Lesson video

Hello there and welcome to today's history lesson.

I'm Mr. Moss.

I'm really passionate about history and I'm also really looking forward to teaching you.

With you today, you need to bring your looking eyes, your listening ears, and your thinking brains.

As well as that having something to write with and write on and someone or something to talk to would also be really helpful.

All right then, let's get straight into today's history lesson.

In today's history lesson, we are going to be looking at Brunel's race to cross the Atlantic.

So we're gonna be concentrating on one engineer's race to build ships to get across the Atlantic the quickest.

We're gonna be looking at a particular type of ship called a steam ship, and this was an attempt to get from England to North America across the Atlantic Ocean.

So our outcome will be, "I can describe Brunel's attempts to win the race across the Atlantic." We're gonna learn about who Brunel was, the types of ships that he designed and built, and we're going to look at this race to get across the Atlantic the quickest.

Here are the key words for today's learning.

My turn, your turn, and make sure I can hear you say these back to me.

Our first word is steam ship.

Then we have two parts of steam ships, paddle wheel and propeller.

So a steam ship is a ship that uses a steam engine to help it move.

A paddle wheel is a large wheel turned by a steam engine, used to move a boat.

And a propeller is something that spins in the water to move a ship forward.

So we're gonna be looking today at steam ships and we're gonna be looking carefully as well at some of the features of earlier steamships and later steamships, both the paddle wheel and the propeller.

So we're gonna break our learning down into two learning cycles today.

Remember we are learning about Brunel's race across the Atlantic.

We're gonna begin by considering who Brunel was and the SS Great Western, a ship.

And then, we're going to look carefully again at Brunel and a different ship, the SS Great Britain.

So let's get on with considering who Brunel was and one of the steam ships that he built, the SS Great Western.

So this here is an image of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

He was an engineer about 200 years ago.

He was an engineer during an era when steam power became very important.

He is incredibly famous for designing bridges, railways, and steam ships, and we are going to be focusing on steam ships today.

A steamship is a ship that uses a steam engine to help it move.

During the era when Isambard Kingdom Brunel was alive, steam power had become a very important part of industry and transport.

He wanted to build the first steam ship to cross the Atlantic from England to New York in America.

Here we have a wild map and we can see labelled the Atlantic Ocean.

The Atlantic Ocean sits between Europe, and specifically England here, and you would've been travelling westward across it to get to New York, which is in North America here.

So he wanted to design the first steam ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

Many ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean before, but not a steam ship.

So he wanted to design the first steam ship that could make this large journey.

Brunel wanted to build a, mmm, to be the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean: a car, a longboat or a steamship? Pause the video, input the correct word and say the sentence.

Off you go.

Great.

Let's see how you've done then.

Brunel wanted to build a steamship to be the first across the Atlantic Ocean.

Not a car.

A car would drive on land.

And actually Vikings had sailed across to North America in longboats hundreds and hundreds of years before.

So he wanted to build the first steam ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

Did you know that we can tell if a ship was a steam ship from its name? The SS that would come before its name would mean steam ship.

SS, steam ship.

So we are gonna look at some steam ships now that have SS in their name.

Brunel first designed a passenger steamship called the SS Great Western.

Now a passenger steamship will be one that will be used for transporting people from one place to another, passengers.

So it wouldn't have been a naval steamship used for fighting.

It was for transporting people.

It had a wooden hull and large sails attached to four masts.

Here we can see a drawing of the SS Great Western.

Remember that SS means steam ship.

So the Steam Ship Great Western, perhaps thus titled because its hope would be that it'd be the first to transport west across the Atlantic Ocean to North America.

Have a look at this image for me.

Do you notice anything interesting about it? I can see the four masts with sails.

So although it was a steamship, they still wanted to harness the power of the wind by catching wind in sails.

I can see too in the middle of the ship something interesting here.

This is one of those features of a steamship that we are going to be looking at carefully.

I've also noticed, as you look carefully, you can see a chimney or funnel, from which I can see some smoke coming.

This is because, remember, this is a steam ship that would've had a steam engine.

So the sails and two paddle wheels one on either side, so we can see the one on this side of the ship, helped it to move through the water.

The paddle wheels would be connected to the steam engine and would spin around pushing, propelling the ship forward or backwards.

So you can see, the paddle wheel labelled here in our illustration of the SS Great Western.

What two things help the steamship SS Great Western move through the water, oars, paddle wheels, or sails? Pause the video now and select the two things that would've helped it to move through the water.

Brilliant.

Oars? I don't think so.

At this point in history, boats have moved away from using oars.

Older boats would definitely have had oars to help turn or move the boat forward.

