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AN UNSIN KABLE TITANIC
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Photo by Brown Bros., New York
Stoke-Hole of A TRANSATLANtic LiNER

A N
U NS IN KA B L E
T IT AN IC
EVERY SHIP
ITS OWN LIFE BOAT
BY
J. BERNARD WALKER
Editor of the Scientific American
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

1912
CopyRIGHT, 1912, BY
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
Published, July, 1912
THE QUINN & BODEN CO, PRESS
RAHWAY, N. J.
3Co.
THE MEMORY OF THE CHIEF ENGINEER OF THE TITANIC,
JOHN BELL,
AND HIS STAFF OF THIRTY-THREE ASSISTANTS,
WHO STOOD AT THEIR POSTS IN THE ENGINE-
AND BOILER-ROOMS TO THE VERY LAST,
AND WENT DOWN WITH THE SHIP,
THIS WORK IS DEDICATED
PREFACE
IT is the object of this work to show that, in Our
eagerness to make the ocean liner fast and
luxurious, we have forgotten to make her safe.
The safest ocean liner was the Great East-
ern; and she was built over fifty years ago.
Her designer aimed to make the ship practically
unsinkable—and he succeeded; for she passed
through a more severe ordeal than the Titanic,
survived it, and came into port under her own
Steam.
Since her day, the shipbuilder has eliminated
all but one of the safety devices which made the
Great Eastern a ship so difficult to sink. No-
body, not even the shipbuilders themselves,
seemed to realise what was being done, until,
suddenly, the world’s finest vessel, in all the
pride of her maiden voyage, struck an iceberg
and went to the bottom in something over two
and a half hours’ time !
If we learn the lesson of this tragedy, we
shall lose no time in getting back to first prin-
ciples. We shall reintroduce in all future pas-
Tº.
-
-
º

| V ||
PREFACE
senger ships those simple and effective ele-
ments of safety—the double skin, the longitudi-
nal bulkhead, and the watertight deck—which
were conspicuous in the Great Eastern, and
which alone can render such a ship as the Ti-
tanic unsinkable.
The author’s acknowledgments are due to the
“Scientific American '' for many of the photo-
graphs and line drawings reproduced in this
volume; to an article by Professor J. H. Biles,
published in “Engineering,” for material re-
lating to the Board of Trade stipulations as to
bulkheads; to Sir George C. V. Holmes and the
Victoria and Albert Museum for data regarding
the Great Eastern, published in ‘‘ Ancient and
Modern Ships ?’; to Naval Constructor R. II.
M. Robinson, U.S.N., for permission to repro-
duce certain drawings from his work, ‘‘Naval
Construction,” and to Naval Constructor
Henry Williams, U.S.N., who courteously read
the proofs of this work and offered many valu-
able suggestions. The original wash and line
drawings are by Mr. C. McKnight Smith.
J. B. W.
NEw YoFK, June, 1912.
[ vi I

CEIAPTER
I.
II.
III.
IV.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTORY .
THE EveR-PRESENT DANGERS OF THE SEA
EvKRY SHIP ITs Own LIFEBOAT
SAFETY LIES IN SUBDIVISION .
THE UNSINKABLE GREAT EASTERN of
1858
THE SINKABLE TITANIC
How THE GREAT SHIP WENT Down
WARSHIP PROTECTION AGAINST RAM,
MINE, AND TORPEDO
WARSHIP PROTECTION As APPLIED TO
SoME OCEAN LINERs
PAGE
69
91
I 16
136
CoNCLUSIONS
16.1
179
ILLUSTRATIONS
Stoke-Hole of a Transatlantic Liner . Prontispiece
PAGE
Riveting the Outer Skin on the Frames of a
65,000-Ton Ocean Liner . º º sº wº 3
Growth of the Transatlantic Steamer from 1840
to 1912 & gº e © tº & & iº 7
Receiving Submarine Signals on the Bridge. . 13
Taking the Temperature of the Water. e . 17
Fire-Drill on a German Liner: Stewards are Clos-
ing Door in Fire-Protection Bulkhead . . 21
Fire-Drill on a German Liner: Hose from Bellows
Supplies Fresh Air to Man with Smoke Helmet. 25
Fire-Drill on a German Liner: Test of Fire-Mains
is Made Every Time the Ship is in Port . . 29
The 44,000-Ton, 25%-Knot Lusitania . & . 37
Provisioning the Boats During a Boat Drill. . 43
Loading and Lowering Boats, Stowed Athwart-
ships * * tº & $ g e . 43
The Elaborate Installation of Telegraphs, Tele-
phones, Voice-Tubes, etc., on the Bridge of an
Ocean Liner & & & º g © . 47
Hydraulically-operated, Watertight Door in an
Engine-Room Bulkhead g * © . 53
[ix]
ILLUSTRATIONS
Diagram Showing Protective Value of Transverse
and Longitudinal Bulkheads, Watertight Decks,
and Inner Skin . tº e g e e
Closing, from the Bridge, All Watertight Doors
Throughout the Ship by Pulling a Lever .
Great Eastern, 1858; Most Completely Protected
Passenger Ship Ever Built
Longitudinal Section and Plan of the Great
Eastern, 1858
Two Extremes in Protection, and a Compromise .
Great Eastern, Lying at Foot of Canal Street,
North River, New York
Fifty Years’ Decline in Safety Construction
Olympic, Sister to Titanic, reaching New York
on Maiden Voyage
The Framing and Some of the Deck Beams of the
Imperator, as Seen from Inside the Bow,
Before the Outside Plating is Riveted On
How the Plating of the Inner Bottom of Such a
Ship as the Titanic May Be Carried up the
Side Frames to Form an Inner Skin .
Twenty of the Twenty-nine Boilers of the Titanic
Assembled Ready for Placing in the Ship
The Last Photograph of the Titanic, Taken as
She was Leaving Southampton on Her Maiden
Voyage
Swimming Pool on the Titanic
PAGE)
57
68
71
77
83
87
93
97
103
107
117
121
[X]
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Titanic Struck a Glancing Blow Against an
Under-Water Shelf of the Iceberg, Opening up
Five Compartments . e º e & º
Comparison of Subdivision in Two Famous Ships.
The Vast Dining-Room of the Titanic.
The United States Battleship Kansas .
Plan and Longitudinal Section of the Battleship
Connecticut
Midship Section of a Battleship
Safety Lies in Subdivision
The 65,000-Ton, 23-Knot Imperator, Largest Ship
Afloat º º º º tº
Longitudinal Section and Plan of the Imperator.
The Rotor, or Rotating Element, of One of the
Low-Pressure Turbines of the Imperator .
