great Eastern would be the Airbus A380; an enormous vessel built to carry huge amount of passengers but became a commercial failure.
Correction; The gap between the inner and outer hulls was what was 0.86 meters WIDE! Thus the outer hull was NOT 0.86 meters "thick". Annnnd some of the script explaining the "Spec.'s" of the ship are explained wrong, particularly that of "Bulkhead(s)" orientation/placement as affixed to the "Inner Hull"! BUT this channel is still a super fun channel to watch...very informative, the production values are top notch! Carry on...as you were....
I remember a book in our school library when I was a kid. It was about ghosts and the supernatural. There was a story about people that died building this ship, causing knocking sounds from being sealed inside a panel on the ship.
it was on the Titanic,john smitherson. on the great eastern,legend says it was two men,but...not clear,there where reports on newspapers that they found the bodies when scrapped,but...
I did read somewhere that the remains of children were found between the hulls when she was scrapped. They used to use them to distribute rivets. Evidently a corner was cut somewhere and the poor souls found themselves trapped in the darkness off the hull. Sorry for the grim factoid.
When they dismantled this ship they discovered a skeleton of a worker in the keel area.Superstitous people believed it was the cause of the bad luck this ship faced during its years of service.
The story of a riveter and his young helper being trapped inside the double hull and their bodies being found when the ship was scrapped was told, many years ago, on the TV show "Ripley´s Believe it or Not", hosted by Jack Palance. I would be gratful if someone could provide some reference supporting this story.
HMS Dreadnought is a too big/too important project for this channel. Simon should create a new one - RevolutionaryProjects and add it there [maybe with renault FT and Maxim gun]
@@ferky123 Drachinfel has a lot on anything that floated and had gun at any point of time... This guy can take 19th century russian repair ship and make a video about it - and make it so good that it become instant meme.... XD
HMS Dreadnaught had a remarkably short and uneventful career for such a revolutionary deign. The ship was out of date even before WW I began. It was relegated to coastal guard and convoy escort duty, and was one of the first British ships scrapped under the Washington Naval Treaty. She became a victim of her own success, everyone wanted a bigger and better version as soon as they understood how important she was.
You forgot the ghost story. According to legend, she had a non stop clanging coming from the hull. Something loose that was swinging as the ship rocked, they figured. But while she was being scraped, the skeletons of two riveters were found between the hulls, having been accidently sealed in during construction. Both of them holding hammers, of course.
I recently heard this story on the Dork-O-Motive podcast. Because of the format, the host could go into a lot more detail. The runtime is nearly 1 1/2 hours. Brunel and his creations were and are absolutely fascinating!
Through out her existence people said to have heard a 'knocking' from her hull. It was always attributed to her steam engine, but when scrapped a skeleton was found between the double hull. It's been assumed that this was why the Great Eastern had been such an unlucky ship.
@@calvingreene90 There was still a problem. Only the Great Eastern had the coal capacity to reach Australia. Which meant that it had the coal capacity to stay on station while laying the cable. It would have been difficult with ships that only had limited coal supplies. They may have needed sailing ships to bring replenishment during the laying process.
@@russellfitzpatrick503 nah he's mentioned in this one. The ship was his idea, he was in charge of building it. My comment is a reference to another channel.
Is this a Sweet reference? "Alexander Graham Bell he did know darn well that he could find the only way to talk across the USA: Telephone, telephone never be on your own! Many many years ago he started something with his first 'hello, hello'..."
Simon you should make a video about the 1893 Columbian Exposition/the White City in Chicago! It’s a great story about architecture, overcoming engineering challenges, and its sudden tragic end. It would make a perfect video for mega projects
A Good idea would be an episode of the Ships of State during the Depression Era from 1929-39. This includes Germany’s SS Bremen and SS Europa, Italy’s SS Rex, France’s SS Normandie, and England’s RMS Queen Mary. Each ship was a revolution of ship building and also proved to be symbolic of the world leading up to the Second World War.
fun fact, a piece of her original forward funnel that was blown off by the explosion is still preserved at a museum. Another fact, despite the ship having very weak propulsion mechanisms (propeller, rudder, and paddles) when it came to scrapping the ship, it was discovered that her hull was extremely well built and that the only good methods of breaking her apart was by using an iron wrecking ball. breaking the ship apart was not a clean task and over at the sight where she was broken up you can still find fragments of her hull plates that were disposed poorly years ago.
