View allAll Photos Tagged Football bulges
roburka Mankini with new wife , we cannot say who they are but you all know ,we love the royals when they let their hair down .
For those of you who are not from around here, or just do not know, this is the kid who, during the off-season, stays in shape by harnessing himself to a TRUCK and pulling it up hills. He's a human bulldozer. And CUTE.
It's been a strange week. Time is being eaten in huge chunks by an exciting European football championship (well for me anyway), a very gradual campervan transformation and the oldest enemy of all - work of course. It's now three weeks since I last packed the camera into the bag, considered what I wanted to achieve before making my lens selections and setting off in the car. I've completely missed the sea thrift and the poppies this year. I'm going to need to reacquaint myself with the buttons and dials on the camera before too much longer or I'll forget what they're all for. Also, with another academic year finished yesterday, I really just want to sit and gaze into space for a while with an empty mind. May and June are always full of improbable deadlines that can only be achieved by engaging what's left of the tired old brain cells into hyperdrive and trusting that we'll somehow get through it all one more time.
Yesterday brought one of those landmark moments in my life. Most of the day was spent clearing twenty-one years of memories from my office as I prepared to hand it over to my successor who joins us on Monday. Finally, after all of those years I'm no longer a finance manager and I'm no longer responsible for the working lives of the people around me - now I'm a teacher of a kind. And that's only for two months until I become whatever I want to be instead of what the need to pay bills forces me to be. Ironic that after all these years supporting teachers, I finally end up in front of the chalk board myself don't you think? Occasionally colleagues would pop in to see if I was crying yet. I wasn't. I was smiling because I was far more excited about what lies ahead than I was wistful about the reflections on what I'm leaving behind. From time to time I would find a note or a photo of some team caper that would make me laugh and rush into the team office to show to the ones who might remember the back story.
And then I happened across one of Sue's old notebooks. In the pages I found a list of names, mine included. Next to them she'd written our ages and future dates. She'd been working out when she might be able to retire, based on what she knew about the plans of her closest colleagues. We'd always loosely agreed that we wouldn't go at the same time. She was my boss for seventeen years - elevated to the boardroom when her predecessor retired, with me involuntarily promoted to her old position in her wake. Neither of us really wanted the responsibility we were being burdened with, but that's what sometimes happens during a period of austerity. Universally loved, the whole college was devastated when Sue was taken from us by pancreatic cancer at the age of 56 a couple of years ago. It all happened frighteningly quickly. One moment she was full of energy and plans, the next she felt ill, and a few months later we all wept at her funeral. Of course it hit us harder than everyone else because we'd worked so closely alongside her for so long. I thought she was indestructible, but of course we're all just visitors here for a while, and some don't get as much of a stay as they might reasonably have expected to. She'd watched over us with so much care throughout the years. When she was no longer able to work I'd had to step even further up those near vertical rungs to do finance at a strategic level and Katie moved into my role. Two of us doing the work of three for a year - the memory of it still makes me shudder. I wasn't born to hobnob with the politickers and shakers and movers of this world. I just wanted to look out of the window and dream about mountains and rivers, forests and oceans.
Every so often, a moment such as finding the notebook brings the sadness of that terrible year jolting back into sharp focus. That eternal sense of dread - "what are they going to ask me at this Governors' meeting now? Will I sit there opening and closing my mouth silently like a goldfish? Sue would have known what to say." In her last ever message to me, her main concern was that I was being paid the right amount for the additional workload I'd had no option but to take on. Typically for Sue, she was thinking about other people instead of herself, even though she only had such a short time left. Of the many gifts she gave me in life, the very last one was that the pay review she campaigned for meant I could knock a whole year off the date she'd written next to my name on the page in front of me. The date she'd evidently written not long before she became unwell.
Late in the afternoon as the contents of the filing cabinets evolved into bulging bin liners and shredding bags, Katie came and sat in my office to go though some invoices. She looked sad. I'll miss lots of people from work, but none anywhere near as much as her. She has been my rock and my best friend - always right there with me during the hardest times, making sure I never felt alone when there were storms all around us. I'm not sure whether I would have survived those storms without her. I know she's worried about a future without me and there's almost nothing that I wouldn't do for her. Except that I can't carry on working anymore of course. The job needs fresh input from an enthusiastic newcomer. But she knows she can come and see me whenever she needs to. I'll always be there for her with hot coffee and whatever I can muster to pass for wisdom.
Of course these tributes to two people who've become so important to me has nothing to do with this picture of Holywell Bay, taken on a stunning winter evening when everyone was at the beach because everywhere else was closed. I've already told the story of that evening in another image, and somehow today the one I've just shared is the one that resonates right now. Sometimes everything very quickly changes so suddenly and drastically in peoples' lives. Our futures are unscripted, no matter what plans we make. If we can make good memories along the way then that's got to be something worthwhile surely?
Eupen is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of Liège, 15 kilometres from the German border (Aachen), from the Dutch border (Maastricht) and from the "High Fens" nature reserve (Ardennes).
The town is also the capital of the Euroregion Meuse-Rhine.
First mentioned in 1213 as belonging to the Duchy of Limburg, possession of Eupen passed to Brabant, Burgundy, the Holy Roman Empire and France before being given in 1815 to Prussia, which joined the German Empire in 1870. In 1919, after the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles transferred Eupen and the nearby municipality of Malmedy from Germany to Belgium.