The 26,000-Ton, 234-Knot Kronprinzessin Cecilie,
a Thoroughly Protected Ship
PAGE
133
137
143
149
155
159
163
167
171
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
AMONG the many questions which have arisen
out of the loss of the Titanic there is one, which,
in its importance as affecting the safety of
ocean travel, stands out preeminent:
“Why did this ship, the latest, the largest,
and supposedly the safest of ocean liners, go
to the bottom so soon after collision with an
iceberg’ ” -
The question is one to which, as yet, no an-
swer that is perfectly clear to the lay mind has
been made. We know that the collision was the
result of daring navigation; that the whole-
sale loss of life was due to the lack of lifeboats
and the failure to fill completely the few that
were available; and that, had it not been for
the amazing indifference or stupidity of the
Captain of a nearby steamer, who failed to an-
Swer the distress signals of the sinking vessel,
the whole of the ship’s complement might have
been saved.
But the ship itself—why did she so quickly
[1]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
go to the bottom after meeting with an acci-
dent, which, in spite of its stupendous results,
must be reckoned as merely one among the
many risks of transatlantic travel? -
So far as the loss of the ship itself was con-
Cerned, it is certain that the stupefaction with
which the news of her sinking was received
was due to the belief that her vast size was
a guarantee against disaster—that the ever-
increasing dimensions of length, breadth, and
tonnage had conferred upon the modern Ocean
liner a certain immunity against the dangers of
travel by sea. The fetish of mere size seems,
indeed, to have affected even the officers in .
command of these modern leviathans. Surely
it must have thrown its spell over the captain
of the ill-fated Titanic, who, in spite of an oft-
repeated warning that there was a large field
of ice ahead, followed the usual practice, if the
night is clear, and ran his ship at full Speed
into the zone of danger, as though, forsooth, he
expected the Titanic to brush the ice floes
aside, and split asunder any iceberg that might
stand in her way.
Confidence in the indestructibility of the
Titanic, moreover, was stimulated by the fact
[2]
Cºurtesy of Sºme American
Rivetting the OUTER SKIN on THE FRAMEs or A 65,000-
ToN Oce AN LINER
:

AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
that she was supposed to be the ‘‘ last word ”
in first-class steamship construction, the cul-
mination of three-quarters of a century of ex-
perience in building safe and stanch vessels.
In the official descriptions of the ship, widely
distributed at the time of her launching, the
Safety elements of her construction were freely
dwelt upon. This literature rang the changes
On stout bulkheads, watertight compartments,
automatic, self-closing bulkhead doors, etc.,
and honestly so. There is every reason to be-
lieve that the celebrated firm who built the ship,
renowned the world over for the high char-
acter of their work; the powerful company
whose flag she carried; aye, and even her
talented designer, who was the first to pro-
nounce the Titanic a doomed vessel and went
down with the ship, were united in the belief
that the size of the Titanic and her construction
were such that she was unsinkable by any of the
ordinary accidents to which the transatlantic
liner is liable.
How comes it, then, that this noble vessel
lies to-day at the bottom of the Atlantic in
two thousand fathoms of water 2
A review of the progress of those constructive
[5]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
arts which affect the safety of human life seems
to show that it needs the spur of great dis-
asters, such as this, to concentrate the atten-
tion of the engineer and the architect upon the
all-important question of safety. More im-
portant than considerations of convenience,
economy, speed of construction, or even reve-
nue-earning capacity, are those of the value and
Sanctity of human life. Too frequently these
considerations are the last to receive attention.
This is due less to indifference than to inad-
vertence—a failure to remember that an acci-
dent which may be insignificant in its effect on
steel and stone, may be fatal to frail flesh and
blood. Furthermore, the monumental disasters,
and particularly those occurring in this age of
great constructive works, are frequently trace-
able to hidden or unsuspected causes, the exist-
ence and potentialities of which are revealed
only when the mischief has been done. A
faulty method of construction, containing in
itself huge possibilities of disaster, may be per-
sisted in for years without revealing its lurk-
ing menace. Here and there, now and then,
Some minor mischance will direct the attention
of the few to the peril; but the excitement will
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Note how far the Great Eastern was ahead of her time. She
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GROWTH OF THE TRANSATLANTIC STEAMER FROM 1840 TG
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
be local and passing. It takes a “horror ’’—
a “holocaust '' of human life, with all its at-
tendant exploitation in the press and the
monthly magazine, to awaken a busy and pre-
occupied world to the danger and beget those
stringent laws and improved constructions
which are the earmarks of progress towards
an ideal civilisation.
Not many years ago, there was being erected
across the St. Lawrence River a huge bridge,
with the largest single span in the World, which
it was believed would be not only the largest
but the strongest and most enduring structure
of its kind in existence. It was being built
under the supervision of one of the leading
bridge engineers of the world; its design was
of an approved type, which had long been stand-
ard in the Western Hemisphere; and the steel-
work was being fabricated in one of the best
equipped bridge works in the country. Never-
theless, when one great cantilever was about com-
pleted, and before any live load had been placed
on it, the structure collapsed under its own
weight. One of the principal members—a mas-
sive steel column, five feet square and sixty feet
long—crumpled up as though it had been a boy’s
[9]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
tin whistle, and allowed the whole bridge to fall
into the St. Lawrence, carrying eighty men to
their death! The disaster was traced to a very
insignificant cause—the failure of some small
angle-bars, 3 1-2 inches in width, by which the
parts of the massive member were held in place.
No engineer had suspected that danger lurked
in these little angle-bars. Had the accident
happened to a bridge of moderate size, the les-
Sons of the failure would have been noted by
the engineers and contractors; it would have
formed the subject, possibly, of a paper before
Some engineering society, and the warning
would have had results merely local and tempo-
rary. But the failure of this monumental
structure, with a loss of life so appalling, gave
to the disaster a world-wide notoriety. It be-
came the subject of a searching enquiry by a
highly expert board; the unsuspected danger
which lurked in the existing and generally ap-
proved methods of building up massive steel
columns was acknowledged; and safer rules of
construction were adopted.
It took the Baltimore conflagration to teach
us the strong and weak points of our much-
vaunted systems of fireproof construction.
[10]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
Only when San Francisco, after repeated warn-
ings, had seen the whole of its business section
shaken down and ravaged by fire, did she set
about the construction of a city that would be
proof against fire and earthquake. It was the
spectacle of maimed and dying passengers being
slowly burned to death in the wreckage of Col-
liding wooden cars, that led to the abolition of
the heating stove and the oil lamp; and it was
the risk of fire, coupled with the shocking in-
juries due to splintering of wooden cars, that
brought in the era of the electrically lighted,
strong, and incombustible steel car.
