Brunel's iron clad steam ship stunned New Yorkers as she completed her maiden voyage in 1845 from Bristol to New York in just 14 days. After acting as a troop carrier during the Crimea War the ship was abandoned on the Falklands. It was salvaged in the 1980s and towed across the Atlantic and back up the River Avon to the dockyard where it had originally been built. Now fully restored, it's a museum. To stop the hull from rusting away it is kept in an impressively designed chamber where the humidity is the same as in the Arizona desert.
Great Western Dockyard,
Gas Ferry Road BS1 6TY
www.ssgreatbritain.org
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
Search Been there