German remains the official language in Eupen, and the city serves as the capital for Belgium's German-speaking Community. The city has a small university, the Autonome Hochschule in der deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft, offering bachelor degrees in Education and Nursing. In 2010, Eupen's association football team, K.A.S. Eupen, became the first club from the German-speaking Community to play in the Belgian Pro League.
On 1 January 2006 Eupen had a total population of 18,248 (8,892 males and 9,356 females). The total area is 103.74 square kilometres which gives a population density of 175.90 inhabitants per km². Eupen is considered in Belgium to be a Roman Catholic region with strongly conservative views.
After the First World War, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles transferred Eupen and the nearby municipality of Malmedy from Germany to Belgium. The effect led to the formation of extreme right-wing Nazi-like groups in Eupen. In 1940, the German Third Reich invaded Belgium; in an attempt to reverse Versailles, Eupen and Malmedy were annexed to Germany. Later that year, Eupen was declared to be a city "Free from Jews"[citation needed] as its entire Jewish population was killed in concentration camps. In September 1944, American forces reached Eupen which became a centre of fierce fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. The following year Eupen was returned to Belgian control and tried its first Nazi for war crimes relating to the extermination of Jews. Trials continued until 1952.
In 1949, the left tower of the St Nikolaus Church burnt down. The city centre was affected by flooding in 1953 and demolished in 1973 to create car parks. Eupen merged with the municipality of Kettenis in 1976, amidst protest from that town. In 1980, following a state reform ten years earlier, the German-Speaking Community of Belgium was established and Eupen was named as its capital.
It's not doom and gloom depicted in this picture but reality of darkness
to come at our doorsteps , whether you like it or not. I'm not even sure
how many of us here have been able to grasp what is to come. While looking at
your mainstream TVs things seems OK , football , Kardashians ( complete rubbish)
... everybody's happy , while believing all out spewed by corporate media
trying to cultivate feel good factor and everything
that is all negative ( economic collapse ) are way into crazy conspiracy
theories. Majority still believe the lies . But looking at the US shutdown,
God help America, this seem like the little part of what is big and
nasty to come out in the open, when all of us will share the brunt,
we all do.
But are you saved ?
If anything too bad to come out from this Shutdown , might be the timeline
foretold we will all fall like the house of cards , then the new global order
( I just have to change the wording a bit ) spoken of for years which
never get much attention will wake everyone up in a shock of their life .
It's not going to be evolutionary but rather revolutionary type of change,
boy o boy . All are foretold in the Bible scripts, for those
who stay unbelieving , you are at the loosing side.
It's painful to see what is to happen . I can feel evil bulging at the seams,
almost like bursting whether it's very soon or a little later, it will happen.
God bless you all friends and my followings .
Just make sure you are saved in Christ and hold on to your faith
even more , simply a word of encouragement .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Signs of the Times
*Syrian Girl Who Watched Parents Murdered Has Heart Cut Out By BO - Supported Syrian Rebels
Warning : there is truly intense / extreme graphic image in this blog !
Can you see the rising of evil ? This is probably just a little taster
of the very dark times ahead . I'm not saying this out of personal
speculation, but as the Bible said so . As a believer of the Rapture
of the true Church of Christ ( not a religious group ) but consisting
of Christians everywhere , who are born- again of the spirit of Christ, living
holy life according to every word of God , will be take away escaping
, never partaking of any of these worse calamities to come.
We haven't seen yet the wrath of God reserve to those who are
ungodly and mocking God to the core of their souls , they hate God
and those who worship other little gods which are demonically
inspired. Christians who are living lukewarm and carnally tuned in,
kept living in sin , all will go through the major Tribulation as
spoken !!!! This is a warning . Have Jesus before it's too late.
Riots Bellingham Washington "Tear Gas" Anger In Streets
*BREAKING: "China Calls For The New World Order" America Debt
*Obama Administration Proposes 2,300-Page “New Constitution
*Shutdown Defiance: Million Vet March Set for Oct 13th
*The Final Warning For America 2013-2014- JD Prophecy Update
*Missing Nuke and EBT Glitch Raise Concern Over Government Shutdown
*Debt Ceiling Crisis; Loss of Welfare; DC Epic Fail-Government Shutdown; G-20
*A Prophecy of Obama's Secret Inauguration from Jeremiah-Dark Knight Rising: Part 3
*Deadly Philippine quake hits Bohol and Cebu
I said it earlier in my previous posting in flickr about
any 7-8 magnitude earthquake in the area will be
devastating to properties. Unknowingly, it did happened
in 3 days time killing over a hundred
people in Cebu and Bohol.
*Aliens working with U.S government - tall white beings
( The coming great deception of Aliens as creators , demeaning the gospel , faith of many will fail )
*(USAF) Charles Hall: Alien Disclosure - The "Tall Whites"
The great major deception is coming !
*Ex Canadian Minister of Defence speaks about UFOs, global warming,
and the world financial system
*ALERT! Debt Ceiling to Collapse 'Super-Leveraged' America
*Typhoon Wipha Hits Tokyo 14 Dead Many Missing / Radiation Leaking.
