Isambard Kingdom Brunel Brunel's achievements as an engineer. The 2013 album "The Last Ship" by Sting includes the song "Ballad of the Great Eastern". Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859), was an English mechanical and civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", and "one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs and ingenious constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the
Francis Pettit Smith for propelling vessels by means of a screw revolving beneath the water at the stern. After securing the financial backing of several parties, he helped organize the Propeller Steamship Company which in 1839 built the world's first successful screw-propelled steamship, . A short time later, he was instrumental in persuading Isambard Kingdom Brunel to change the design of the SS "Great Britain" from paddle to screw propulsion, by lending Brunel the "Archimedes" for several months. He also helped persuade the British Admiralty to adopt screw propulsion. Between 1864 and 1870 he resided in an elegant Victorian house at 17 Sydenham