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
Millwall Iron Works John Scott Russell built complete ships in the works, fully fitted out, which they then floated out on to the river as ready to go ships. One of their earliest commissions was the iron steamer "Taman," completed in 1848 for the Imperial Russian government to operate from the Black Sea ports. On 31 January 1858, the largest ship of that time, the designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was launched from 'Napier Yard' the shipyard leased by Messrs J. Scott Russell & Co. The 211 metre (692 ft) length was too wide for the river, and the ship had to be