SS Great Eastern was a revolutionary British steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and launched in 1858. Built with an iron hull and powered by both paddle wheels and a screw propeller, she was by far the largest ship ever constructed at the time. Designed to carry up to 4,000 passengers on long-distance voyages without refuelling, Great Eastern was decades ahead of her era in size and engineering. Although her passenger service between Britain and North America was commercially unsuccessful, she later found fame as a cable-laying ship. In 1866, she successfully laid the first durable transatlantic telegraph cable, helping to transform global communications. After her maritime career ended, she served as a floating exhibition and advertising platform in Liverpool before being scrapped in 1889.
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