A rare poster dating to July 1865 advertising the trip from Liverpool to Melbourne - a journey of 60 days. Courtesy ss Great Briatin

A chance conversation on board Brunel’s historic ss Great Britain in Bristol has led to the discovery of some of the most exciting documents yet found linked to the ship’s history.

The collection, which goes back to the 1840s, includes sketches and photographs, as well as letters and diary notes, documenting the lives of successive generations of the Coles family.

Staff at the historic ship first became aware of their existence when John and Ruth Coles celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on board the ship and mentioned the family connection to the ship to steward Bob Evans.

Bob mentioned the link to the professional curators at ss Great Britain, who decided to investigate further. The result was a major discovery for the Trust, which never previously had contact with the Coles or even knew of the existence of their family collection.

The archive includes several long letters from Samuel Halstaff Coles to his wife, Eliza. Courtesy ss Great Britain

“This is a unique and thrilling find,” said ss Great Britain Trust Curator, Christian Redford. “We have never come across a single collection of papers which tell us so much about a passenger’s life or motives for travelling.”

The author of the earliest of the documents was Samuel Halstaff Coles, who first travelled on the ss Great Britain between Melbourne and Liverpool in 1865.

Samuel visited his family in England during the summer of 1865, along with his Australian-born son Halstaff. He left the rest of his young family in Melbourne, and the archive includes several long letters to his wife, Eliza, giving news about relatives and friends. The letters frequently reproach Eliza – who was looking after three younger children – for not replying quickly enough.

A family photo shows John Coles as a baby with Mr Coles the passenger (far left). Courtesy ss Great Britain

“They show us how mobile people became once Brunel’s ideas changed the way ships were built, making sea travel relatively fast and reliable,” added Christian. “It is hard to imagine in these days of 24-hour flights to Australia, but the ss Great Britain’s typical 60-day journey was half the travel time of most sailing ships.”

Samuel Halstaff Coles made four voyages between England and Australia in 10 years, and eventually returned to England, settling in Nottingham.

Among the curatorial gems in the collection are an 1865 poster advertising passages on board the ss Great Britain, and a 1922 photograph showing Samuel Halstaff Coles along with three generations of his descendants. The youngest sitter in the photograph is Samuel’s great-grandson John.

Courtesy ss Great Britain

A popular and respected lay preacher in the Plymouth Brethren, a non-Conformist sect, Samuel preached regular sermons on board the ss Great Britain – all carefully recorded in notes. They give a fascinating insight into the way many Victorian travellers understood emigration, as an experience that could be morally as well as physically testing.

Elsewhere he tells of passengers dancing Scottish reels on deck to the sound of bagpipes, and the burial at sea of a dead child. He also wrote about the ship’s captain, John Gray, describing him as ‘an admirable commander…he carried sunshine through the ship’.

Having been given permission to copy the documents by John and Ruth Coles, the ss Great Britain Trust plans to make digitised documents, like the Coles’s family papers, available to researchers as part of the ‘Brunel Institute’, a new archive and study centre for Bristol, scheduled to open in late 2009 or early 2010.

Samuel Coles preached regular sermons - both on land on on board ship. Courtesy ss Great Britain

“Having visited the ss Great Britain on several occasions since the hulk was brought back from the Falkland Islands, I have been most impressed by the huge restoration works carried out,” said Mr Coles. “I am very pleased the Trust has been able to use our family papers to help portray life on board the ship.”

If your ancestors were involved in the build of the ss Great Britain, or were passengers on board, please call Brunel’s ss Great Britain on 0117 926 0680.