BBC’s “Seven wonders of the industrial world” series (I think it’s from the early to mid-2000’s?) has an excellent episode about this ship. And the sewers designed by Bazalgette, the Hoover Dam, the Bell Rock lighthouse, the Panama Canal, the Brooklyn Bridge and America’s transcontinental railway. Highly recommend watching if you can find it. It used to be on Netflix, but no longer for where I live. (And the DVDs are long out of print!)
A modern ocean liner is massive, so you need a horse power to displacement ratio (dont know if thats an official thing, but from the little i know its how id measure it). Sort of like how some cars will tell you a horsepower to weight ratio. A heavy car with a big engine wont go as fast as a light car with a big engine
I think you should cover the Fletcher class destroyers of the us navy. Although the ships themselfs weren't exactly incredible like the yamato however they were the most mass produced destroyers of ww2. I'd really love to see you make a video about them
Bristolian here, Brunel is our city's hero! Back in the days when you could be an engineer for anything, bridges, rail lines, ships, harbors, hydrolic loch gates. He did it all!
I find Brunel to be absolutely fascinating. That man could engineer and design like no one before him. I really think that Brunel was a man born much, much too early. His "atmospheric system" for trains was actually brilliant. Too bad the synthetic materials it required hadn't yet been invented. Even if it had worked, it would have been superceded by things such as mag-lev, but it certainly would have revolutionised railways in Britain. I think his Great Eastern was incredible. Had she been allowed to realise her full potential. she would have been the first means of non-stop travel between the UK and Australia, voyage of at least 10,000 miles--that's almost halfway around the globe. I think it's hard to appreciate such an innovation in an age when nonstop travel from the UK to Australia is done routinely, wich is why some might think that the Great Eastern's size was ridiculous. I don't think it was when you take into account the vast stores of coal and food/water needed to make her voyages non-stop. It's sad that she was never allowed to show what she could do. Only one person here, but I would have been more than happy to have been able to sail non-stop from the UK to Australia. There are a couple of interesting parallels between Brunel and Thomas Andrews of Titanic fame. Both built ships that were the biggest at the time of launch. Both had innovative ideas for ships and both were killed by their ships--Brunel because of the all the stress of getting the Great Eastern built and launched, which resulted in Brunel's Bright's disease (nephritis) and stroke. Yes, he was a heavy smoker but all the stress from the Great Eastern certainly didn't help. And Andrews died during the sinking of the Titanic. he only thing I don't get is why Brunel decided to go with paddlewheels and a single propeller when the SS Great Britain (another Brunel ship) had only a single propeller. Maybe because of the Great Eastern's greatly increased size and displacement? That's the only reason I can think of. Nevertheless, both ships were magnificent and ahead of their time.
As I already mentioned on your SideProjects channel, I love watching things about history. And obviously I love watching your channels. It's a great distraction during these times, so keep up the good work, thank you Simon and your crew :)
On another nautical note, I'd recommend the USN's Los Angeles Class of attack submarines. These were the boats built to hunt Typhoons and outfight any attack submarine or surface vessel the Soviets could put out. They're the most numerous class of nuclear submarine ever built, and enormously capable. They were the quietest, fastest, and smartest submarines of their day, and the later variants are still in their prime, scattered across the world's oceans escorting missile subs, tapping undersea cables, and just generally being the closest thing on this planet to an honest-to-god starship.
