Celebrating Brunel’s most famous ship
On 5 July 1970, a cheering crowd greeted the arrival of SS Great Britain as she was towed into Bristol’s Floating Harbour after being rescued from the sea bed at Sparrow Cove in the Falkland Islands.
It was a poignant homecoming for this former luxury passenger liner, which had been launched by Prince Albert amid much fanfare 127 years earlier. Now she was a forlorn sight, her masts removed by the salvage team and her hull and decks severely damaged.
At the time of her launch, on 19 July 1843, was a revolution in ship building and design, the brainchild of Victorian engineering marvel Isambard Kingdom Brunel