*Will There Ever Be Peace In The Middle East? By Joel Rosenberg
*Pope Francis soft on homosexuality
Let's hear what other Catholic Christians say
“You need a flange sprocket for that one.” A conspiratorial look in my direction. A steely nod in return that almost certainly failed to mask the bewilderment. “Then you’ll want an electric socket hammer to push the shankhead nails through. Then lay the new sheets, starting at the bottom and working up. Thirty centimetre overlaps between every panel. The galvanised rubber bungs will keep the rain out for years. Bish bosh, easy job. You could do the lot in three days.”
Ali was grinning at me, knowing that I had not the faintest clue what was being said. Our visiting expert might as well have been speaking in Serbo Croat for all I understood. She wanted to tell him to look at my soft pasty hands, hewn from a lifetime of wearing white shirts at the office, while before us stood a benevolent bearded gorilla of a man, a mixture of dried paint and wood stain all over his jeans and jumper, the result of doing a proper day’s work for a living. We were standing in our leaky garage, inspecting the roof and discussing the best way to keep it watertight this winter. Did we need a new roof, or could we repair this one? All of this was so far removed from anything familiar. What workplace skills I had were entirely limited to counting things and presenting the results to people further up the food chain than me. Whenever the urge seizes me to try a bit of DIY, I lie down in a darkened room and wait for the feeling to pass over. I call it DIwon’t.
We’ve had a sudden run of visitors to the house this summer. All male, all offering their considered wisdom on things that are falling down or need replacing, and all of them speaking in languages that I really don’t understand. The only thing these soft office boy ears hear is white noise when anyone starts talking about sprockets and sockets. There’s the old wooden windows, the collapsing rear porch, the rusting ride on mower with the gammy drive belt, the sycamores that need removing without falling onto the neighbours beehives, the bulging septic tank and the unending saga of the garage roof with the inbuilt shower. Only our plumber is female - and she did such a good job last time that we don’t need her services at the moment. I did fix a leaky tap in the bathroom last year - in fact I did a lap of honour around the garden when it no longer dripped at the fourth attempt to solve the problem. But mostly, I’m worse than useless. The sad and uncomfortable truth is that I need men in overalls to make my life function at moments like these, and I know that sounds wrong on just about every level.
Even a relatively simple task can lead me into a world of pain. Recently, one of our five a side football circle announced he was opening a new coffee stop opposite Redruth railway station, and had invited local artists to bring in their masterpieces. He’d put them on the wall to brighten the place up and sell them on the creative’s behalf. Stupidly, I told him that I do a bit of landscape photography around Cornwall and shared my Instagram feed, and before I knew it I’d agreed to bring some framed prints in. I rapidly chose four local scenes and had them printed, and then I ordered some white frames. Nice looking frames, hopefully robust enough and not very expensive. If I’m going to get a couple of quid out of this I need to remember this is Redruth and not trendy St Ives or Padstein. The people around here don’t take their baths in foaming gallons of champagne, you know. Some of them can barely afford water.
That left the business of assembling my purchases, and now my incomparable incompetence at all matters practical came to the fore. A can of mounting spray arrived from Mr Bezos, who it turned out owed me a tenner because one of the frames had a tiny mark on it. Ali and I watched some YouTube videos and were left bewildered by the multitude of different approaches. How could something that looked so simple be so complicated? In the end we came up with our own method - one which you definitely won’t ever see in the textbook. The mounting spray is supposed to stay “tacky” for five minutes, but it really doesn’t waste any time bonding two surfaces together. The moment we attempted to stick the printed photo to the backing paper along the carefully scored lines that had been made in advance, it broke loose and landed at a far more avant-garde angle, refusing to budge any further. Then there’s the business of trying to keep the inside free of dust, stray moulting hairs and goodness knows whatever else. With a shameful hidden mass of clipped edges hiding beneath the mount, the finished result does at least look like it’s supposed to. I wonder if we’ll have learned anything by the time we’ve completed the first batch. Maybe we need a flange sprocket, whatever that is.
I’m far more comfortable at the scenes of those images. Here’s one from that prototype selection - the only one that wasn’t already on Flickr. No sprockets or sockets required around here. Just a soft handed office boy with a camera and a flask of tea.
Eupen is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of Liège, 15 kilometres from the German border (Aachen), from the Dutch border (Maastricht) and from the "High Fens" nature reserve (Ardennes).
The town is also the capital of the Euroregion Meuse-Rhine.
First mentioned in 1213 as belonging to the Duchy of Limburg, possession of Eupen passed to Brabant, Burgundy, the Holy Roman Empire and France before being given in 1815 to Prussia, which joined the German Empire in 1870. In 1919, after the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles transferred Eupen and the nearby municipality of Malmedy from Germany to Belgium.
German remains the official language in Eupen, and the city serves as the capital for Belgium's German-speaking Community. The city has a small university, the Autonome Hochschule in der deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft, offering bachelor degrees in Education and Nursing. In 2010, Eupen's association football team, K.A.S. Eupen, became the first club from the German-speaking Community to play in the Belgian Pro League.
On 1 January 2006 Eupen had a total population of 18,248 (8,892 males and 9,356 females). The total area is 103.74 square kilometres which gives a population density of 175.90 inhabitants per km². Eupen is considered in Belgium to be a Roman Catholic region with strongly conservative views.
