SS Great Britain Trust Collection

The collection began to be accumulated after the salvage of the SS Great Britain from the Falkland Islands in 1970 and its return to Bristol. As conservation and restoration of the ship got underway, the team began researching the history of the ship and uncovering artefacts and documents associated with the ship’s working life.

The collection covers the construction and design of the SS Great Britain, as well as the history of its varied working life until 1886, its subsequent use in the Falkland Islands as a floating warehouse until the 1930s and being abandoned in Sparrow Cove until the salvage in 1970.

There are nearly one hundred diaries and letters in the collection which were written by passengers who travelled on the SS Great Britain. Their descriptions give a fascinating insight into life on board, from the food and entertainment to the behaviour of fellow passengers. Sheet music, dinner menus, drawings and artefacts further enrich the story of the SS Great Britain. A full set of crew agreements and passenger lists has survived for the voyages of the ship, and details of roughly 33,000 people can be found in the Global Stories database.

The collection further covers the history of the first ship of the Great Western Steamship Company, the first transatlantic steamship PS Great Western. As the first steamship to regularly cross the North Atlantic, the PS Great Western was a wooden paddle steamer that operated between Bristol and New York. She was a ship that changed the world, and her success resulted in the construction of the SS Great Britain which surpassed her in technological advancement and size, but never in speed. The history of the two ships offers a window into the development of steam technology at sea and the shrinking of the world of the mid-19th century, with reduced voyage times, regular voyage schedules, and faster communication than ever before.

Some documents and artefacts relating to the history of the SS Great Britain are on display in the SS Great Britain Experience Museum. Items relating to the PS Great Western can be found on the ground floor of the Being Brunel Museum on site. All other items can be accessed and viewed in the Brunel Institute.