Brunel and his boys have epic top hats, quite a mega-project all by themselves.

“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.

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.

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.

Oh, as wide as the height of two giraffes. I was thinking "damn those are some really thick giraffes".

Maybe you should do an entire episode on Isambard Kingdom Brunel, his life and the projects he worked on. He really was an amazing engineer.

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.

9:55 "This was about as bad a start as You can imagine!" The Vasa puts on its best "I'm not here, don't look at me, I never happened!" expression.

Maersk Triple E class container ships... Not just one ship, but a fleet of 31 monsters

Interestingly, the iconic photo of Brunel with the giant chains behind him was taken at Millwall yard.

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?

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!

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.

Still waiting for the episode on Simon's beard.. the pinnacle, of Mega Projects.

British people: Make fun of Americans for using other measuring systems. British people: Tw0 gIrRaFFes wIDe

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.

You forgot about the entire period of the Great Easterns history where it sat idle on the shore, reduced to being a gigantic billboard.

It's said that plates from the Great Eastern can still be found in the mud off Rock Ferry on the Wirral (opposite Liverpool)

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.

While the ship had problems, the fact it survived them when they surely would have sunk any other is a testament to it's design genius.

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.

UK: Hey US check out this bigass ship we just made! US currently undergoing a civil war: Uh neat, kinda busy tho.

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. .

Trains don't ride so well on aquaducts...

Jules Verne in 1871 wrote a novel after a trip on board the Great Eastern . It's title is a floating city .

Please do one of these on the Big Musky the largest drag line mining machine ever made.

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.

I suggested this a few weeks ago! So happy that you finally got around to make a Megaprojects video about this ship. Thank you - love the channel :)

Would bet most Brits know his name, he did after all win that poll (putting him ahead of Newton, Maxwell and Hawking) and being British im one of them

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.

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.

This is exactly the type of MegaProject I'm looking for. Lots of cool, important stuff to learn, not too long, and a bittersweet ending.

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!

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.

Speaking of ships, how about making a video about Dreadnaught. It's the kinda first of its kind and the rest is history.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel He sure could engineer well

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!

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.

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.

one of the greatest ships ever... how would they have laid the cables without this ship?

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.

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!

hey at least she helped in the telecommunication development with her placing the telegraph cables under the sea, that is important too.

Mr Isembard Kingdom Brunel is definitely one of my favorite historic characters ever

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.

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 :)

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!)

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.

I love how there are still many who know about this truly magnificent vessel

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....

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.

.40 seconds that's in my home town, there is a wooden model in the old cable station which is now a museum

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

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.

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.

Him and that damn CIGAR!!!!!!!

Please do a Megaprojects video on the Bristol Brabazon.

Wonderful! There’s so little on KZfaq about Brunel’s masterpiece. Thank you.

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!

Now i understand why Jeremy Clarkson used the term extremely "Brunelian" when describing certain Bentleys

Jesus can’t even Learn about a ship for 5 minutes without KZfaq commercials

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

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!

Yes 8000hp sounds like much but when you compare to a modern ocean liner, they produce around 110.000hp. And a top fuel dragster produces 10.000hp.

There's a Jules Verne book about that ship: The floating city.

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.

Simon, your voice and personality are very comforting my friend! Good job!

You should do a mega project on the Bruckless Footpath. It’s about 20 meters long and 3 meters wide for so reason.

Suggestion: The reversal in flow of the Chicago River.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel - when your parents decide to name you after a random word and darts game with the world map.

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.

Tomcat and Aim 54 please!!

Suggestion for Simon: USS Hornet and the Jimmy Doolittle Raid.

Real glad you covered Great Eastern. I'm not British, but many of the things I admire in life comes from America's birth-country. And Great Eastern is one of them (shoutout to Titanic for introducing me to the world of ships). Sir Brunel is a man I hope to emulate later in life. It's a shame Great Babe didn't end up being the success she was meant to be (she even got reduced to memes now, thx to Titanic: Honor and Glory XD). But you know what, she was still a marvel to behold regardless. I would've loved to see her if I had the chance. :)

it is worth noting that Brunel is quite well known if France. Firstly because of his French descent and secondly thanks to Jukes Verne's novel "Ume Ville flottante" ("A Floating Town") set aboard the Great Eastern and describing it at length. Thirdly of course, thanks to its multiple round trips between two French cities on both sides of the pond: Brest and St Pierre...

Suggestions: the Messmer-plan in France the EPR the Taymyr (or Rosatomflot in general), the internet, the british empire, Windscale/Sellafield

MEGA PROJECT suggestion: the ss United States, the fastest oceanliner ever put to sail to this day

i liked before it even started, love Brunel and this ship was amazing. That gash against the rocks was larger than the gash that sank the titanic. That's how strong the ship was. I also remember reading that the reason the ship was so large was that they thought at the time that there was no coal in Australia so it needed enough coal to go there and back without refuelling.

It is also the ship which Jules Vernes used to travel to the US in 1867. He wrote a book about it "Une ville flottante" (a floating city)

I don't know why you say his reputation has dimmed. He is immensely famous.

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.

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.

This is one of your best presentations. Brunel has always fascinated me.

gobekli tepe! Probably impossible to do, its so old.

I first heard of this ship in an old Ripley's Believe it or Not book. It was allegedly haunted.

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.

-dramatic foreboding horror music plays simon: sips tea "he was running out of money. the project was very costly so...."

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.

Brunel was an engineer way ahead of the time.

I lived in New Ferry on the wirral merseyside next to the great eastern pub, which had some of the ships original wooden figments installed in the pub,, the pub was knocked down quite a few years ago though

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.

When "S.S. Great Eastern" comes up, I think of "transatlantic telegraph cable."

Wasn't paying attention to my phone while drinking coffee, thought you said "mega sh*t". Almost lost it.

Holy shit, he came second only to Churchill? That’s impressive. Then again, he did do a great deal of amazing engineering.

Really enjoyed the last bit about my home city, I drive past that flagpole on most weekdays.

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.

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

great western train line! great western railway sir!

@3:41 makes me wonder: would you rather fight a 15-foot wide giraffe, or 15 foot-wide giraffes?