Quick note about the Great Eastern's launch. It was actually the result of uneven winching between the bow and stern, allowing the ship to slide down the slipway at an angle and become stuck. At one point, Brunel, desperate to save his ship and his dwindling reputation (not to mention being in serious danger of needing to sell his house and all worldly possessions to pay for the project's completion) employed every hydraulic ram in the UK at the time and all of the industrial sized chain that the Royal Navy would lend him only to watch the rams explode one by one and the chains snap. Eventually Brunel was forced to send a plea for help to his lifelong engineering rival but otherwise dear friend Robert Stephenson. Rising from his own death bed, Stephenson joined Brunel at Millwall and helped devise the system that would coax the Great Eastern into the Thames tide by tide. It would be the last engineering achievement by either man; Brunel died 15 Sept. 1859, with Stephenson following 12 Oct.
There was a story that a riveter and his assistant were accidentally sealed inside the double hull. It was said that crewmen over the years reported hearing pounding deep within the ship. When the ship was being scrapped, the breakers discover the skeletal remains of the unfortunate pair.
I know it's a myth, but such stories are interesting and entertaining. As for men not being occasionally entombed during the construction of double hulled ships, especially during the early days of such ship building, stories of it happening are not uncommon, which, despite the efforts taken to prevent it, suggests it did happen on occasion. Did the ghosts of such unfortunates haunt or curse the ship, as was claimed in the case of the Great Eastern? Of course not. But maritime stories are full of haunted and cursed ships. It's part of the fun.
I have a piece of the great Eastern, as I live near new ferry where the ship was broke up there are still remnants in the mersey you can find at low tide. I have even managed to locate what piece of it I have , it's a piece of the decking plate as it has a 4and half inch angle iron beam which was used to join the deck to the hull. It's in a display case in my garage.
It was a bit like Concorde: an technical success, but a financial failure as it had no running mate and came just as jet travel across the Atlantic started.
@@shebbs1 it technically did have a running mate in the ss America but the America was significantly slower so it made it harder to arrange their schedules
This is what is so interesting about 19th century enginnering. They were very forward thinking and their prototypes for all sorts of inventions and megaprojects were startling. One of my favorites is the Beach Pneumatic Subway.
I was waiting for this one! (And was one of undoubtedly many people who requested it). Just one more suggestion from the Victorian age - the London sewerage system of Joseph Bazalgette. This man saved thousands - by getting rid of their s**t!
This would be good for two unique Megaprojects reasons: A WWII U.S. aircraft carrier, and how the minds at the time had to "un-mega" several long range bombers in order to accomplish the mission.
The gash in the hull of the Great Eastern was bigger than the gash in the hull of the Titanic but because of the double hull and numerous water tight compartments it was never in danger of sinking. Had the Titanic been built to the same engineering standard it would scarcely be remembered today.
I recommend the Bathyscaphe Trieste. First submarine the reach the deepest part of the Ocean. From Bathyspheres to the development of the Trieste is interesting and the mission it's self was quite the undertaking and a great story.
Tomcat, the Java application server? I didn't know that the AOL Instant Messenger ever reached version 54. Neither of them are Megaprojects material... More context please!
@@johnniemiec3286 No real geese anywhere to be found. Google did talk to me and said something about fighter jets. Really? Are we that shallow? Shouldn't Simon consider renaming the channel into "Military Aircraft Projects" first? Go ahead, press the dislike button on my comment...
Since were in the topic of ships Please cover the SS Normandie the biggest turbo electric Powered ship ever built as well as a former blue riband holder of the atlantic and also one of the biggest transatlantic liners ever built.
