The S.S. Great Britain was the second of Isambard Brunel's famous steamships, the others being the Great Walter and the Great Eastern. All were noteworthy in their day for their design, size and performance, and also for their mishaps. Begun in 1839, the Great Britain was launched by the Prince Consort at Bristol on 19 July 1843. On her fifth transatlantic voyage in September 1846 she ran aground on the rocks in Dundrum Bay, Ireland. Despite her being left structurally sound she was not refloated until nearly a year later, on 27 August 1847. Meanwhile Brunel protected the ship with faggots of birchwood, skewered with iron rods and placed under the stem and along the port side, as shown in our drawing. (See J. Pudney, Brunel and his World, 1974, pp. 82-8).
Another version of this drawing, a painting of 1847, is reproduced in Pudney, op. cit., p. 86