The SS Great Britain was the first ocean-going ship to have an iron hull and a screw propeller and, when launched, was the largest vessel afloat. She originally carried 120 first-class passengers, 132 second-class passengers, and 130 officers and crew. When an extra deck was added, it increased the number of passengers to 730.
The SS Great Britain was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Thomas Guppy, Christopher Claxton, and William Patterson for the Great Western Steamship Company and built in a specially adapted dry dock in Bristol, England. Weather conditions on the day of the launch were generally favorable with large crowds gathering, eagerly anticipating the unfurling of the Royal Emblem. Prince Albert boarded the ship and inspected it at 12 noon.
She was towed away from her builders to have her engines and interior fitted out on the River Thames. She was moored in the Floating Harbour for a year or more before proceeding into Cumberland Basin in December 1944. At the time of her launch in 1843, she was by far the largest ship in the world, over 100 feet longer than her rivals, and the first screw-propelled, ocean-going wrought iron ship.
