News / ss Great Britain
SS Great Britain offers public opportunity to ‘rate’ new smells
Already famous for the heady aromas on board, the SS Great Britain is partnering with Aroma Prime to create an even more immersive experience for the senses.
Visitors will be able to smell their way back in time to 1845 when Brunel’s famous ship had its pioneer voyages.
With passengers, crew and livestock living and working in the same space for up to 60 days at a time during the voyages to Australia, it would have been a particularly pungent place.
is needed now More than ever
In the first class dining saloon, visitors will be able to smell and rate a host of new smells. Some of the new scents under consideration include dark chocolate and brandy, the homely aroma of roast beef, and the pong of boiled cabbage.
Stale, dirty linen in steerage – one of 15 smells already on board the ship – photo: SS Great Britain
A dramatic new soundscape will also create an immersive story of the earliest crossings to New York on board a ship that was considered an ‘experiment’ at the time.
For the first time, researchers for SS Great Britain have delved into passenger logs and newspaper accounts to channel the pioneering spirit of the ship’s first ever passengers, including Philllippe Suchard – very likely the Swiss chocolatier, who had an appetite for travel and innovation.
The SS Great Britain already has 15 smells across the museum, including the smell of Brunel’s cigar smoke in his Duke Street Office, whiffs of engine oil in the dockyard and the stench of the famous vomit in stewardess Annie Green’s cabin.
“We’re cranking up the smells as we launch our most immersive experience on board yet,” says Natalie Fey, interpretation manager at SS Great Britain.
Aroma Prime – the company behind these historic smells – creates speciality scents for museums and tourist attractions in the UK.
Speaking on the importance of scents throughout history, Liam R. Findlay, scent consultant at Aroma Prime, said: “Having life-like recreations of even the whiffiest stretches can be really important when helping museum visitors understand the atmospheres and conditions of the past.
“Knowing the very flavour of the air people breathed can help us put ourselves in their shoes, understanding their working conditions, their diets, maybe the state of their homes or even the unpleasant atmospheres of horrible situations such as fighting in trenches.
“Both good smells and bad smells spark empathy, understanding and often personal, emotional responses to lives in the past.”
Interpretation manager Natalie Fey replenishes the smells – photo: SS Great Britain
Main photo: SS Great Britain
Read more: 19 things to do in Bristol this week, April 4-10 2022
Listen to the latest Bristol 24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
