Lot 64
64
[THE GREAT BRITAIN] CLAXTON, Christopher. A Description of the Great Britain Steam Ship, built at Bristol, for the proprietors of the Great Western Steam Ship Company, with remarks on the comparative merits of iron and wood as materials for ship building, and reports of her experimental trips, and voyage round to London, Bristol: printed at the Mirror Office by John Taylor, 1845, 8°, fifth edition, 18pp. including wood-engraved frontispiece, 4 lithographed plates on 2 leaves at end, modern boards, original printed wrappers bound in.

Details
[THE GREAT BRITAIN] CLAXTON, Christopher. A Description of the Great Britain Steam Ship, built at Bristol, for the proprietors of the Great Western Steam Ship Company, with remarks on the comparative merits of iron and wood as materials for ship building, and reports of her experimental trips, and voyage round to London, Bristol: printed at the Mirror Office by John Taylor, 1845, 8°, fifth edition, 18pp. including wood-engraved frontispiece, 4 lithographed plates on 2 leaves at end, modern boards, original printed wrappers bound in.

Lot Essay

Brunel's "Great Britain" was the first iron steam ship built for and employed on the Atlantic. The initial success of the "Great Western," launched on July 19, 1837, inevitably led to plans for a still larger vessel that would have to be of iron. Originally called the "Mammoth," she too was built at Bristol by Paterson and floated out on July 19, 1843. With a displacement of 3618 tons, she was four times larger than other iron vessels, and the first large ship to be driven by a screw.

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