After the First World War, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles transferred Eupen and the nearby municipality of Malmedy from Germany to Belgium. The effect led to the formation of extreme right-wing Nazi-like groups in Eupen. In 1940, the German Third Reich invaded Belgium; in an attempt to reverse Versailles, Eupen and Malmedy were annexed to Germany. Later that year, Eupen was declared to be a city "Free from Jews"[citation needed] as its entire Jewish population was killed in concentration camps. In September 1944, American forces reached Eupen which became a centre of fierce fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. The following year Eupen was returned to Belgian control and tried its first Nazi for war crimes relating to the extermination of Jews. Trials continued until 1952.
In 1949, the left tower of the St Nikolaus Church burnt down. The city centre was affected by flooding in 1953 and demolished in 1973 to create car parks. Eupen merged with the municipality of Kettenis in 1976, amidst protest from that town. In 1980, following a state reform ten years earlier, the German-Speaking Community of Belgium was established and Eupen was named as its capital.
Photograph your local culture, help Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SS Great Britain in dry dock at Bristol in 2005, preserved for exhibition as a museum ship
History
United Kingdom
NameGreat Britain
OwnerGreat Western Steamship Company
Port of registryBristol
BuilderWilliam Patterson
Cost
Projected: £70,000
Actual: £117,000
Laid downJuly 1839
Launched19 July 1843
Completed1845
Maiden voyage26 July 1845
In service1845–1886
HomeportBristol, England
StatusMuseum ship
General characteristics
TypePassenger steamship
Displacement3,674 tons load draught
Tons burthen3,443 bm
Length322 ft (98 m)
Beam50 ft 6 in (15.39 m)
Draught16 ft (4.88 m)[1]
Depth of hold32.5 ft (9.9 m)
Installed power2 × twin 88-inch (220 cm) cylinder, bore, 6 ft (1.83 m) stroke, 500 hp (370 kW), 18 rpm inclined direct-acting steam engines
PropulsionSingle screw propeller
Sail plan
Original: Five schooner-rigged and one square-rigged mast
After 1853: Three square-rigged masts
Speed10 to 11 knots (19 to 20 km/h; 12 to 13 mph)
Capacity
360 passengers, later increased to 730
1,200 long tons (1,300 short tons; 1,200 t) of cargo
Complement130 officers and crew (as completed)
SS Great Britain is a museum ship and former passenger steamship that was advanced for her time. She was the largest passenger ship in the world from 1845 to 1854. She was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), for the Great Western Steamship Company's transatlantic service between Bristol and New York City. While other ships had been built of iron or equipped with a screw propeller, Great Britain was the first to combine these features in a large ocean-going ship. She was the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic Ocean, which she did in 1845, in 14 days.
The ship is 322 ft (98 m) in length and has a 3,400-ton displacement. She was powered by two inclined two-cylinder engines of the direct-acting type, with twin high pressure cylinders (diameter uncertain) and twin low pressure cylinders 88 in (220 cm) bore, all of 6-foot (1.8 m) stroke cylinders. She was also provided with secondary masts for sail power. The four decks provided accommodation for a crew of 120, plus 360 passengers who were provided with cabins, and dining and promenade saloons.
When launched in 1843, Great Britain was by far the largest vessel afloat. But her protracted construction time of six years (1839–1845) and high cost had left her owners in a difficult financial position, and they were forced out of business in 1846, having spent all their remaining funds refloating the ship after she ran aground at Dundrum Bay in County Down near Newcastle in what is now Northern Ireland, after a navigation error. In 1852 she was sold for salvage and repaired. Great Britain later carried thousands of emigrants to Australia from 1852 until being converted to all-sail in 1881. Three years later, she was retired to the Falkland Islands, where she was used as a warehouse, quarantine ship and coal hulk until she was scuttled in 1937, 98 years after being laid down.[2]
In 1970, after Great Britain had been abandoned for 33 years, Sir Jack Arnold Hayward, OBE (1923–2015) paid for the vessel to be raised and repaired enough to be towed north through the Atlantic back to the United Kingdom, and returned to the Bristol dry dock where she had been built 127 years earlier. Hayward was a prominent businessman, developer, philanthropist and owner of the English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers. Now listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Great Britain is a visitor attraction and museum ship in Bristol Harbour, with between 150,000 and 200,000 visitors annually.
Development
The SS Great Western on her maiden voyage
After the initial success of its first liner, SS Great Western of 1838, the Great Western Steamship Company collected materials for a sister ship, tentatively named City of New York.[2] The same engineering team that had collaborated so successfully on Great Western—Isambard Brunel, Thomas Guppy, Christopher Claxton and William Patterson—was again assembled. This time however, Brunel, whose reputation was at its height, came to assert overall control over the design of the ship—a state of affairs that would have far-reaching consequences for the company. Construction was carried out in a specially adapted dry dock in Bristol, England.[3]
Adoption of iron hull
Two chance encounters were profoundly to affect the design of Great Britain. In late 1838, John Laird's 213-foot (65 m) English Channel packet ship Rainbow—the largest iron-hulled ship then in service—made a stop at Bristol. Brunel despatched his associates Christopher Claxton and William Patterson to make a return voyage to Antwerp on Rainbow to assess the utility of the new building material. Both men returned as converts to iron-hulled technology, and Brunel scrapped his plans to build a wooden ship and persuaded the company directors to build an iron-hulled ship.[4]
Hull section of the Great Britain, showing the boiler
Great Britain's builders recognised a number of advantages of iron over the traditional wooden hull. Wood was becoming more expensive, while iron was getting cheaper. Iron hulls were not subject to dry rot or woodworm, and they were also lighter in weight and less bulky. The chief advantage of the iron hull was its much greater structural strength. The practical limit on the length of a wooden-hulled ship is about 300 feet (91 m), after which hogging—the flexing of the hull as waves pass beneath it—becomes too great. Iron hulls are far less subject to hogging so the potential size of an iron-hulled ship is much greater.[5] The ship's designers, led by Brunel, were initially cautious in the adaptation of their plans to iron-hulled technology. With each successive draft however, the ship grew ever larger and bolder in conception. By the fifth draft, the vessel had grown to 3,400 tons, over 1,000 tons larger than any ship then in existence.[6]
Adoption of screw propulsion
Replica of Great Britain's original six-bladed propeller on the museum ship. This propeller proved totally unsatisfactory in service and was quickly replaced with a four-bladed model.
