Ahoy there, matey!

Today is one of our last Saturdays in Bristol and we realized that if we were ever going to visit Bristol’s best known tourist attraction we’d better hurry up. Surprisingly we have taken all of our visitors to see Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s SS Great Britain but had never actually toured the ship.  I suppose then its about time we checked it offer our list. I covered the SS Great Britain’s long and storied past shortly after we moved to Bristol, so if you are interested in the history click here.

Our day started like most in Bristol have started this year. Cold and wet! We began our visit at the café attached to the museum for a warm cup of hot chocolate to fortify us for an afternoon outside in the cold. The doors to the dry dock open to the stern of the ship and this view of the refurbished ocean liner.

As you approach the ship it appears as if she is still floating in the docks and ready to take to the high seas as if she never found herself scuttled and abandoned on a sandbar off the coast of the Falkland Islands in 1937. Yet as you walk through the moisture barrier you get your first views below the water and an idea as to just how much damage the elements can do over three quarters of a decade. The hull is littered with holes anywhere from pin to softball sized and that’s not even taking into account the scare on the starboard side of the ship that runs from the keel nearly to the gunwales.

After completing a circuit around the hull we ascended back above the waterline and made our way through the exhibit which tells the story of the Brunel’s ship from commissioning through restoration.  It is a very good exhibit and adds quite a bit of depth to the story thanks to numerous news articles, letters from passengers, paintings and eyewitness accounts throughout the duration of her service. 

Once you’ve worked your way through the onshore exhibit, you will find yourself on the bow of the ship where you receive an audio guide for your self-guided tour. Through the audio guide, you can choose to experience the ship from several different passenger perspectives including a posh upper class couple or a young working class family, both of which are looking forward a new life in a brave new world. The picture below is from the upper class berths situated just below the main deck and stretch from the main long mast to stern.

Our next stop was the upper levels of the engine room and as you can see from the photos below the equipment is staggeringly large. So of course to properly maintain and repair their engine room they needed properly large spanners as well.

Once we were finished inspecting the engines we moved on to steerage and found a bit of luggage left over from one of our summer guests. Hope there wasn’t anything important in your box, Bill.

We finished our tour with a stop in the Grand Dining Hall with its plush carpets, marbled columns and gilded mirrors. However, the most impressive item in the Dining Hall where the benches with moving backrest. I personally thought they were brilliant and am completely amazed I haven’t ever seen them anywhere else before.

As we were leaving the SS Great Britain we took a final few photos of the bow of the with its clean lines and ornate figurehead and were really happy we took the time to finally go and visit Bristol’s most famous ocean liner.