Industry assistance ensures Brunel’s historic steamship won’t rust in pieces

After a career as the world’s fastest, largest and most luxurious liner, the SS Great Britain became a workhorse, transporting troops to the Crimean War in 1855, and humping coal for battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914. Deliberately sunk off Port Stanley in 1937, she was refloated in 1970 and resides in dry dock in Bristol.

Now the trust looking after her is keen to halt the rusting of her iron hull by immersing it in a giant dehumidification chamber and sealing it with a thick glass plate. The glass can withstand anything from tools being dropped from the rigging, to a drunken guest falling overboard.

This waterline plate consists of laminated glass panels supported by horizontal steel joists and glass beams, with additional support from tubular steel columns rising from the dock floor. The plate is fixed and anchored to the dock wall and the hull using a watertight flexible joint to allow for slight movement in the vast iron hull. Total size of the glass is 1,000 m2. Once work is complete a layer of water 50mm deep will flow across the plate and will help act as an insulator and give the illusion that the ship is afloat.

The team comprises of experts from Cardiff University, iron conservators Eura Conservation and project manager Capita Symonds. Engineers Arup and architects Alec French partnership have worked closely with consulting engineers WSP, glass specialists Space Decks, and construction company Bluestone. A total of 170 laminated glass panels make up the waterline plate. The panels are of different sizes, the largest is 4.34m by 1.88m, and weighs 450kg.

Brunel’s wrought iron steamship is regarded as the forerunner of all modern shipping and exemplifies the inventiveness of the Victorians. At 322 feet, the SS Great Britain was the biggest ship in the world at the time of her launch in 1843. She combined the technologies of the screw propeller and iron hull for the first time.