In early 1840, a second chance encounter occurred, the arrival of the revolutionary SS Archimedes at Bristol, the first screw-propelled steamship, completed only a few months before by Francis Pettit Smith's Propeller Steamship Company. Brunel had been looking into methods of improving the performance of Great Britain's paddlewheels, and took an immediate interest in the new technology. Smith, sensing a prestigious new customer for his own company, agreed to lend Archimedes to Brunel for extended tests.[6] Over several months, Smith and Brunel tested a number of different propellers on Archimedes to find the most efficient design, a four-bladed model submitted by Smith.[7]
Having satisfied himself as to the advantages of screw propulsion, Brunel wrote to the company directors to persuade them to embark on a second major design change, abandoning the paddlewheel engines (already half-constructed) for completely new engines suitable for powering a propeller.
Brunel listed the advantages of the screw propeller over the paddlewheel as follows:
Screw propulsion machinery was lighter in weight, thus improving fuel economy;
Screw propulsion machinery could be kept lower in the hull, lowering the ship's centre of gravity and making it more stable in heavy seas;
By taking up less room, propeller engines would allow more cargo to be carried;
Elimination of bulky paddle boxes would lessen resistance through the water, and also allow the ship to manoeuvre more easily in confined waterways;
The depth of a paddlewheel is constantly changing, depending on the ship's cargo and the movement of waves, while a propeller stays fully submerged and at full efficiency at all times;
Screw propulsion machinery was cheaper.[8]
Brunel's arguments proved persuasive, and in December 1840, the company agreed to adopt the new technology. The decision became a costly one, setting the ship's completion back by nine months.[8]
Reporting on the ship's arrival in New York, in its first issue Scientific American opined, "If there is any thing objectionable in the construction or machinery of this noble ship, it is the mode of propelling her by the screw propeller; and we should not be surprised if it should be, ere long, superseded by paddle wheels at the sides."[9]
Launch
The launching or, more accurately, the float-out took place on 19 July 1843. Conditions were generally favourable and diarists recorded that, after a dull start, the weather brightened with only a few intermittent showers. The atmosphere of the day can best be gauged from a report the following day in The Bristol Mirror:
Large crowds started to gather early in the day including many people who had travelled to Bristol to see the spectacle. There was a general atmosphere of anticipation as the Royal Emblem was unfurled. The processional route had been cleaned and Temple Street decorated with flags, banners, flowers and ribbons. Boys of the City School and girls of Red Maids were stationed in a neat orderly formation down the entire length of the Exchange. The route was a mass of colour and everybody was out on the streets as it was a public holiday. The atmosphere of gaiety even allowed thoughts to drift away from the problems of political dissension in London.[10]
Prince Albert arrived at 10 a.m. at the Great Western Railway terminus. The royal train, conducted by Brunel himself, had taken two hours and forty minutes from London.[11] There was a guard of honour of members of the police force, soldiers and dragoons and, as the Prince stepped from the train, the band of the Life Guards played works by Labitsky and a selection from the "Ballet of Alma". Two sections of the platform were boarded off for the reception and it was noted by The Bristol Mirror that parts were covered with carpets from the Council House. The Prince Consort, dressed as a private gentleman, was accompanied by his equerry-in-waiting, personal secretary, the Marquess of Exeter, and Lords Wharncliffe, Liverpool, Lincoln and Wellesley.[10]
Launch of Great Britain at Bristol, July 1843
Introductions were made, followed by the "Address to His Royal Highness the Prince Albert", by the town clerk, D. Burgess. Honours were then bestowed on him by the Society of Merchant Venturers, and there were speeches from members of the Bristol clergy. The royal party then had breakfast and, after 20 minutes, reappeared to board horse-drawn carriages.[10]
At noon, the Prince arrived at the Great Western Steamship yard only to find the ship already "launched" and waiting for royal inspection. He boarded the ship, took refreshments in the elegantly decorated lounge then commenced his tour of inspection. He was received in the ship's banqueting room where all the local dignitaries and their ladies were gathered.[10]
After the banquet and the toasts, he left for the naming ceremony. It had already been decided that the christening would be performed by Clarissa (1790–1868), wife of Philip John Miles (1773–1845) and mother of Bristol's MP, Philip William Skinner Miles (1816–1881), a director of the company.[12][13] She stepped forward, grasped the champagne bottle and swung it towards the bows. Unfortunately, the steam packet Avon had started to tow the ship into the harbour and the bottle fell about 10 feet (3.0 m) short of its target and dropped unbroken into the water. A second bottle was rapidly obtained and the Prince hurled it against the iron hull.[14]
In her haste, Avon had started her work before the shore warps had been released. The tow rope snapped and, due to the resultant delay, the Prince was obliged to return to the railway station and miss the end of the programme.[10]
Another extended delay
Following the launch ceremony, the builders had planned to have Great Britain towed to the Thames for her final fitting out. Unfortunately, the harbour authorities had failed to carry out the necessary modifications to their facilities in a timely manner.[15] Exacerbating the problem, the ship had been widened beyond the original plans to accommodate the propeller engines, and her designers had made a belated decision to fit the engines prior to launch, which resulted in a deeper draught.[16]