The conditions attending the loss of the
Titanic were so heartrending, and its appeal
has been so world-wide, as to lead us to expect
that the tragedy will be preeminently fruitful
in those reforms which, as we have shown, usu-
ally follow a disaster of this magnitude. Had
the ship been less notable and the toll of human
life less terrible, the disaster might have failed
to awaken that sense of distrust in present
methods which is at the root of all thorough-
going reform. The measure of the one compen-
Sation which can be recovered from this awful
loss of life and treasure, will depend upon the
[11]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
care with which its lessons are learned and the
fidelity with which they are carried out.
Unquestionably, public faith in the security
of ocean travel has been rudely shaken. The
defects, however, which are directly answerable
for the sinking of this ship are fortunately of
Such a character that they can be easily cor-
rected; and if certain necessary and really very
simple changes in construction are made (and
they can be made without any burdensome in-
crease in the cost) we do not hesitate to say
that future passenger travel on a first-class
Ocean-going steamship will be rendered abso-
lutely safe.
The duty of a passenger steamer, such as the
Titanic, may be regarded as threefold: She
must stay afloat; she must provide a comfort-
able home for a small townful of people; and
she must carry them to their destimation with
as much speed as is compatible with safety and
comfort. Evidently the first condition, as to
safety, should be paramount. When it has been
determined to build a ship of a certain size and
weight (in the case of the Titanic the weight
was 60,000 tons, loaded) the designer should be
permitted to appropriate to the safety elements
[12]
Small dial indicates whether signals come from port or starboard.
RECEIVING SUBMARINE SIGNALS on THE BRIDGE

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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
of her construction every pound of steel that
he may wish to employ. In a vessel like the
Titanic, which is to be entrusted with the care
of three or four thousand souls, he should be
permitted to double-skin the ship, and divide
and subdivide the hull with bulkheads, until
he is satisfied that the vessel is unsinkable by
any of the ordinary accidents of the sea. When
these demands have been met, he may pile deck
upon deck and crowd as big a boiler- and engine-
plant into this unsinkable hull as the balance of
the weights at his disposal will allow.
Unfortunately the Board of Trade require-
ments under which the Titanic was built—and
very conscientiously built—proceed along no
Such common-sense lines. Instead, the Board
many years ago framed a set of rules in which
the safety requirements were cut down to such
a low limit, that the question of a ship's sur-
viving a serious collision was reduced to a mere
gamble with Fate. The Board of Trade ship
may fill two adjoining compartments, and then
with the top of her bulkheads practically level
with the sea, in the opinion of the Board, she
will have a fighting chance to live in smooth
water/
[15]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
The Titanic filled at least five adjoining com-
4 :
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partments, and hence,—thanks to these alto-
gether inadequate and obsolete requirements,
she is now at the bottom of the Atlantic; and,
thanks again to the requirements of the Board /
as to lifeboat accommodations, over fifteen
hundred of her passengers and crew went down
with the ship !
[16]
Water is hauled up in the canvas bucket and its temperajure
taken by thermometer. - - -
--
- - - -
- - - -
TARING THE TEMPERATURE of THE WATER

• • • • .
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CHAPTER II
TEIE EVER-PRESENT DANGERS OF TEIE SEA
Boswell, that faithful, if over-appreciative
chronicler, tells us that Dr. Johnson Once de-
scribed an ocean voyage as “going to jail with
a chance of being drowned.” Had some one
quoted the grim witticism of the doctor in the
spacious dining-room of the Titanic on the
night of April the fourteenth, it would have
provoked a smile of derisive incredulity. Go-
ing to sea in the cramped quarters of the frail
Sailing packet of Johnson’s day was one thing;
crossing the Atlantic at railroad speed in the
spacious luxury of a 60,000-ton liner was quite
another. Yet, five hours later, when the vast
bulk of that noble ship was slanting to its final
plunge, the pitiless truth was brought home to
that awe-stricken crowd that, even to-day,
travel by sea involves the “chance of being
drowned.”
The remarkable immunity of the high-speed
Atlantic liners from such accidents as befell the
[19]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
Titanic has been due in part to careful seaman-
ship and in part to an amazing run of good
luck. Of this there can be no doubt whatever.
On a recent occasion the subject was brought
up for discussion in the officers’ quarters of
One of the fastest liners. In answer to the
Writer’s question as to whether the dangers of
running at high speed through fog or ice-
infested regions were not enormous, one of the
officers frankly admitted that, not only were the
risks most serious, but the immunity from such
disasters as that which befell the Titanic was
to be explained on the ground of sheer good
fortune. “I well remember,” said he, ‘‘ that
the first time I found myself in charge of the
bridge on a ship that was running through fog
at a speed of over 20 knots, I fairly shivered
with a sense of the possibilities of disaster
that were involved. To-day—well—familiarity,
you know—’’
Let it not be supposed, from the heading of
this chapter, that it is the writer’s purpose to
draw any lurid picture of the dangers of ocean
travel. These are no greater to-day than they
were before the Titanic went down. Icebergs
have swept down from the Arctic seas from
[20]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
time immemorial, and year by year they will
continue to throw the shadow of their awful
menace across the lines of steamship travel.
Fog, with its ever-present dangers of collision,
will continue to infest the ocean highways; and
always, the half-submerged derelict, a peril
Scarcely less than that of the iceberg, will
continue to sail its uncharted course over the
high seas. -
The strength of the impulse to build unsink-
able ships will be exactly in proportion to our
realisation of the dangers which beset ocean
travel. The toll of human life exacted in the
recent disaster will lose its one possible com-
pensation, if it fails to impress deeply the very
Serious lesson that since the sea is not man’s
natural element, he can hold his way safely
across its surface only at the cost of most care-
ful preparation and eternal vigilance.
Protracted and amazing immunity from dis-
asters of portentous magnitude has bred in us
Something of that very contempt for the dan-
gers of the sea above referred to. We have
piled deck upon deck until the “floating
palace ’’ of the sea towers twice as far above
the water-line as it extends below it. So
[23]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
rapidly have we added weight to weight and
horsepower to horsepower, that both the mass
and the power have been quadrupled. The giant
Steamship of to-day, as she rushes through the
black night and the all-obscuring fog, repre-
Sents a potential engine of destruction, for
which no parallel can be found in the whole field
of human activity. -
Do you doubt it? Then learn that on that
fatal night when the Titanic bore headlong into
the icefield, she embodied in her onrushing
mass an energy equal to that of the combined
broadsides of our two most powerful battle-
ships, the Florida and the Utah. Which is to
say that, if the two dreadnoughts had dis-
charged their twenty twelve-inch guns, at point-
blank range, against the iceberg which sank
this ship, they would have struck a combined
blow of less energy than that delivered by the
Titanic. And every one of these guns, be it
remembered, delivers its shell with an energy
of 50,000 foot-tons—sufficient to lift either of
these battleships nearly two and a half feet
into the air.