It was the first boat in history to exceed the dimensions of the legendary Noah's Ark. Just years before, a ship that size was thought technically impossible to create. It took a man like Brunel to think the impossible. One of the really striking things about the SS Great Eastern was just how well built its double hull was. The hole in its side caused by the Great Eastern Rock was absolutely mammoth, yet there was no danger of it sinking as a result. Most of the passengers weren't even aware there'd even been an accident. By comparison a much smaller rip in the hull sent the RMS Titanic to the bottom of the Atlantic. Its paddle-wheel/screw propeller combo was also a major success, and gave the ship manoeuvrability that craft a fraction of its size would be envious of. It's true, the SS Great Eastern was built 40 years too soon. It could carry 5X the passenger numbers of its competitors, but there was no demand for 5x the volume of people seeking voyage. It would have been a big hit in 1900 but by that time the SS Great Eastern had long since gone to the breaker's yard. Like a number of Brunel's ideas (such as the Atmospheric Railway which was essentially the same concept as the Hyperloop), he was designing for a future he knew was coming but didn't realise how long it would take to reach it.
Next Mega Project,,, Simon assembles an Ikea desk,WITH DRAWS..hagha..yes it will be years in the making, with several false starts, and ,,,of course, "lets start again with a new one " a few times, but the resultant 11 minutes and 47 seconds will be GOLD,,,,GOLD i tell ya..,
You made several mistakes about him. The Thames Tunnel was his father's design & the Clifton bridge was finished by others after he died & the design was changed. He was a serious dude but even for him, facts matter.
I've watched a lot of Simon's videos and I will keep doing so. He gives off the same vibe as the late '90s and early 2000's History and Science Channel which I watched as a kid religiously. I wish those channels would go back to these types of shows.
Wait, what about the grizzly tale of the 2 ship yard workers that went missing? When the ship was finally broken up, their 2 skeletons were found sealed between the double hull.
In my encyclopedia of ships I’ve got many well worn pages. The Great Eastern is one of them. Beautiful ship. Imagine what it would have been like to see it in the day. That said, it comes in what, around the size of a South Dakota class battleship? And that’s something I’m very very familiar with, having grown up seeing the Massachusetts every year.
In reality a lot of Brunel's success in the poll was probably down to a voter block and viral internet campaign spurred by Brunel University in London. It also helped that Jeremy Clarkson presented a damn good documentary about him that accompanied the campaign (it's still floating on YT somewhere). Not that I K Brunel isn't worthy - he was genuinely brilliant. But, his brilliance was flanked by a whole legion of other incredible, contemporary luminaries. Even his lifelong friend and main business rival Robert Stephenson is every bit as worthy. I suspect that when people cast their votes for Brunel, it was a vote cast for that whole era of gritty but heroic industrial innovation rather than for Brunel specifically. Actually it was probably similar for the votes that led to Churchill winning. The votes were likely cast more for the struggle against tyranny that Churchill came to represent - rather than the flawed and at times morally compromised human being that he actually was.
Fun fact: 2:12 "the world's longest tunnel, the Box Tunnel" The sunrise shines along the tunnel on Brunel's birthday. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_Tunnel#Brunel%27s_birthday
These videos are so frustrating to watch. Do they have their # turned on ULTRA monetization? I mean... we're talking what at least 6 ads here in 15 minutes?
No ads for me. I pay the monthly youtube premium though. Ads suck, either pay for no ads, and get the ad free youtube music channel, or try the free adblock sw
The number of ads youtube puts in videos is staggering. Thankfully for me this time I only got 1 midroll ad, but other times they are as frequent as every couple of minutes. RU-vid is worse than free to air tv now.
Simon, you could do an epidose on the Northrop B-2 Spirit, the Ho-299 Design and other flying wing design in general. Or you could look at the B-36 Peacemaker, a behemoth of a plane.
The Ho 229 is overrated, the real interesting story is the family of flying wings leading up to the B-2, starting with the N9M and the XB-35 an XB-49 flying wing bomber prototypes from the 1940s.
@@jamesburleson1916 I don't think it's overrated. The Horten Brothers test flew the Ho-229 on the (Bonn) Hangelar Air Field, one of the oldest airfields in the world, which is right around the corner from where I live. The Hindenburg landed there aswell and today the GSG-9 is based off this airfield. They build the prototypes of the airplanes in their parents house in Bonn Poppelsdorf, which is a 15 Minute drive from where I live. Simon could do one episode on these flying wing designs, since they are all very interesting.
