She left Liverpool on August 17, and arrived off Montauk Point, at the entrance to Long Island Sound, at about two in the morning of the 27th, to take in the pilot. While stopping, a loud rumbling noise was heard, and presently the ship heeled slightly over to one side. The pilot, when he came on board, said that the ship had passed over a reef of sunken rocks, which was not marked on the charts.
It was at the same time found that many of the spaces between the double skins were full of water. The ship went on to New York, and most of the passengers landed in ignorance of an accident which in any other vessel would have been fatal.
Steps were at once taken to examine the damage, and the divers reported a large fracture in the outer skin 80 feet long and about 10 feet broad. They also discovered afterwards several smaller fractures. It was considered that this damage might be mended while the vessel was afloat, and a very skilful arrangement, contrived by Messrs. Renwick, of New York, was adopted. A large wooden barge was made with a gunwale shaped to fit the ship’s side, and two wooden passages leading down into the barge. It was placed so as to cover the large fracture, and was secured by chains passed round the bottom of the ship. The joint between the gunwale of the barge and the ship’s side was made water-tight; the water was pumped out, and men and materials passed down through the shafts. By the exertions of those engaged in this difficult operation, the great fracture was repaired, and the ship returned to England in the beginning of 1863.
A gridiron was made at Birkenhead; the ship was placed on it, and the repairs were proceeded with under the direction of Mr. Brereton, who at Mr. Brunel’s death succeeded him as engineer to the Great Ship Company. On examination, it was found that fractures had been made in ten separate places in the outer skin.
The ship started again in May 1863, and made three voyages to New York and home. At this time, however, there was a severe competition with other vessels, and the Company could not afford to run the ship unremuneratively for any length of time. In 1864 she passed into the hands of a new company, which consisted almost entirely of those who, from their belief in the capabilities of the ship, had found the money for starting her again after each of her successive misfortunes.
The ship lay idle for some months, and was then chartered by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company.
The ‘Great Eastern’ had in the course of the four years from 1860 to 1863 made nine voyages across the Atlantic and back. Though this was not the route for which she had been intended, it had given her many opportunities of showing her merits. Adverse fortune had added to these opportunities, and had at the same time demonstrated the necessity of many of the precautions which Mr. Brunel had taken to ensure her safety.
The construction of the hull of the ship has been proved by experience to possess the advantages anticipated by Mr. Brunel.
Its strength as a whole has been proved by the absence of all signs of weakness in the heavy weather she encountered on several occasions, and especially in the gale of 1861, when her rudder was disabled. The strength of the ship has since been fully tested by the enormous loads she has carried while on telegraph cable expeditions.
The importance of the double skin was shown on the occasion of her grinding over the rocks at Montauk Point, when so large a number of leaks were made in all parts of her bottom that no ordinary system of bulkheads would have saved her from foundering. Moreover, the space between the two skins was sufficient to allow of the outer skin and the webs being crushed to the extent of three feet, while they at the same time acted as a buffer and prevented the inner skin from coming in contact with the rock.