Of the serious risk to a ship of collision with
an iceberg, it is superfluous to say anything
[24]
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º • • •
AN UNSINKABLE TITANTC
here. The swift sinking of the world’s great-
est steamship has driven that lesson home,
surely, for all time to come. But there are two
other forms of accident on the high seas—col-
lision with another ship and the running down
of a derelict—whose possibilities of disaster are
scarcely less. For if the huge steamships of
our day, moving at high speed, are such po-
tential engines of destruction, it follows that
the damaging effects of collisions are propor-
tionately increased.
If a 60,000-ton ship, such as the Titanic, while
running at high speed, were struck on the beam
by a vessel of large size, it is quite conceivable
that the outside plating of three of her com-
partments (not merely the “two adjoining ” of
standard shipbuilding practice) might be broken
in, or the seams and butts started, before the
energy of the colliding ship was absorbed and
the two vessels swung clear of each other. The
average length of the compartments of the
Titanic was about 53 feet. At 21 knots she
would move forward about 35 feet in one sec-
Ond. Hence, in a few seconds’ time (even al-
lowing for her slowing down due to the drag
of the other ship), her enormous energy of over
[27 |
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC

1,000,000 foot-tons would cause her to grind
along past the broken bow, surely more than
the 100 feet or so which would suffice to in-
volve three compartments. If three compart-
ments amidships were opened to the sea, it
Would mean the admission of some 12,000 to
15,000 tons of water.
Even more insidious is the menace of the
abandoned and water-logged ship—the justly
dreaded derelict—which, floating low in the
water, and without a light to reveal its position,
may lie directly in the path of the high-speed
Ocean liner. So slightly does the derelict pro-
ject above the surface, that it is almost impos-
sible of detection by night from the lofty posi-
tion of the lookout on a modern steamship.
Another risk of the sea, which, because of
long immunity from disaster, is in danger of
being overlooked or underrated, is that of fire.
The structural portions of a ship and its engine-
and boiler-plant, being of metal, are proof
against fire; but the stateroom partitions, the
wooden floors and ceilings, the wainscoting, and
the hundreds of tons of material used in decora-
tion and general embellishment, to say noth-
ing of the highly inflammable paint-work and
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
varnish, constitute a mass of material, which,
in the event of a serious fire, might turn the
whole interior of a large passenger ship into
one vast cauldron of flame. Fortunately, the
bulkhead is as effective in confining a fire as it
is in localising an inflow of water in the event
of collision. Therefore, some of the bulkheads
of the under-water portion of all passenger ships
should be continued (of lighter construction)
right through the decks reserved for passenger
accommodations, to the topmost deck of the ship.
But, perhaps, after all said and done, the
greatest perils of high-speed ocean travel are
to be found in that spirit of nautical sangfroid,
or indifference to danger, which, as this disaster
has proved, may in time begin to characterise
the attitude even of so experienced a navigator
as the late captain of the Titanic.
Protection against the dangers of the sea may
be sought in two directions: First, the enforce-
ment of rules for more careful navigation; sec-
Ond, the embodiment of non-sinkable construc-
tion in the ship.
The protection afforded by the one is limited
by the fallibility of human nature.
The protection afforded by the other is exact,
[31]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
absolutely sure, and will last as long as the ship
itself.
If we would make ocean travel safe we must
make the ship, as far as possible, unsinkable.
In other words, the naval architect must adopt
that principle of construction, common in other
lines of mechanical work, which has been aptly
designated as “fool-proof.” In the building of
folly-proof ships, then (the term is here used
in a modified sense and with not the least re-
flection upon that fine body of professional men
whose duties lie on the bridge of our ocean
liners), is to be found the one sure protection
against the perils of the sea.
We are well aware that the merchant ship,
like the warship, is a compromise, and that the
ingenuity of the naval architect is sorely taxed
to meet the many demands for speed, coal ca-
pacity, freight capacity, and luxurious accom-
modations for passengers. All this is admitted.
But the object of these chapters is to show
that in designing the ship, the architect has
given too little attention to the elements of
safety—that, in the compromise, luxurious ac-
commodations, let us say, have been favoured
at the expense of certain protective structural
[32]
AN UNSINE(ABLE TITANTC
arrangements, which might readily be intro-
duced without any great addition to the cost of
the ship, or any serious sacrifice of comfort or
speed.
Under the sobering effect of this calamity,
caution and moderation are the watchwords of
the hour. Steamships are leaving port crowded
with lifeboats of every size and shape. Steam-
ship routes have been moved far to the South
of the accustomed lines of travel. The time oc-
cupied in passage is longer, distances are
greater, and the coal bill runs into larger
figures.
But competition is keen, dividends must be
earned, and amid all the fret and fever of our
modern life, memories, even of stupendous hap-
penings, have but a brief life. Steamship
routes, under the strong pressure of competi-
tion, will tend to edge northward on to the older
and shorter sailing lines. Immunity from dis-
aster will beget the old sangfroid; and with
the near approach of the age of motor-driven
ships, we may look for an increase in speed
such as the old Atlantic has never witnessed,
even in the years of fiercest contest for the blue
ribbon of the seas.
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
Let it be so—provided, always provided that,
made wise by the lessons of the hour, we write
it in our laws and grave it deep in the hearts of
Our shipbuilders, that the one sure safeguard
against the eternal hazards of the sea is the fire-
proof and unsinkable ship !
[34]
CHAPTER III
EVERY SHIP ITS OWN LIFEBOAT
SAY what we will, it cannot be denied that the
lifeboat is a makeshift. The long white line
of boats, conspicuous on each side of the
upper deck of a large passenger ship, is, in a
certain sense, a confession of failure—an ad-
mission on the part of the shipbuilder that,
in spite of all that he has done in making travel
by sea fast and comfortable, he has not yet suc-
ceeded in making it safe.
Progress in shipbuilding and especially in the
construction of fast and luxuriously appointed
ships has been simply phenomenal, particularly
during the past two decades. There is no art
in the whole field of engineering that has made
such rapid and astonishing strides; and it is
not stretching the point too far to assert that
man’s mastery of the ocean is the greatest
engineering triumph of all time.