This dilemma was to result in another costly delay for the company, as Brunel's negotiations with the Bristol Dock Board dragged on for months. It was only through the intervention of the Board of Trade that the harbour authorities finally agreed to the lock modifications, which began in late 1844.[17]
After being trapped in the harbour for more than a year, Great Britain was, at last, floated out in December 1844, but not before causing more anxiety for her proprietors. After passing successfully through the first set of lock gates, she jammed on her passage through the second, which led to the River Avon. Only the seamanship of Captain Claxton (who after naval service held the position of quay warden (harbour master) at Bristol) enabled her to be pulled back and severe structural damage avoided. The following day an army of workmen, under the direct control of Brunel, took advantage of the slightly higher tide and removed coping stones and lock gate platforms from the Junction Lock, allowing the tug Samson, again under Claxton's supervision, to tow the ship safely into the Avon that midnight.[18]
When completed in 1845, Great Britain was a revolutionary vessel—the first ship to combine an iron hull with screw propulsion, and at 322 ft (98 m) in length and with a 3,400-ton displacement, more than 100 ft (30 m) longer and 1,000 tons larger than any ship previously built. Her beam was 50 ft 6 in (15.39 m) and her height from keel to main deck, 32 ft 6 in (9.91 m). She had four decks, including the spar (upper) deck, a crew of 120, and was fitted to accommodate a total of 360 passengers, along with 1,200 tons of cargo and 1,200 tons of coal for fuel.[1]
Like other steamships of the era, Great Britain was provided with secondary sail power, consisting of one square-rigged and five schooner-rigged masts—a relatively simple sail plan designed to reduce the number of crew required. The masts were of iron, fastened to the spar deck with iron joints, and with one exception, hinged to allow their lowering to reduce wind resistance in the event of a strong headwind. The rigging was of iron cable instead of the traditional hemp, again with a view to reducing wind resistance.[19] Another innovative feature was the lack of traditional heavy bulwarks around the main deck; a light iron railing [20] both reduced weight and allowed water shipped in heavy weather to run unimpeded back to sea.
The hull and single funnel amidships were both finished in black paint, with a single white stripe running the length of the hull highlighting a row of false gunports. The hull was flat-bottomed, with no external keel, and with bulges low on each side amidships which continued toward the stern in an unusual implementation of tumblehome—a result of the late decision to install propeller engines, which were wider at the base than the originally planned paddlewheel engines.[21]
Brunel, anxious to ensure the avoidance of hogging in a vessel of such unprecedented size, designed the hull to be massively redundant in strength. Ten longitudinal iron girders were installed along the keel, running from beneath the engines and boiler to the forward section. The iron ribs were 6 by 3 inches (15.2 cm × 7.6 cm) in size. The iron keel plates were an inch thick, and the hull seams were lapped and double riveted in many places. Safety features, which also contributed to the structural strength of the vessel, included a double bottom and five watertight iron bulkheads.[22][23] The total amount of iron, including the engines and machinery, was 1,500 tons.[24]
Two giant propeller engines, with a combined weight of 340 tons, were installed amidships.[24] They were built to a modified patent of Brunel's father Marc. The engines, which rose from the keel through the three lower decks to a height just below the main deck, were of the direct-acting type, with twin 88 in (220 cm) bore, 6-foot (1.8 m) stroke cylinders inclined upward at a 60° angle, capable of developing a total of 1,000 horsepower (750 kW) at 18 rpm.[22][25] Steam power was provided by three 34-foot (10 m) long by 22-foot (6.7 m) high by 10-foot (3.0 m) wide, 5 psi (34 kPa) "square" saltwater boilers, forward of the engines, with eight furnaces each – four at each end.[a]
In considering the gearing arrangement, Brunel had no precedent to serve as a guide. The gearing for Archimedes, of the spur-and-pinion type, had proven almost unbearably noisy, and would not be suitable for a passenger ship.[28] Brunel's solution was to install a chain drive. On the crankshaft between Great Britain's two engines, he installed an 18-foot (5.5 m) diameter primary gearwheel,[29] which, by means of a set of four massive inverted-tooth or "silent" chains, operated the smaller secondary gear near the keel, which turned the propeller shaft. This was the first commercial use of silent chain technology, and the individual silent chains installed in Great Britain are thought to have been the largest ever constructed.[30]
Great Britain's main propeller shaft, built by the Mersey Iron Works, was the largest single piece of machinery. 68 ft (21 m) long and 28 inches (71 cm) in diameter, the shaft was bored with a 10-inch (25 cm) diameter hole, reducing its weight and allowing cold water to be pumped through to reduce heat. At each end of the main propeller shaft were two secondary coupling shafts: a 28-foot (8.5 m), 16-inch (41 cm) diameter shaft beneath the engine, and a screw shaft of 25 ft (7.6 m) in diameter 16 inches (41 cm) at the stern. Total length of the three shafts was 130 ft (40 m), and the total weight 38 tons.[24] The shaft was geared upward at a ratio of 1 to 3, so that at the engines' normal operating speed of 18 rpm, the propeller turned at a speed of 54 rpm.[30] The initial propeller was a six-bladed "windmill" model of Brunel's own design,[31] 16 ft (4.9 m) in diameter and with pitch of 25 ft (7.6 m).[32]
