The Great Western is the least known of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s three ships, overshadowed by the later careers of the Great Britain and the Great Eastern . However, the Great Western was the first great success, becoming the fastest ship to steam continuously across the Atlantic, and beginning the era of luxury transatlantic liners. It was a bold venture by Brunel and his colleagues, testing the limits of known technology. This book examines the businessmen, the shipbuilding committee, and Brunel, and looks at life on board for the crew and the passengers using diaries from the U.S. and England. The ship’s first voyage made headlines in New York and London and involved a race with the small steamship Sirius . This wooden paddle steamer became the wonder of her age, linking antebellum New York with the London of Charles Dickens and the youthful Queen Victoria, and continued to carry the rich and the famous across the Atlantic for 18 years.