The fury of the elements, as shown in a heavy
Storm at Sea, has always been regarded as one
of the most majestic and terrifying exhibitions
[35]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
of the forces of nature. When the sailing
packet was struck by the full fury of a gale,
the skipper lay to, thankful if he could sur-
vive the racket, without carrying away boats,
bulwarks, and deck gear. Frequently, with can-
was blown out of the bolt ropes, he was obliged
to run under bare poles, at the imminent risk
of being swamped under the weight of some fol-
lowing sea. For many a decade, even in the
era of the steamship, it was necessary, when
heading into a heavy sea, to slow down the
engines, maintaining only sufficient speed to
give steerage way. To-day, so great are the
weight and engine power that the giant steam-
ship, if the captain is willing to risk some minor
mishaps to her upper works, may be driven
resistlessly along the appointed lines of travel
regardless of wind and sea. So far as the loss
of the ship from heavy weather is concerned,
man has obtained complete mastery of the
OC68Il.
The writer well remembers a trip to the
westward on one of the subsidised mail steam-
ers, built to naval requirements, which was
made at a time when the ship was striving to
accomplish the average speed of 24 1-2 knots
[36]
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
for the round trip from England to America,
which was necessary before she could claim the
government subsidy. In the run to the east-
ward, the ship had averaged for the whole pas-
sage 25 knots; therefore to win the coveted
prize, it was necessary, on the return passage
to New York, to maintain an average of 24
knots. As it happened, two hours out from
Queenstown it began to blow hard from the
southwest, and for the next four days the wind,
veering from southwest to northwest, never fell
below the strength of half a gale. On the fourth
day out the wind rose to full cyclonic force, and
against the most tempestuous weather that the
North Atlantic can show, the ship was driven
for twenty-four hours into what the captain’s
log-book designated as ‘‘ enormous head seas.”
She averaged a speed of 23 knots for the whole
four days of heavy weather, and came through
the ordeal without starting a single rivet, or
showing any signs of undue strain in her
roughly-handled hull.
The large and powerful passenger steamer of
to-day is proof against fatal damage due to
wind and sea. True it is that these ships occa-
sionally reach New York after a stormy pas-
[39]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
Sage, with porthole glasses broken, windows
Smashed, and rails and other light fittings car-
ried away; but these are minor damages which
in no way affect the integrity of the ship as a
whole.
If, then, the shipbuilder has made such won-
derful strides in the strength of his construc-
tion and in the development of engine power,
is it not a strange anomaly that he should have
so far failed in his attempt to provide against
sinking through collision, as to be under the
necessity of advertising the fact, by crowding
the topmost deck with appliances for saving
the lives of the passengers when the ship goes
down?
But it will be objected that, even if the ship
were made so far unsinkable that she might
act as her own lifeboat, there would yet remain
the risk of her destruction by fire, and that, if
a fierce conflagration occurred, the passengers
would have to abandom ship and take to the
boats. The objection is well made, and if it be
possible to introduce structural features which
will render ships both fireproof and unsinkable,
the thing should be done.
It is sincerely to be hoped that one outcome
[40]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
of the present world-wide interest in the sub-
ject of safety at sea, will be a searching inves-
tigation of the whole question of fire protec-
tion. In some of the first-class passenger ships,
notably those of the leading German companies,
the subject has been given the attention which
it merits; but there is no doubt that a large
majority of the vessels engaged in the passen-
ger-carrying trade contain no fire protection of
a structural nature; that is to say, the spaces
reserved for passenger accommodations are not
laid out with any view to limiting the ravages
of fire. On most of these ships a fire which
Once obtained strong headway might sweep
through the decks devoted to passenger accom-
modations, without meeting with any fireproof
wall to stay its progress.
Now the most effective protection against a
conflagration on board ship is to apply the
Same method of localisation which is used to
Such good effect in limiting the inflow of water
resulting from collision. The steel bulkhead
and the steel deck, acting as fire screens, may
be made as effective in limiting the area of
a fire as they are in limiting the area of
flooding.
[41]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
The passenger decks should be intersected at
frequent intervals by steel bulkheads, extend-
ing from side to side of the ship and carried up
to include the topmost tier of staterooms.
Where the alleyways intersect the bulkheads,
fireproof doors would afford all the necessary
means of communication. The provision of many
Such bulkheads, coupled with the installation of
an ample fire-main service and the faithful prac-
tice of fire-drills, would render the loss of a
ship by fire practically impossible.
The pathetic reluctance of her passengers to
leave the Titanic for the lifeboats was justified,
Surely, by the seeming security of the one and
frailty of the other. Perfectly natural was
their belief that the mighty ship would survive,
at least until the rescuing steamers should
reach her vicinity and render the transfer of
passengers a safe operation. Did not the Re-
public remain afloat for many hours after a col-
lision scarcely less terrible than this, and was
not the Titanic twice her size and, therefore,
good as a lifeboat for many an hour to come?
In considering the excellent service rendered
by the lifeboats of the Republic and the Titanic,
it should be borne in mind that the weather con-
[42]
Courtesy of Scientific American
Loading AND Low ERING BoATs, Stow ED ATH warts HIPs
- - -
- - - --- … "
- - -
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
ditions happened to be very favourable. The
launching of lifeboats in rough weather is a
difficult and perilous operation. Frequently the
É
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Courtesy of Scientific American
BoAT DECK OF TITANIC, SHOWING, IN BLACK, PLAN FOR STOW- H
ING ExTRA BoATs, To BRING TOTAL ACCOMMODATIONS UP
To 3,100 PERSONs
sinking ship will have a heavy list; if she lists
to starboard, the boats on that side can be
launched well clear of the ship, but the boats On
the port or higher side cannot be so launched.
As they are lowered, they will come in contact
with the side of the ship and be damaged or
capsized. Furthermore, should the ship be
rolling, the boats are liable to be swung vio-
lently against the vessel and their sides may be
crushed in or heavily strained, rendering them
unseaworthy. Had a heavy sea, nay, even a
moderate sea, been running at the time of the
Titanic disaster, how long would her heavily
loaded boats have survived in water that was
infested with ice floes? Their helplessness will
be more evident when we remember that they
weighed between one and two tons, and that

[45]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
when they were loaded down with sixty-five
people, the total weight must have been about
six tons. Now a craft of six tons’ displace-
ment requires considerable handling, and the
two or three sailors allotted to each boat,
jammed in, as they were, among crowded pas-
Sengers, would have been powerless in heavy
weather to keep the boat from broaching broad-
side to the sea and capsizing.
The demand, then, for unsinkable ships is jus-
tified by the fact that the lifeboat is at best but a
poor makeshift—that to put several thousand
people adrift in mid-ocean is to expose them to
the risk of ultimate death by starvation or
drowning.
However, in view of the fact that ninety-five
passenger ships out of every hundred are built
with the single skin, low bulkheads, and non-
watertight decks, which characterised the Ti-
tanic, it is certain that the cry: “A lifeboat
seat for every passenger '' is fully justified.
