Tim Bryan, Director of the Brunel Institute, writes: The SS Great Britain Trust was grateful for the support of the FNL in the purchase at auction of a rare autograph letter from the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel to his son Isambard who was then studying at the University of Oxford. It was written soon after the launch of the SS Great Eastern steamship.
The Brunel Institute, a collaborative venture between the SS Great Britain Trust and the University of Bristol houses one of the world’s finest maritime collections and the internationally significant National Brunel collection which includes diaries, sketchbooks, correspondence and objects relating to the lives and work of Marc and Isambard Brunel.
The 10-page letter was sent on 2nd February 1858 after a fraught and stressful period in the engineer’s life: difficulties encountered during the construction of the huge ship had been made worse when the vessel resolutely refused to budge from the shipyard on the side of the Thames at Millwall during its first attempted launch on 3rd November 1857. A number of further unsuccessful attempts were made to move the 18,000-ton ship but it was not until 31 January 1858 that it was finally floated off.
In the letter Brunel tells his son ‘I have had a hard time of it and have felt the advantages of perseverance and patience’, which in the circumstances was something of an understatement but also provides some explanation as to why the original launch failed and some of the reasons for final success. There is also an interesting insight into Brunel’s views on spirituality when he tells his son that he had ‘prayed fervently and that, in the end my prayers have been, or have appeared to me to have been granted and that I have received great comfort.’
The letter also shows the affection Brunel had for his son; he wrote ‘Tho’ I did not regret your absence on the day, I should have much liked to have had you here afterwards’.
The provenance of the letter, and the wooden box it was contained in, can be traced directly through the Brunel family and importantly complements a telegram purchased by the Trust in 2020 from the young Isambard’s mother Mary, informing him of the safe launch of the ship.
Following some minor conservation work the letter, along with many other items relating to the life and work of one of Britain’s most iconic engineers was made available for consultation at the Brunel Institute.
