The hull was an all-iron construction, a double hull of wrought iron in plates with ribs every . Internally the hull was divided by two long, high, longitudinal bulkheads and further transverse bulkheads dividing the ship into nineteen compartments. The "Great Eastern" was the first ship to incorporate the double-skinned hull, a feature which would not be seen again in a ship for 100 years, but which is now compulsory for reasons of safety. She had sail, paddle and screw propulsion. The paddle-wheels were in diameter and the four-bladed screw-propeller was across. The power came from four steam engines for the paddles and an additional engine for the propeller. Total power was estimated at . She had six masts (said to be named after the days of a week - Monday being the fore mast and Saturday the spanker mast), providing space for of sails (7 gaff and maximum 9 (usually 4) square sails), rigged similar to a topsail schooner with a main gaff sail (fore-and-aft sail) on each mast, one "jib" on the fore mast and three square sails on masts no. 2 and no. 3 (Tuesday & Wednesday); for a time mast no. 4 was also fitted with 3 yards. In later years, some of the yards were removed. According to some sources she would have carried . This amount of canvas is obviously too much for seven fore-and-aft sails and maximum 9 square sails. This (larger) figure of sail area lies only a few square meters below that the famous Flying P-Liner carried - with her five full-rigged masts of 30 square sails and a lot of stay sails. Setting sails turned out to be unusable at the same time as the paddles and screw were under steam, because the hot exhaust from the five (later four) funnels would set them on fire. Her maximum speed was .