The Isle of Dogs

I was looking through some photos and came across some taken roughly a year ago while having a look at the launch site on Napier Avenue of the SS Great Eastern. It was the largest ship to have been built in its day, 1858, and indeed was too large to launch traditionally….thus it was launched sideways into the Thames. Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed her and she was intended to carry passengers and cargo between England and Australia. She was the first ship to be constructed mainly of metal. Two slipways were constructed to accommodate the launch on November 3rd, which failed. This was witnessed by thousands of visitors to the chagrin of the mortified Brunel. Three more attempts were made in the months to follow before the Great Eastern was finally launched on 31 January 1858.

On 9 September 1859, after having been kitted out, she set sail for Maine on a transatlantic trial. Just past Hastings there was a massive explosion….the number 1 funnel blew off as there was a rush of steam…five stokers died from burns, five or six others were injured and a man was lost overboard. She finally embarked on her first complete transatlantic voyage in 17 June 1860.

There followed three years of transatlantic crossings, carrying variable numbers of passenger and cargo and encountering desperately perilous difficulties…involving the loss of one the paddles, hitting an outcropping rock when her draught was increased under load, losing her rudder and ramming a smaller boat. While the Civil War raged in the States, and materials being restricted for the war efforts, repairs were costly and time consuming….

In1864 she was sold at auction to Daniel Gooch, Thomas Brassey, and John Pender for £25,000. They set up The Great Eastern Steamship Company and after a conversion, the Great Eastern became a cable laying ship until her retirement in 1870. At that time she was refitted as a passenger ship but was mostly used a showboat, floating palace, gymnasium and advertising hoarding locally in Liverpool…until 1888 when she was sold as scrap for £18,000. After 18 months, she was finally broken up on the River Mersey. Brunel died soon after her catastrophic maiden voyage, so was spared the observing of his great plans for a ship that could travel nonstop to Australia crumble into just dreams.

The SS Great Eastern was uniquely designed…she had a double skinned hull, her length was 211m and she had the capacity for 4,000 passengers….she had paddle, sail and steam propulsion….six sails gave her a grand profile, but proved unsafe when steam and paddle wheels were in use and steam was coming from the original five, then four funnels. It is reported that when she was being dismantled two skeletons were found in the double hulls, clearly they would have died when she was being built.

It appears to my reading that the shipyard and launch site are very close to the ley line that runs though Greenwich Naval College from Canterbury to Abbey Gore. Alfred Watkins identified patterns of alignment of buildings and byways and roads that form a pattern linking areas of historic or current power, buildings such as churches or significance like the Tower of London or Parliament. It is stated that there is an energy generated on these lines, and even a magnetism.

It is possibly a coincidence that the first great iron ship, built with such hope and expectation created a reputation of being cursed or haunted. It is unprovable….