Brunel knew her affectionately as the “Great Babe”. He died in 1859 shortly after her ill-fated maiden voyage, during which she was damaged by an explosion. After repairs, she plied for several years as a passenger liner between Britain and North America before being converted to a cable-laying ship and laying the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866.[4] Finishing her life as a floating music hall and advertising hoarding (for the department store Lewis’s) in Liverpool, she was broken up on Merseyside in 1889.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Eastern
Amazing to think just 50 years before people were traveling across the Atlantic just a Columbus did. Now one could go on this monster ship in relative comfort.