Sunday 3 March 2013

The Iron Ship – Ewan Corlett

The Iron Ship – Ewan Corlett

The HMS Titanic has been hailed as the ship that “changed the world.” To my recollection it did not have a great track record; it only lasted a few weeks! When I began to read “The Iron Ship” I was astonished to learn that the SS Great Britain is still around today, you can even board her, 170 years after she was built! Designed by Britain’s most prolific engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the SS Great Britain was the world’s first great ocean liner. She was launched by Prince Albert and called “The greatest experiment since the Creation”
The SS Great Britain was the first iron steam ship to cross the Atlantic in 14 days, unheard of in its day. The iron ship went all over the world bringing passengers and cargo to the ends of the earth flying under a British Flag and showing the Britain did in fact rule the waves.
Dr Ewan Corlett, seems to have produced this book under a labour of love, it is packed full of beautiful paintings of the ship, close ups of its ground breaking ingenious designs, like the screw propeller and mind blowing facts!
I was hooked when I picked up “The Iron Ship”, charmingly wrote, full of passion and awe with great respect given to a ship that changed sea fairing for a hundred years, and to think that you can have parties, meetings and even get married on board today is fantastic.
The story of the SS Great Britain sounds unbelievable, from its “birth” to near-death experiences, being moored on the Falkland’s and the plan to restore her to glory. Text-books need to written like this! A real life floating museum, more stories than you can imagine and they are all true! 5 out of 5.

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