Iron-hulled ship

What it is

The replacement of timber with riveted iron plates, allowing much larger, more watertight and stronger ships. Brunel's SS Great Britain was the first transatlantic liner to combine an iron hull with a screw propeller.

The first iron ship to sail on open sea was the Aaron Manby (built in Tipton, assembled in London, 1821); the Great Britain was built in Bristol and launched in 1843.

What it led to

• Giant ships (the Great Eastern, 1858) and emigrant transport on an industrial scale
• The Clyde, Tyne and Mersey shipyards as world centres
• The decline of wooden shipbuilding and of the American merchant marine
• Iron-hulled ironclads (the Gloire, 1859, and the Warrior, 1860)

Built on

• Puddling and rolling1784
• Commercial steamboat1807
• Screw propeller1836-1839
• Regular transatlantic steam crossing (Sirius and Great Western)1838
• Rolling of iron plates

Made possible

• Compensating compass deviation in iron ships (Airy)1839
• SS Great Eastern (double hull and giant ship)1858-1859
• Ironclad warship (Gloire and Warrior)1859-1860
• USS Monitor (rotating-turret warship)1862
• Transatlantic telegraph cable1858 / 1866
• Isherwood longitudinal framing1906 (patente); 1908 (primer buque)
• Transatlantic cable
• Refrigerated ship
• Steel ship

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