The Steamship “Great Britain”
During 2006 the greatest, largest ship ever to sail our earth launched. She is “The Explorer of the Seas”. Otherwise this article deals entirely with the “grandparent” of this massive vessel, the very first screw driven iron ship in the world.
But there is a connection between these two vessels This nexus is “Ossett Mouldings Limited”! Both ships have our mouldings on board.
During most of the year 2004 Ossett Mouldings Limited were very fortunate indeed to make items for a very unusual restoration project. A historic ship, “The Steamship Great Britain”.
We made a great many components for this fine vessel. An excellent example is the imitation cast iron grille you see above. It is, I believe, a very convincing item, one that imitates cast ironwork very well indeed. Only the light weight betrays the material – GRP (Fibreglass).
In this illustration to the left you can plainly see see two mirror frames. There were 43 of these, the column capitals, also GRP had perhaps 50 such examples of ours fitted. Above the door you can JUST see a GRP (fibre glass) royal crest. However all may not be lost because our contractor has promised us some images of the fitted, completed work. This illustration shows to either side of the door two GRP *seat surrounds*, Ossett Mouldings Limited fitted perhaps 30 of these items in GRP, or, if you prefer – fibre glass.
Here you can see a whole load more of these really nice items. You will also notice yet more of these frames, column capitals and ancilliary items reflected in some mirrors to the opposite side of this upper deck ship’s corridor.
Please don’t forget all of these fine, hand created and hand made items are on public view. Provided, of course that you’re happy to pay whatever the entry fee is for entry to board her. The Steamship “Great Britain”, moored up in Bristol.
Here we have a close up view of just one of the very many GRP (Fibreglass) Royal crests we produced for this project. We cast these in black GRP resin, same as the original artwork provided to us by our contractor. Still, I hope you agree they still look rather nice?
Also a close up of our GRP column capitals. The pattern for these was an original hand carved piece of timber – however we could have equally well carved or sculpted this or almost anything you wish from scratch. Please just ask for a quote or a verbal outline of the great possibilities our craft abilities can bring to your project, whether domestic or commercial.