Two divers who exactly half a century ago helped salvage the SS Great Britain have described the moment the skeleton of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s steamship rose from the seabed – and how the rescue mission nearly ended in disaster when the vessel immediately drifted towards rocks.

In April 1970 Lyle Craigie-Halkett and Stuart Whatley worked day and night in the cold, dark, storm-whipped water of a bay just off the Falkland Islands to patch the ship’s perforated hull using steel, wood and even mattresses donated by locals.

But when the vessel stubbornly refused to float, the pair and the rest of the team went off for breakfast only to come dashing back when it suddenly popped up and threatened to head towards rocks or the open sea.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Members of the salvage team that rescued SS Great Britain in 1970 including Lyle Craigie-Halkett (far left) and Stuart Whatley (far right). Photograph: Bernhard Schmidt

Craigie-Halkett, now 78, said: “We had spent days patching her up but she was reluctant to float. We hadn’t slept for two nights or had a decent meal break and it was blowing a real gale.”

As they went off for breakfast, Craigie-Halkett said that he spotted the wreck beginning to rock a little and a few bubbles rising from the seabed. “I didn’t pay as much attention as I would have if I had been fresh and perky but I realised later that the bubbles were caused by the suction breaking between the bottom of the ship and the seabed,” he said.

They had settled down to eat when someone shouted: “The Britain’s moving!” Craigie-Halkett, a Falklands Islander who now lives in Hampshire, continued: “We went hell for leather back. She was starting to move.”

They manoeuvred other vessels to nudge the Great Britain back to safety and switched off the pumps, which allowed it to rest back on to the seabed. “She could have drifted away and would almost certainly have been wrecked on the rocky outcrops nearby,” said Craigie-Halkett. “The results would have been disastrous.”

During the subsequent days the ship was secured, and on 24 April 1970, SS Great Britain began an 87-day journey back to its home city of Bristol, with thousands turning out to welcome the ship back into the river Avon. The vessel has been gleamingly restored and is one of the south-west’s most popular tourist attractions. Plans are afoot to celebrate the anniversary of the ship’s return in the summer.

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Launched in 1843, SS Great Britain was the first propeller-driven, iron-hulled steamship. After a successful career it was damaged in a storm and used as a storage hulk before being scuttled in 1937. The vessel remained in Sparrow Cove until the salvage plan was hatched to raise it and take it home.

Whatley, also 78 and working as a gamekeeper in Wiltshire, said he did not know anything about the SS Great Britain before taking on the job to help save it.

He said the vessel they found was fragile. “The hull was full of mud and dirt and you could easily poke your finger through,” he said. The water the ship was resting in was shallow but dark and cold and the salvage needed determination and ingenuity. As well as patching the holes they had to dig a tunnel in the seabed to reach the keel to carry out repairs there.

Despite the frantic rush to save the vessel when it unexpectedly floated, Whatley had time to take in the sight of Brunel’s ship rising up. “Those sharp bows coming out of the water was the most magnificent sight I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I’ll never forget it.”