But the steam ship, the SS Great Western, had paddle wheels, one on either side connected to the steam engine, because it was a steamship that would've moved and moved the boat forward, and also sails.

Remember the SS Great Western had four large masts that would've had sails connected to them to harness the power of the wind.

So paddle wheels and sails.

Well done if you got those two.

As well as Brunel, some other engineers of the time also were building steam ships.

Here we have a steam ship that was built by other engineers, the SS Sirius, the steam ship Sirius.

They wanted to cross the Atlantic first.

And this is why we have this race across the Atlantic.

A group of engineers that wanted to be the first people to build a steamship to cross the Atlantic successfully.

Do you notice something interesting about the SS Sirius here? Take some time to look at the image.

I wonder if you can see the paddle wheels, the sails on the masts.

Have a look now.

Brilliant.

Well, I can see quite similarly to the SS Great Western two paddle wheels, one on either side.

We can see the funnel or chimney with the smoke coming out of it that would've been connected to the steam engine.

Remember, it's steam ship.

A steam engine would've been connected to these paddle wheels and move them to propel the boat forward.

We also have two large masts, don't we, with sails connected to them to harness the power of the wind, too.

Both ships competed in what is known as the Race Across the Atlantic.

Can you say that for me? The race across the Atlantic.

This occurred in March, 1838.

This race took place during the Victorian era.

The SS Sirius arrived in New York before the SS Great Western, so it won the race.

Here we can see an illustration of the SS Great Western arriving in New York.

You can see it's much larger than the smaller sailing boats that are knocking around in the water here.

We can see also crowds of people gathered to celebrate the fact that it had won the race across the Atlantic.

So the SS Sirius won the race, it beat Brunel's SS Great Western.

The SS Sirius then was the first steam ship to arrive and so it became the first steam ship ever to cross the Atlantic.

Aisha and Lucas are talking about the steamship race across the Atlantic.

Who is correct? Lucas says Brunel's steamship called the SS Great Western won the race.

Aisha though says, the steamship called the SS Sirius won the race.

From what we've just learned, who is correct, Lucas or Aisha? Brilliant.

Absolutely, Aisha is correct.

Brunel's SS Great Western did not win the race.

The first steam ship to cross the Atlantic and to win the race across the Atlantic in 1938 was the SS Sirius.

So for our practise task now what I'd like you to do is use the words in the box to label the image of the ship.

This is the SS, mm, Western.

And look carefully, it has paddle, mm, which we can see here.

And then what other parts of the ship do you think you can label? Consider the learning that you already know about ships.

Consider what holds the sails up, what can be used to control the sails as well.

So use the labels on the right, rigging, mast, hull, wheel, and Great and put them into the correct on Brunel's ship here.

Off you go.

Great job, team.

Let's see how you've done then.

So your answers should look like this.

The SS Great Western was the name of the ship designed by Brunel to take part in the race across the Atlantic.

It was a steam ship.

It had masts, four large ones, in fact.

It had a hull, which is the bottom main body of the ship.

This hull was wooden.

It had paddle wheel, two paddle wheels, one on either side.

And we can see the paddle wheel here, which would've been connected to the steam engine.

And it also had rigging.

Rigging is what is used to control the sails on the masts.

How did you do that? Did you manage to add the labels correctly? Check now.

So we've looked at who Brunel was and the first steam ship that he designed, the SS Great Western, that sadly lost out to the SS Sirius in the race across the Atlantic.

Now we're going to look at another steam ship, the SS Great Britain, and some advancements that occurred here in steam power.

So Brunel decided to build a bigger and better steamship than the SS Great Western, and it was called the SS Great Britain.

We can see here an image of it being built.

This new ship was called the SS Great Britain and it was also a passenger steam ship.

So it was designed for carrying people great distances.

Importantly too, it was also a steam ship, so it had that SS in its title.

Now, take a look at the picture here of the SS Great Britain.

Compared to the SS Great Western and the SS Sirius, it appears to be missing something in the middle on either side.

Can you spot what it is different about this ship? Great.

So we can see here an illustration of the launch of the SS Great Britain.

And a thing that I've noticed it doesn't appear to have is paddle wheels.

So I wonder how the steam engine was driving this forward.

Have a look very carefully at this picture.

What do you think was happening here, and why do you think so many people were there? Talk to your partner now.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

Well, this is the launch of the ship.

This is where it was first released into the water and then began sailing.

And why do you think so many people were there? Well, it's because this is a immense occasion.

At this point in time would've been one of the largest steamships in the world, and the hope would've been that this could make the journey across the Atlantic really, really quick.

So this was the launch of Brunel's new steamship, the SS Great Britain in 1843, so still during the Victorian era.

It was the largest and most impressive ship on earth at the time.

