SS Great Britain — Brunel's Iron Ship

SS Great Britain - Launching Day Dawns captures the early morning of 19 July 1843, when Isambard Kingdom Brunel's revolutionary iron steamship was about to enter the water for the first time in Bristol's historic docks.

The Great Britain was the first ocean-going iron-hulled ship. Yet Brunel, the 37-year-old engineering prodigy who had already made his mark on rail transport with the Great Western Railway, was confident in his design. The Great Britain would prove him right.

She was the largest ship in the world at her launch. The painting captures the scene in the stillness before the ceremony: the black hull looming over the Bristol docks, dressed overall with colourful flags in preparation for the launch. The morning light breaks through the mist.

The Great Britain was also the first ship to use a screw propeller at sea (rather than a paddle wheel), and her design demonstrated that iron ships were not only practical but superior to wooden vessels. She would serve for decades, eventually being wrecked on the Falkland Islands but later recovered and restored. Today the ship can be seen in the Great Western Dockyard in Bristol, restored as a museum ship.

This painting was created after visiting the restored vessel and researching the 1843 launch scene. Signed GS in the lower left, dated 25 in the lower right.