Brunel's iron ship transformed from corroded wreck to prize-winner

It was the world's first iron ocean-going ship, transporting thousands to new lives in Australia and troops to the war in Crimea. But when Isambard Kingdom Brunel's ss Great Britain was hauled back to its home port of Bristol from the Falkland Islands in 1970, it was a corroded wreck.

A restoration project in the three-and-a-half decades since has brought the ship back to its former glory. The project was honoured last night with the Gulbenkian Prize.

The judges were united in their admiration for a scheme that required some innovation to complete. To stop corrosion of the ship's iron hull, a glass "sea" was created in a dry dock to form a giant dehumidification chamber around the vessel. But the judgessaid it was the way the ship's history had been brought to life above the waterline, with all the sights, sounds and smells of a voyage to Australia, which clinched victory.

Visitors can take an audio tour as a first-class passenger or in third class, and children can enjoy their own adventure on board, searching for the ship's cat, Sinbad.

Matthew Tanner, the director of the ss Great Britain, collecting the award with Roger Smedley, the chairman of his trustees, said: "It means we can see that our maritime heritage and our historic ships really can engage people of all kinds and of all ages."

Lord Winston, the chairman of judges, said: "It combines a truly groundbreaking piece of conservation, remarkable engineering and fascinating social history, plus a visually stunning ship above and below the water line. Most importantly, the ss Great Britain is accessible and engaging for people of all ages."

Diane Lees, the director of the V&A Museum of Childhood in London and another judge, said she had rarely seen a project that had everything, in the way the ss Great Britain did.

"It's awesome. The whole place gave me goosebumps," she said. "When the judges visited, I walked down a corridor and heard this little boy say, 'Mummy, I never want to leave'. That's a real sign of success. There's a tendency, particularly with industrial archaeology, to do the engineering, dare I say, geeky thing, whereas this has really got the people back on the ship as well. And there's a real sense of humour about it as well."

The ss Great Britain was designed by a team led by Brunel for the Great Western Steamship Company and was built in a special dry dock in Bristol.

When it was launched in 1843, it was the largest vessel afloat. It was also one of the fastest, making its maiden voyage to New York in 1845 in just 14 days. It made most of its working voyages taking emigrants from Britain to Australia and caused great excitement on its first docking in Melbourne, when 4,000 people paid a shilling each to step on board for a look.

In the following decade, itserved as a troop ship for the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. By 1882, it had been turned into a coal transporting ship. But it was damaged beyond repair by fire in 1886 and found a new life as a storage hulk in the Falkland Islands until the 1930s, when it was scuttled and abandoned. Yet there were people who recognised its importance and it was finally re-floated in 1970 and towed back to Bristol.

Sir Jack Hayward, the property developer, gave a large donation to get the restoration under way but it proved a long slog to last year's unveiling. The restoration cost £11.3m, with £2.5m raised by supporters and a grant of £8.5m from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Four projects were shortlisted for the £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize, which is given annually to a museum or gallery in the UK to celebrate innovation.

The other contenders were: The Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincoln; the Hunterian Museum in London, which houses an 18th-century collection of medicinal and natural history items; and the Underground Gallery at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield.