A Suggestion! The Leviathan, What to do with her now you've got her off, 1858...

Artist: Watts Phillips (1825-1874) The Leviathan, what to do with her now you've got her off. This print is with every feeling of sympathy, &c, dedicated to The Shareholders, by their obedient servants, the Publishers. Published January 1858, by Ackermann & Co (active 1829-1859), 106, Strand, London; Edmund Walker (1814-1882) lithographer; Day & Son, (William Day snr (1797–1845) William Day the younger (1823-1906)) lithographers to the Queen. The SS Great Eastern was an iron sail-powered, paddle wheel, and screw-propelled steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) and built at Millwall Iron Works on the River Thames. 'Great Eastern', then by far the largest ship ever built, was taken to Deptford where she was fitted out to the standards of a luxury hotel. She was subsequently used as a passenger liner between Britain and North America before being converted to a cable-laying ship, laying the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866. This print was issued in the month of the boat's launching in January 1858. 628ft long and with a displacement of 22,500 tons, this `Crystal Palace of the Sea' during construction was feted by poets, song writers, photographers and artists. But her investors, already faced with mounting costs, had to attend four launching ceremonies before the ship was completely floated in January 1858. This cartoon suggests an idea for a fast return on that investment in the form of a vast pleasure centre. it shows the boat converted into a casino and concert hall and is decked with billboards advertising a variety of attractions more suited to the fairground or variety theatre than to a ship. Ironically, having been used for some years as a floating music hall and advertising hoarding for the department store Lewis's in Liverpool, the “Great Eastern” was finally broken up on Merseyside in 1889.