Isambard Kingdom Brunel to produce a solution. Brunel was working on the "Great Eastern" amongst other projects, but accepted the task in February 1855 of designing and building the War Office requirement of a temporary, pre-fabricated hospital that could be shipped to Crimea and erected there. In 5 months the team he had assembled designed, built, and shipped pre-fabricated wood and canvas buildings, providing them complete with advice on transportation and positioning of the facilities. Brunel had been working with Gloucester Docks-based William Eassie on the launching stage for the "Great Eastern"; Eassie had designed and built wooden prefabricated huts used in both
Isambard Kingdom Brunel first ship to cross the Atlantic under steam power alone. Even with a four-day head start, the competing arrived only one day earlier and its crew was forced to burn cabin furniture, spare yards and one mast for fuel. In contrast, the "Great Western" crossing of the Atlantic took 15 days and five hours, and the ship arrived at her destination with a third of its coal still remaining, demonstrating that Brunel's calculations were correct. The "Great Western" had proved the viability of commercial transatlantic steamship service, which led the Great Western Steamboat Company to use her in regular service