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
Great Western Steamship Company Britain" appeared to be a total loss after running aground. The company might have had a more successful outcome had it built sister ships for the "Great Western" instead of investing in the too advanced "Great Britain". By the 1830s, Liverpool was overtaking Bristol as a transatlantic port. The Great Western Railway was formed in 1833 to build a Bristol-London line and appointed Isambard Kingdom Brunel as chief engineer. The issue of the line's length was discussed at an 1835 director's meeting when supposedly Brunel joked that the line could be made longer by building a steamship to run between