The problem of housing the large number that
would be required presents no insuperable diffi-
culties, and there are several alternative plans
on which the boats might be disposed. On page
45 will be found a proposed arrangement, re-
[46]
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
produced by the courtesy of the “Scientific
American,” which shows in white the twenty
boats actually carried by the Titanic, and
in black the additional boats which would
be necessary to increase the total accommoda-
tion to about 3,100 people. This plan would
necessitate the sacrifice of some of the deck-
house structures. Between each pair of smoke-
Stacks two lines of four boats each are stowed
athwartships. The boat chocks are provided
with gunmetal wheels, which run in transverse
tracks sunk in the deck. Along each side of
the boat-deck there is a continuous line of
boats.
Another plan would be to take advantage of
the full capacity of the Welin davit with which
the Titanic was equipped, which is capable of
handling two or even three boats stowed
abreast. Three lines of boats carried on each
side of the long boat-deck of a modern liner
Would provide ample accommodation for every
person on board.
But we repeat—and the point cannot be too
Strongly urged—that however complete the
lifeboat accommodation may be, it is at the
best a makeshift.
[49]
AN UNSINE(ABLE TITANIC
The demand that every ship that is launched
in the future shall be so far unsinkable as to
Serve as its own lifeboat in case of serious dis-
aster is perfectly reasonable; for there are cer-
tain first-class transatlantic liners in service
to-day—notably in certain leading English
and German lines—which fulfil this condi-
tion. Considerations both of humanity and self-
interest should lead to the adoption of similar
principles of construction by every passenger
steamship company. It is possible that the
time will come, and it may indeed be very close
at hand, when the most attractive page in the
illustrated steamship pamphlet will be one con-
taining plans of the ships, in which the safe-
guards against sinking—such as side bunkers,
high bulkheads, and watertight decks—are
clearly delineated.
[ 50 J
CHAPTER IV
SAFETY LIES IN SUBDIVISION
OTHER things being equal, the protection of a
ship against sinking is exactly proportionate to
the number of separate watertight compart-
ments into which the interior of her hull is sub-
divided. If she contains no watertight parti-
tions whatsoever, her sinking, due to damage
below the water-line, is a mere matter of time.
If the inflow exceeds the capacity of the pumps,
water will flow into the ship until all buoyancy
is lost. Protection against sinking is obtained
by dividing the interior of the hull into a num-
ber of compartments by means of strong, water-
tight partitions, or bulkheads. Usually, these
are placed transversely to the ship, extending
from side to side and from the bottom to a
height of one or two decks above the water-
line. They are built of steel plates, stiffened
by vertical I-beams, angle-bars, or other suit-
able members. The bulkheads are strongly
"riveted to the bottom, sides, and decks of the
ship, and the joints are carefully caulked, so
[51]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
as to secure a perfectly tight connection. In
the standard construction for merchant ships,
as used in the Titanic, the bulkheads are placed
transversely to the length of the ship, and the
number of separate compartments is just one
more than the number of bulkheads, ten such
bulkheads giving eleven compartments, fifteen,
as in the Titanic, giving sixteen compartments,
and so on. In the case of a few high-class mer-
chant steamers, built to meet special require-
ments as to safety, bulkheads are run length-
wise through the ship. These longitudinal
bulkheads, intersecting the transverse bulk-
heads, greatly increase the factor of safety due
to subdivision; for it is evident that one such,
running the full length of the ship, would dou-
ble, two would treble, and three would quad-
ruple the number of separate compartments.
The bulkhead subdivision above described is
all done in vertical planes. Its object is to re-
strict the water to such compartments as
(through collision or grounding) may have been
opened to the sea. As the water enters, the
ship, because of the loss of buoyancy, will sink
until the buoyancy of the undamaged compart-
ments restores equilibrium and the ship as-
[52]
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sumes a new position, with the water in the
damaged compartments at the same level as
the sea outside. This position is shown in Fig.
2, page 57. It must be carefully noted, how-
ever, that this condition can exist only if the
bulkheads are carried high enough to prevent
the water in the damaged compartments from
rising above them and flowing over the tops of
the bulkheads into adjoining compartments.
In addition to lateral and longitudinal sub-
division by means of vertical bulkheads, the
hull may be further subdivided by means of
horizontal partitions in the form of watertight
decks—a system which is universally adopted
in the navies of the world. For it is evident
that if the ship shown in Fig. 2, page 57, were
provided with a watertight deck, say at the
level of the water-line, as shown in Fig. 1, page
57, the water could rise only to the height of
that deck, where it would be arrested. The
amour of water entering the vessel would be,
say, only one-half to two-thirds of that received
in the case of the vessel shown in Fig. 2.
If ships that are damaged below the water-
line always settled in the water on an even keel,
that is to say without any change of trim, the
[ 55]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
loss through collisions would be greatly re-
duced. But for obvious reasons, the damage
usually occurs in the forward part of the ship,
and the flooding of compartments leads to a
change of trim, setting the ship down by the
head, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. If the trans-
Verse bulkheads are of limited height, and ex-
tend only to about 10 feet above the normal
Water-line, the settling of the bow may soon
bring the bulkhead deck (the deck against
which the bulkheads terminate) below the
Water. If, as is too often the case, this deck is
not watertight—that is to say, if it is pierced
by hatch openings, stair or ladder-ways, venti-
lator shafts, etc., which are not provided with
watertight casings or hatch covers, the water
will flow aft along the deck, and find its way
through these openings into successive com-
partments, gradually destroying the reserve
buoyancy of the ship until she goes down. The
vessels shown in Figs. 3 and 4 are similar as
to their subdivision, each containing thirteen
compartments; but in Fig. 3 the bulkheads are
shown carried only to the upper deck, say 10
feet above the water, whereas in Fig. 4 they
extend to the saloon deck, one deck higher, or,
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
say, 19 feet above the same point. Now, if both
ships received the same injury, involving, say,
the three forward compartments, a loss of
buoyancy which would bring the tops of bulk-
heads in Fig. 3 below the surface, would leave
the bulkheads in Fig. 4, which end at a water-
tight deck, with a safe margin, and any further
settling of the ship would be arrested.
Ordinarily, it would suffice to carry the first
two bulkheads at the bow and the last two at
the stern to the shelter deck, terminating the in-
termediate bulkheads one deck lower. But
whatever the deck to which the bulkheads are
carried, care should be taken to make it abso-
lutely watertight. Otherwise, as already made
clear, the so-called watertight subdivision of
the ship may, in time of stress, prove to be a
delusion and a snare.
