| Description | Letterbook for the Great Ship Company, the successor to the Eastern Steam Navigation Company, containing copies of letters to and from Isambard Kingdom Brunel regarding the Great Eastern. This volume begins after the launching of the Great Eastern and covers the fitting out of the ship ready for her first voyage and preparations for the first voyage. The volume also touches on Brunel's last illness and the explosion of one of the ship's funnel casings during the first, trial voyage to Weymouth. The correspondence ends on Folio 214 with Folios 215 to 384 left blank. |