- Description
- Specifications
| ID Number: | PA02-0101 |
| Description: | Cable layer 'Great Eastern', island and tanker (A floating City) |
| Country or State: | Monaco |
| Year: | 07. June 1955 |
| Face Value: | 2 F - Monegasque franc |
| Series: | 50th anniversary of the death of Jules Verne |
| Perforation: | comb 13 |
| Printing: | Recess |
| Dimensions (B x H): | 52 x 31 mm |
| Emission: | 3,274,600 |
| Catalog Number: | Michel MC 513 Stamp Number MC 341 Yvert et Tellier MC 428 Stanley Gibbons MC 530 |
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SS Great Eastern was an iron sailing steam ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and built by J. Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall on the River Thames, London. She was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers from England to Australia without refuelling. Her length of 692 feet (211 m) was only surpassed in 1899 by the 705-foot (215 m) 17,274-gross-ton RMS Oceanic, and her gross tonnage of 18,915 was only surpassed in 1901 by the 701-foot (214 m) 21,035-gross-ton RMS Celtic. With five funnels (later reduced to four), she was one of a very few vessels to ever sport that number, sharing her number of five with the Russian cruiser Askold – though several warships, including HMS Viking, and several French cruisers of the pre-dreadnought era had six. |