Although the longitudinal bulkhead, which
is employed below the water-line, and chiefly in
the holds and machinery spaces, is the least
used, it is one of the most effective means
of subdivision that can be employed. A cer-
tain amount of prejudice exists against it, on
the ground that it confines the inflowing water
to one side of the ship, causing it to list, if not
[59]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
ultimately to capsize. But this objection merely
points the moral that all things must be used
With discretion. A single longitudinal bulk-
head, built through the exact centre of a ship,
Would invite a speedy capsize in the event of
extensive injury below the water-line. The
loss of the British battleship Victoria empha-
sised that truth many years ago. But longi-
tudinal bulkheads, carried through the engine
and boiler spaces, at the sides of the ship, are
a most effective protection. Not only is each
of the large compartments in the wider central
body of the ship divided into three, but along
each side is provided a row of comparatively
Small compartments, several of which could be
flooded without causing a serious loss of buoy-
ancy.
These bulkheads, built some 15 to 18 feet in
from the side of the ship, not only form an
inner skin for the ship, but they serve as the
inner wall of the coal bunkers. They extend
from the inner bottom to the under side of the
lower deck, to both of which they are securely
riveted, the joints being carefully caulked,
to render them watertight. The space between
the ship's side and the bulkhead is subdivided
[60 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
by transverse watertight partitions (see plan of
Mauretamia, Fig. 3, page 129), placed centrally
between the main transverse bulkheads of the
ship. A further and most effective means for `... ºx
protecting the buoyancy is to construct the ship
with a double skin up to and preferably a few
feet above the water-line. The inner skin
should extend from the first bulkhead abaft the
engine-room to the first or collision bulkhead,
forward. This construction merely involves
carrying the inner floor plating of the double
bottom up the sides of the ship to the under
side of the lower deck. As all merchant ships
are built with a double bottom (see page 107),
the cost of thus providing a double skin below
the water-line is small in proportion to the
security against flooding which it affords.
The description of the Titanic, published at
the time of her launch, stated that any two of
her adjoining compartments could be flooded
without endangering the safety of the ship, and
the question must frequently have occurred to
the lay mind as to why the ability of the ship
to sustain flooding of her interior was confined
to two, and not extended to include three or
even more compartments.
[61 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
The ability to stand the flooding of two com-
partments only is not peculiar to the Titanic.
It represents the standard practice which is fol-
lowed in all passenger ships, the spacing and
height of whose bulkheads is determined in
accordance with certain stipulations of the
British Board of Trade. These stipulations, as
given by Prof. J. H. Biles of Glasgow Univer-
sity, in his book “Design and Construction of
Ships,” are as follows:
“A vessel is considered to be safe, even in the event of serious
damage, if she is able to keep afloat with two adjoining compart-
ments in free communication with the sea. The vessel must there-
fore have efficient transverse watertight bulkheads so spaced that
when any two adjoining compartments are open to the sea,
the uppermost deck to which all the bulkheads extend is not
brought nearer to the surface of the water than a certain pre-
scribed margin.
“The watertight deck referred to is called the bulkhead deck.
The line past which the vessel may not sink is called the margin
of safety line.
“The margin of safety line, as defined in the above report, is a
line drawn round the side at a distance amidships of three-one-
hundredths of the depth at side at that place below the bulkhead
deck, and gradually approaching it toward the aft end, where it
may be three-two-hundredths of the same depth below it.”
By referring to the diagrams on page 66
showing the disposition of bulkheads on certain
notable ships, it will be seen that, in the case of
the Titanic, the application of the Board of
[62 |
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
Trade rule called for the extension of the bulk-
heads amidships only to the upper deck, which,
at the loaded draft of 34 feet, was only 10 feet
above the water-line ! Compare this with the
safe construction adopted by Brunel and Scott
Russell over fifty-four years ago, who, in con-
structing the Great Eastern, extended all the
bulkheads (see page 83) to the topmost deck,
fully 30 feet above the water-line.
Before leaving the question of bulkheads, the
writer would enter a strong protest against
the present practice of placing watertight
doors in the main bulkheads below the Water-
line. They are put there generally for the con-
venience of the engine- and boiler-room forces,
whose duties render it necessary for them to
pass from compartment to compartment. As
at present constructed, these doors are of the
sliding type, and they can be closed simul-
taneously from the bridge, or separately, by
hand. The safer plan is to permit no bulk-
head doors below the water-line, and provide
in their place elevators or ladders, enclosed in
watertight trunks. Access from compartment
to compartment must then be had by way of the
bulkhead deck.
[651
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
The advantage of lofty bulkheads was ad-
mirably illustrated in the case of the City of
Paris and the City of New York, designed by
Mr. Biles in 1888. Although these were small
ships compared with the Titanic, their fourteen
bulkheads were carried one deck higher. Biles
laid down the rule that no doors were to be cut
L. US 1 TAN IA
S. EEEEEEE l
=[[EEELTITILTTTI ==
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CAM PAN. A - - {
wº PARIS
CoQaraºy QP Ewaſº Ezra
A CoMPARISON OF BULKBEAD PROTECTION IN Som E NOTABLE
SHIPS
through the bulkheads, and in spite of strenu-
ous objections on the grounds of passenger ac-
commodation and general convenience in the
operation of the ship, he carried his point.
The wisdom of this construction was demon-


[66 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
strated years later, when, as a result of an ac-
cident to her engines, the two largest adjoining
compartments of the City of Paris were flooded,
at a time when the ship was 150 miles off the
coast of Ireland. There was no wireless in
those days to send out its call for help, and for
three days the ship drifted in a helpless con-
dition. Thanks to her lofty bulkheads, the
good ship stood the ordeal and was finally
brought into port without the loss of a single
passenger.
BULEEIEAD SPACING ON NOTABLE SEIIPS
tº O
# rt; § E. Tº º 33 Q-w
º: Qix Q.) +: 3 Sº 5 ©
‘E # * | * : ā ā #
NAME s ## s = | r = | # à
3 | ## # = | ## #"
3. H B | #8
Titanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911 852, 5 15 53 6.2
Lusitania. . . . . . . . . . . . 1907 762.0 16 45 5.9
George Washington...| 1908 699.0 13 50 7.1
Great Eastern . . . . . . . . 1854–59 | 680.0 9 6S 10,0
Carmania . . . . . . . . . . . . 1905 650.0 15 50 7.8
Campania. . . . . . . . . . . . 1893 601.0 8 67 11, 1
New York . . . . . . . . . . . 1888 517.0 14 37 6.7
Alma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1894 270.7 11 23 8.3
* Figures in this column represent the length between perpen-
diculars.
An interesting study of bulkhead practice in
Some notable ships is afforded by the table and
[67
AN UNSINRABLE TITANIC
diagrams which are herewith reproduced by the
courtesy of “ Engineering.” In the matter of
height of bulkheads above the water-line, the
Great Eastern stands first, followed by the
Paris, the Lusitania, the Campania, and the
Titanic.