And everyone wanted to see it.

Hence why we have crowds of people, people in the water on smaller boats to get a glimpse of this huge ship as it launched and began its voyages.

Which ship did Brunel build to be better than his first one, the SS Great Western, the SS Sirius, or the SS Great Britain? Pause now and select the correct answer.

Great job, team.

Well, the SS Great Western was the first ship that he designed and the SS Sirius was designed by other engineers.

The SS Great Western and the SS Sirius took part in the race across the Atlantic, which we know the SS Sirius won by being the first ship to arrive in New York.

The SS Great Britain was the larger and faster ship that he wanted to build or did build after the SS Great Western.

So the better ship that he built than its first one was the SS Great Britain, steam ship, Great Britain.

So let's have a think now about some differences with this newer better ship than the SS Great Western.

The SS Great Britain was even more impressive because the hull, so that main body of the ship, was the first to be made from iron, a type of metal.

Hulls previously have mostly been made of wood, but this was an iron hull.

The hules of the other steam ships that we looked at in this lesson, like the SS Great Western and the SS Sirius have been made from wood.

An iron hull, however, was far more advantageous.

It could last longer than timber or wood.

It was much stronger and could carry more and it was less easily damaged by water and accidents.

So it was superior material.

And as we noticed earlier, there were no paddle wheels on the SS Great Britain.

It had instead a huge metal propeller below.

If you look at this image here, you can see the photo of the propeller of the SS Great Britain.

This propeller was attached or would've been connected somehow to a steam engine and would've spun and moved the ship forwards or backwards through the water.

You can see here our propeller labelled.

The rudder is behind it, and you can see the propeller, this huge turbine-like thing that would've spun through the water and propelled the ship.

This propeller would have powered by a steam engine and would spin at great speeds in the water to move the ship.

So what I'd like to do now is to check your understanding.

I'd like you to read the sentences.

Do they describe the SS Great Western, the SS Great Britain, or both? Consider the similarities and differences between both the Brunel's ships that we've looked at.

This ship had paddle wheels.

This ship had an iron hull.

This ship was a steam ship.

This ship was designed by Brunel.

Is it the SS Great Western, the SS Great Britain, or both? Add the ticks now.

Off you go.

Fantastic job, team.

You've clearly learned so much about these two incredible ships designed by Brunel.

This ship had paddle wheels.

Well, that was just the SS Great Western.

We know that the SS Great Britain had a propeller.

This ship had an iron hull.

This was the SS Great Britain, the SS Great Western had a wooden hull.

This ship was a steam ship.

That's both of them.

And this ship was designed by Brunel.

That is also both of them.

How did you do that? Did you manage to understand each of the sentences and put your ticks in the correct places? Check your answers now.

So for our practise task now, what I'd like you to do is to complete the story of Brunel's steam ship with your learning partner.

Brunel wanted to build a steam ship to be the first to cross, mm.

What did you want the steam ship to cross? The SS Great Western move through the water using.

What did it have to help it move forward? The SS Sirius and the SS Great Western left England, and who was the first to arrive in America? And Brunel decided to build a bigger and better boat with.

And what was different about the SS Great Britain compared to the SS Great Western? Consider all that we've learned in both our learning cycles and complete these sentences.

Off you go.

It's really, really important that we're able to retell clearly historical events and to add detail and understanding.

So hopefully you included some of these in your answers.

Brunel wanted to build a steam ship to be the first two cross the Atlantic Ocean.

Remember, there was the race across the Atlantic that was taking place.

The SS Great Western moved through the water using a steam engine and paddle wheels.

So there's two paddle wheels connected either side.

Remember, it also had sails on mass to help it move too.

The SS Sirius and the SS Great Western left England and the SS Sirius reached New York before the SS Great Western, and won the race across the Atlantic.

Brunel then decided to build a bigger and better boat with a hull made of iron and instead of paddle wheels, a propeller to move it through the water more rapidly.

Did you manage to include each of these within your answers? Check now and share with your partner.

Off you go.

It's been really fascinating learning about Brunel's race to cross the Atlantic today.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was an engineer about 200 years ago who designed new steam ships, those ships powered by steam engines.

He designed the SS Great Western with a mast sails and paddle wheels powered by a steam engine.

The SS Great Western or steam ship Great Western was beaten in the race across the Atlantic by the SS Sirius that was designed by other engineers.

Later, Brunel designed the SS Great Britain to be the biggest passenger carrying steamship at the time.

The SS Great Britain used a steam engine to spin a huge propeller and had an iron hull.

This was different to the SS Great Western, which had had paddle wheels and a wooden hull.

This showed a development in engineering and sea travel.

Keep up the great history and I'll see you again soon.