SS Great Britain

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One of the most fascinating and important ships in the world is now in dry dock at Bristol harbour. The , designed and built by Victorian genius Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The entire ship, above and below, inside and out, is a brilliant museum that is full of history brought to life.



Now is a specially preserving dry dock, the tour begins with an exploration of the iron keel of the ship. A glass ceiling, at what would have been sea leve,l has been built with rippling water playing in the light. There are many information boards throughout the tour, and artefacts and equipment from the ship placed all around to see.



There is a stark reminder of how divided the class system used to be in Victorian times. The tour takes in the vast and luxurious First Class dining room on one extreme, but also the cramped and claustrophobic steerage cabins on the other. As the first, and largest ocean going steamship of its time, the worked as a passenger vessel between Australia and England for many decades, and all manner of people booked passage aboard. Some eerily realistic mannequins show what life aboard was like.



The restored engines and machinery (all part of the tour) are fantastic and have been painstakingly rebuilt to working order. The ship has been transformed from the rotten and unseaworthy wreck that was dragged from the Falkland Islands to Bristol harbour 50 years ago. Once it was decommissioned from making sea voyages, the ship was used as a coal store for other vessels. Visiting today, you can see the ship as it existed at its finest, as a World Class feat of design and engineering.





The museum can be walked through in an hour, but it is well worth spending much longer there. If your group allows it, there is easily enough to see over three or four hours. A lot of displays draw upon the real experiences of actual travellers and crew who once spent time on the , and there is a cafe which serves light snacks, lunches and hot drinks, should you want to sit down and relax afterwards.



If you are lucky, you might catch a glimpse of another iconic ship sailing past outside. A fully-working replica of explorer John Cabot's Matthew now sails around Bristol harbour. Yet another historical vessel, from over 300 years before the S S was built. There is so much to discover in Bristol, and the real treasures for me are found on the harbourside.

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