Interior
The interior was divided into three decks, the upper two for passengers and the lower for cargo. The two passenger decks were divided into forward and aft compartments, separated by the engines and boiler amidships.[33]
In the after section of the ship, the upper passenger deck contained the after or principal saloon, 110 ft (34 m) long by 48 ft (15 m) wide, which ran from just aft of the engine room to the stern. On each side of the saloon were corridors leading to 22 individual passenger berths, arranged two deep, a total of 44 berths for the saloon as a whole. The forward part of the saloon, nearest the engine room, contained two 17-by-14-foot (5.2 m × 4.3 m) ladies' boudoirs or private sitting rooms, which could be accessed without entering the saloon from the 12 nearest passenger berths, reserved for women. The opposite end of the saloon opened onto the stern windows. Broad iron staircases at both ends of the saloon ran to the main deck above and the dining saloon below. The saloon was painted in "delicate tints", furnished along its length with fixed chairs of oak, and supported by 12 decorated pillars.[34]
Beneath the after saloon was the main or dining saloon, 98 ft 6 in (30.02 m) long by 30 ft (9.1 m) wide, with dining tables and chairs capable of accommodating up to 360 people at one sitting. On each side of the saloon, seven corridors opened onto four berths each, for a total number of berths per side of 28, or 56 altogether. The forward end of the saloon was connected to a stewards' galley, while the opposite end contained several tiers of sofas. This saloon was apparently the ship's most impressive of all the passenger spaces. Columns of white and gold, 24 in number, with "ornamental capitals of great beauty", were arranged down its length and along the walls, while eight Arabesque pilasters, decorated with "beautifully painted" oriental flowers and birds, enhanced the aesthetic effect. The archways of the doors were "tastefully carved and gilded" and surmounted with medallion heads. Mirrors around the walls added an illusion of spaciousness, and the walls themselves were painted in a "delicate lemon-tinted hue" with highlights of blue and gold.[34]
The two forward saloons were arranged in a similar plan to the after saloons, with the upper "promenade" saloon having 36 berths per side and the lower 30, totalling 132. Further forward, separate from the passenger saloons, were the crew quarters.[34] The overall finish of the passenger quarters was unusually restrained for its time, a probable reflection of the proprietors' diminishing capital reserves.[35] Total cost of construction of the ship, not including £53,000 for plant and equipment to build her, was £117,000[36]—£47,000 more than her original projected price tag of £70,000.
Service history
Transatlantic service
On 26 July 1845—seven years after the Great Western Steamship Company had decided to build a second ship, and five years overdue—Great Britain embarked on her maiden voyage, from Liverpool to New York under Captain James Hosken, with 45 passengers. The ship made the passage in 14 days and 21 hours, at an average speed of 9.25 knots (17.13 km/h; 10.64 mph) – almost 1.5 knots (2.8 km/h; 1.7 mph) slower than the prevailing record. She made the return trip in 13+1⁄2 days, again an unexceptional time.[35]
Brunel, who prior to commencement of service had substituted a six-bladed "windmill" design of his own for Smith's proven four-bladed propeller design, now decided to try to improve the speed by riveting an extra two inches of iron to each propeller blade. On her next crossing to New York, carrying 104 passengers, the ship ran into heavy weather, losing a mast and three propeller blades.[14] On 13 October, she ran aground on the Massachusetts Shoals. She was refloated and after obtaining a supply of coal from the American schooner David Coffin resumed her voyage.[37] After repairs in New York, she set out for Liverpool with only 28 passengers and lost four propeller blades during the crossing. By this time, another design flaw had become evident. The ship rolled heavily, especially in calm weather without the steadying influence of the sail, causing discomfort to passengers.[35]
The shareholders of the company again provided further funding to try to solve the problems. The six-bladed propeller was dispensed with and replaced with the original four-bladed, cast iron design. The third mast was removed, and the iron rigging, which had proven unsatisfactory, was replaced with conventional rigging. In a major alteration, two 110-foot-long (34 m) bilge keels were added to each side in an effort to lessen her tendency to roll.[38] These repairs and alterations delayed her return to service until the following year.[39]
In her second season of service in 1846, Great Britain successfully completed two round trips to New York at an acceptable speed, but was then laid up for repairs to one of her chain drums, which showed an unexpected degree of wear. Embarking on her third passage of the season to New York, her captain made a series of navigational errors that resulted in her being run hard aground in Dundrum Bay on the northeast coast of Ireland on 22 September. There was no formal inquiry but it has been recently suggested by Dr Helen Doe in her book 'SS Great Britain' that it was mainly due to the captain not having updated charts, so that he mistook the new St John's light for the Calf light on the Isle of Man.[40][41][42]
She remained aground for almost a year, protected by temporary measures organised by Brunel and James Bremner.[43] On 25 August 1847,[44] she was floated free at a cost of £34,000 and taken back to Liverpool, but this expense exhausted the company's remaining reserves. After languishing in Prince's Dock, Liverpool for some time, she was sold to Gibbs, Bright & Co., former agents of the Great Western Steamship Company, for a mere £25,000.[45][46]
Refit and return to service
Great Britain in 1853, after her refit to four masts
