SS Great Eastern the water company supplying Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in Dorset, UK, and used as a filtering device. It was later transferred to the Bristol Maritime Museum close to Brunel's SS "Great Britain" then moved to the SS "Great Britain" museum. SS Great Eastern SS "Great Eastern" was an iron sailing steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and built by J. Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall Iron Works on the River Thames, London. She was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers from England to
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