The technological origins of the modern ocean liners: A revaluation of the Great Eastern's failure theory.

摘要

The thesis investigated mainly the developments in iron-hull design, demonstrating that the Great Eastern steamship, which maritime historians regarded as a complete failure, was in fact a technological success that greatly added to the development of gigantic ocean liners in the early twentieth century. The paper challenged the Great Eastern failure theory and demonstrated that the Great Eastern, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, had a great impact on the development of the modern ocean liner. Brunel's design enabled the ships to be built out of iron plates that were later riveted to the web of transversal and longitudinal watertight bulkheads. The Great Eastern was successful as the model for future shipping design and her rib-less iron-hull, cellular flat bottom, watertight compartments, and the distinctive look of her hull based on the hydrodynamical experiments, were followed on all gigantic ocean liners of the twentieth century.