Great Eastern - the ongoing quest

[Christian]

Hello group,

Thanks PJ for considering me as the "guiding light" regarding the Great Eastern.

Research is still running at full steam. I won't promise answers to all questions in our upcoming site but I'm sure it will be most helpful to Great Eastern buffs. Please be patient....

Of course once the site is up, any kind of input will be highly appreciated and we will update it frequently. Our most recent discovery is that the GE most likely had a copper paint stripe between the black upper hull and the anti-fouling red lower hull when launched, most likely because people were used to ships with a copper plated lower hull at the period. Of course real copper would have destroyed the iron plating within weeks due to galvanic action. We need to find out if the copper area remained after the outfitting. If so, most existing models have the lower hull wrong.

It's a huge puzzle. Pieces are coming in slowly and one by one and they need to be checked and double checked...

All the best

Christian

[Derek Warner]

on February 24, 2002 11:39 AM (chrissch@iol.pt) > Christian wrote
GE most likely had a copper paint stripe between the black upper hull and
the
anti-fouling red lower hull
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Christian - would they have termed the paint as "anti-fouling" in that
period?

I know little about paints (of new or old), but would have thought they may
have
had a choice of hull paints being - black tar based paint or red (iron)
oxide paint
or plumbonium (lead) based paint or (copper) oxide paint

The iron, lead or copper may have leached out and had an anti-fouling
effect,
but was it understood or discussed & documented as such?

May have been the forerunner of todays multi coloured self polishing
co-polymer
systems or try-butyl-tin-oxide paint systems (the latter of which is only
castogenic
if you injest the fumes or get it on your skin)

Spell check dosn't like "plumbonium" but I am sure that was the term for
lead in
acient times - regards Derek

[Christian]

Hello Derek,

Christian - would they have termed the paint as "anti-fouling" in that
period?

Most likely not. That is a term which appeared later. I know it from within the context of early 20th century ocean liners.
I have to check in my books but I know that one of the known problems of an iron hull was fast build up of sea growth. The red lead paint was used (more or less sucessful) to reduce it. I am waiting for my friend, who is the co-autor of our upcoming GE website to send along the book "The greatest iron ship: the SS Great Eastern", where the two tone lower hull during launch is discussed. The choice of a black upper hull was most likely to hide coal stains and because it was an inexpensive, easy to obtain paint.

Best Christian