The is the story of the Great Eastern, designed and built by one of the most daring engineers in British history, I.K. Brunel. I.K. Brunel is remembered as the builder of the Great Western Railway and some stunning bridges that are still in use today. The ship was a wonder of the age, and when launched in 1858 she was 692 feet long with a beam of 120 feet. she was powered by a screw, two paddlewheels, and six masts. To put her size in perspective, the first US battleship to exceed her length was the USS North Carolina, and the first passenger liner to exceed her displacement was the Lusitania. The book details her whole history, from design to her break up, and what a fantastic story it is. She may have been cursed, but she laid the first transatlantic cable, although she was not what you would call a commercial success. But the sheer fact that a ship this large plied the waves BEFORE the US Civil War is, well, hard to fathom. I recommend this book just because her story is well worth knowing.