The new owners decided not merely to give the vessel a total refit; the keel, badly damaged during the grounding, was completely renewed along a length of 150 feet (46 m), and the owners took the opportunity to further strengthen the hull. The old keelsons were replaced and 10 new ones laid, which ran the entire length of the keel. Both the bow and stern were also strengthened by heavy frames of double angle iron.[47]
Reflecting the rapid advances in propeller engine technology, the original engines were removed and replaced with a pair of smaller, lighter and more modern oscillating engines, with 82.5-inch (210 cm) cylinders and 6-foot (180 cm) stroke, built by John Penn & Sons of Greenwich. They were also provided with more support at the base and supported further by the addition of both iron and wood beams running transversely across the hull, which had the added benefit of reducing engine vibration.[47]
The cumbersome chain-drive gearing was replaced with a simpler and by now proven cog-wheel arrangement, although the gearing of the engines to the propeller shaft remained at a ratio of one to three. The three large boilers were replaced with six smaller ones, operating at 10 psi (69 kPa) or twice the pressure of their predecessors. Along with a new 300-foot (91 m) cabin on the main deck, the smaller boilers allowed the cargo capacity to be almost doubled, from 1,200 to 2,200 tons.[47]
The four-bladed propeller was replaced by a slightly smaller three-bladed model, and the bilge keels, previously added to reduce the tendency to roll, were replaced by a heavy external oak keel for the same purpose. The five-masted schooner sail-plan was replaced by four masts, two of which were square-rigged.[47] With the refit complete, Great Britain went back into service on the New York run. After only one further round trip she was sold again, to Antony Gibbs & Sons, which planned to place her into England–Australia service.[47]
Australian service
Antony Gibbs & Sons may have intended to employ Great Britain only to exploit a temporary demand for passenger service to the Australian goldfields following the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851,[48] but she found long-term employment on this route. For her new role, she was given a third refit. Her passenger accommodation was increased from 360 to 730, and her sail plan altered to a traditional three-masted, square-rigged pattern. She was fitted with a removable propeller, which could be hauled up on deck by chains to reduce drag when under sail power alone.[49]
In 1852, Great Britain made her first voyage to Melbourne, Australia, carrying 630 emigrants. She excited great interest there, with 4,000 people paying a shilling each to inspect her. She operated on the England–Australia route for almost 30 years, interrupted only by two relatively brief sojourns as a troopship during the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny.[49] Gradually, she earned a reputation as the most reliable of the emigrant ships to Australia and carried the first English cricket team to tour Australia in 1861.[50]
Alexander Reid, writing in 1862, recorded some statistics of a typical voyage. The ship, with a crew of 143, put out from Liverpool on 21 October 1861, carrying 544 passengers (including the English cricket team that was the first to visit Australia), a cow, 36 sheep, 140 pigs, 96 goats and 1,114 chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys. The journey to Melbourne (her ninth) occupied 64 days, during which the best day's run was 354 miles and the worst 108. With favourable winds the ship travelled under sail alone, the screw being withdrawn from the water. Three passengers died en route. The captain was John Gray, a Scot, who had held the post since before the Crimean War.[51]
On 8 December 1863, she was reported to have been wrecked on Santiago, Cape Verde Islands whilst on a voyage from London to Nelson, New Zealand. All on board were rescued.[52] On 8 October 1868 The Argus reported "To-day, at daylight, the fine steamship Great Britain will leave her anchorage in Hobson's Bay, for Liverpool direct. On this occasion she carries less than her usual complement of passengers, the season not being a favourite one with colonists desiring to visit their native land. Great Britain, however, has a full cargo, and carries gold to the value of about £250,000. As she is in fine trim, we shall probably have, in due time, to congratulate Captain Gray on having achieved another successful voyage."[53][54] Gray died under mysterious circumstances, going missing overnight during a return voyage from Melbourne, on the night of 25/26 November 1872.[55][56] On 22 December, she rescued the crew of the British brig Druid, which had been abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean.[57] On 19 November 1874, she collided with the British ship Mysore in the Sloyne, losing an anchor and sustaining hull damage.[58] Great Britain was on a voyage from Melbourne to Liverpool.[59]
Later history
In 1882 Great Britain was converted into a sailing ship to transport bulk coal.[60] She made her final voyage in 1886, after loading up with coal and leaving Penarth Dock in Wales for Panama on 8 February.[61] After a fire on board en route she was found on arrival at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands where she ran aground. She was found to be damaged beyond economic repair.[60][62] She was sold to the Falkland Islands Company and used, afloat, as a storage hulk (coal bunker) until 1937, when she was towed to Sparrow Cove, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Port Stanley, scuttled and abandoned.[63] As a bunker, she coaled the South Atlantic fleet that defeated Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee's fleet in the First World War Battle of the Falkland Islands.[64] In the Second World War, some of her iron was scavenged to repair HMS Exeter, one of the Royal Navy ships that fought Graf Spee and was badly damaged during the Battle of the River Plate.[65]