S.S. Great Britain, Picture 1, Edited Version, Bristol, England (UK), 2012

A few days before I went to Bristol, I was going through Wikipedia entries on on 19th-Century steam ships, partly because of my concern regarding the U.S.S. Olympia, which is in danger of scrapping. One of the preserved steamships that I read about was the S.S. Great Britain, which I had presumed was long scrapped. To my surprise, I read the story of its rescue and preservation in the 1970's. I had forgotten it was sent to Britain, and when I saw it in the harbor I just assumed it was an old whaling ship or even a U.S. Navy ship (due to the black paint with the white stripe down the side). My taxi driver noticed me looking at it, and brought it up. He asked if I knew what ship it was. I mentioned that I had been reading about old ships, and that I knew it couldn't be the Great Britain. He corrected me that it really was, so I went to see it the next day. I took a large number of photos of it, and the ones I'm posting to iPernity are only a small portion of them. This is the stern, of course. The dry dock that it's displayed in has been permanently pumped out, and wavy glass resembling water has been installed around the waterline, with a little bit of water pumped over it. Visitors are allowed under the glass to see the hull below the waterline.