Cursed and Haunted Ship The "Great Eastern"

By James Donahue

If ever there was a ship with a curse on its haunted decks, it had to be Isambard Brunel’s colossal steamship Great Eastern. Although not considered large when compared to the super tankers and luxury liners plying the oceans today, Brunel’s steamship, launched on the Thames River at London in 1858, was 680 feet in length. Thus it was a monster for its time, an estimated six times larger than any ship ever built.

Although steam powered ships were a relatively new innovation in its day, The Great Eastern boasted amazing engineering that is still being used. For example, the steamer was given a double iron hull, attached to a girder frame. It was driven by both paddle wheels on its sides, and a propeller. Construction of such a massive ship involved millions of hand-driven rivets. An estimated 1,000 workers were hired to comprise 200 “rivet gangs” to get the job done. Because someone small had to squeeze inside the narrow space between the double hulls, young “bash boys” were hired to do this work. These boys spent 12-hour days in the confined space between the hulls, the only light furnished by a candle, and enduring the deafening thunder of the riveters’ hammers.

Some of them never came out. Their skeletal remains were found when the ship was dismantled for scrap. Boys fell to their death while working at deadly heights. Other gruesome accidents took the lives of other workers. Brunel built his ship facing parallel to the river and planned a side launch. When the hull was at last finished and the great launch day arrived in November, 1857, the people of London gathered to watch. This is when the curse first made itself known. One written account of events that day told of how the workers removed the massive blocks holding the ship in place. “Just after noon there was a cry of ‘She moves, she moves.’ The multiplying winch that was to control the launch spun out of control throwing the men operating it into the air. John Donovan, aged 74, died from severe internal injuries, and a further four men were injured. The ship had moved just three feet.”...