[68 |
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
The Great Eastern represented the joint
labours of the two most distinguished engineers
of the middle period of the nineteenth cen-
tury, I. K. Brunel and John Scott Russell. The
former was responsible for the original idea of
the ship, and it was he who suggested that it
should be built upon the principles adopted in
the rectangular, tubular bridge that had re-
cently been built across the Menai Straits. To
Scott Russell, as naval architect, were due the
lines and dimensions of the ship and the elabo-
rate system of transverse and longitudinal
bulkheads.
Those were the days when the engineer was
supreme. He worked with a free hand; and
these two men set out to build a ship which
should be not only the largest and strongest,
but also the safest and most unsinkable vessel
afloat. How they succeeded is shown by the
fact, that on one of her voyages to New York,
the Great Eastern ran over some submerged
rocks off Montauk Point, Long Island, and tore
two great rents in her outer skin, whose aggre-
gate area was equivalent to a rupture 10 feet
wide and 80 feet long. In spite of this dam-
age, which was probably greater in total area
[70
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„…'，， ，1，v,, ,，1，1）jº«…mae’’.|-

AN UNSINKABLE TITANTC
than that suffered by the Titanic, the ship came
safely to New York under her own steam.
There can be no doubt that in undertaking
to build a ship of the then unprecedented length
of 692 feet, the designers were as much con-
cerned with the question of her strength as
with that of her ability to keep afloat in case of
under-water damage. But it so happens that
the very forms of construction which conduce
to strength are favourable also to flotation—a
fact which renders all the more reasonable the
demand that, in all future passenger-carrying
steamships, a return shall be made to the non-
sinkable construction of this remarkable ship
of over fifty years ago.
Let it not be supposed, however, that Brunel
and Russell were insensible to the risks of
foundering through under-water damage, or
that the fully protected buoyancy of this vessel
was accidental rather than the result of careful
planning. For in the technical descriptions of
the ship, it is stated that the inner skin was
carried forward right up to the bow, as a pro-
tection against ‘‘ collision with an iceberg,’’
and it is further stated that the combination of
longitudinal and transverse bulkheads afforded
[73]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
Such complete subdivision, that “several com-
partments might be opened to the sea without
endangering the ship.”
So remarkable in every respect was the
Great Eastern, so admirable a model is she of
Safe construction, even for the naval architect
of to-day, that a somewhat extended descrip-
tion of the construction of the vessel will doubt-
less be welcome.
It was at the close of the year 1851 that
Brunel made a study of the problem of build-
ing a vessel of sufficient size to carry enough
coal to make a round voyage to Australia and
back, and at the same time afford comfortable
accommodations for an unusually large number
of passengers and carry a large amount of
freight. With the thoroughness and frank
open-mindedness which distinguished the man,
he sought for information and advice from
every promising quarter. Sir William White
is of the opinion that all the leading features of
the design, such as the structure, the arrange-
ment of the propelling machinery, and the de-
termination of dimensions, originated with
Brunel, who said at the time: “I never em-
barked on any one thing to which I have so
[74]
AN UNSINECABLE TITANIC
entirely devoted myself and to which I have
devoted so much time, thought, and labour; on
the success of which I have staked so much
reputation, and to which I have so largely com-
mitted myself and those who were supposed to
place faith in me.” Sir William states that,
after going carefully through Brunel’s notes
and reports, his admiration for the remarkable
grasp and foresight therein displayed has been
greatly increased. “In regard to the pro-
vision of ample structural strength with a mini-
mum of weight, the increase of safety by water-
tight subdivision and cellular double-bottom,
the design of propelling machinery and boilers,
with a view to economy of coal and great endur-
ance for long-distance steaming; the selection
of forms and dimensions likely to minimise re-
sistance and favour good behaviour at sea,
Brunel displayed a knowledge of principles
Such as no other ship designer of that time
Seems to have possessed.” The value of this
tribute will be understood when it is borne in
mind that Sir William White is the most widely
known architect of the day.
The principal dimensions of the Great East-
ern were as follows:
[75]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
PARTICULARS OF THE GREAT EASTERN
Length between perpendiculars... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680 feet
Length on upper deck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692 “
Extreme breadth of hull. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 “
Width over paddle-boxes. ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 “
Depth from upper deck to keel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 “
Draught of water (laden). . . . . . . . . * c e s e º e e º e º ſº e º & 9 e º 'º e 28 “
Weight of iron used in construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000 tons
The ship was propelled by two separate en-
gines, driving respectively paddle-wheels and a
single propeller. The engines for the paddle-
wheels were of the oscillating type. The cylin-
ders were four in number, 74 inches in diameter,
by 14-feet stroke, and each one in the finished
condition weighed 28 tons. The paddle-wheels
were 56 feet in diameter. Steam for these
engines was supplied by four, double-ended,
tubular boilers, each 17 feet 9 inches long, 17
feet 6 inches wide, and 13 feet 9 inches high,
and weighing, with water, 95 tons. Each boiler
contained 10 furnaces. The screw engines,
which were placed in the aftermost compart-
ment of the machinery spaces, were of the hori-
zontal, opposed type; there were four cylinders,
84 inches in diameter, by 4-feet stroke, and each
one, in the finished condition, weighed 39 tons.
[76]
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
The propeller shafting, 150 feet in length,
weighed 60 tons. The four-bladed propeller
was 24 feet in diameter. Steam was supplied
to these engines by six tubular boilers of about
the same dimensions as those for the paddle-
wheel engines. The working pressure was 25
pounds per square inch.
The estimated speed of the Great Eastern
was 15 knots; her best actual performance on
an extended voyage was an average speed of
14 knots, which was realised on one of her trips
to New York. She was designed to carry 4,000
passengers, namely 800 first, 2,000 second, and
1,200 third class, besides a crew of 400. She
had a capacity of 5,000 tons of cargo, and 12,-
000 tons of coal. When fitted up for the accom-
modation of troops she could carry 10,000.
Fully laden with passengers, cargo, and coal,
she displaced, on a draft of 30 feet, about
27,000 tons;–her actual draft was from 26
to 28 feet. The accommodations for passengers
would have done credit to one of our modern
liners. There were five saloons on the upper,
and another five on the lower deck. The upper-
most deck afforded two unbroken and spacious
promenades, one on each side of the ship, each
[79 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
of which was 20 feet wide and over 600 feet in
length.
Because of the great length of the ship it was
decided to launch her sideways, a disastrous
experiment which cost the company dear. The
launching ways yielded under the great weight,
the ship jammed on the ways, and she had to be
laboriously forced into the River Thames, inch
by inch, by the aid of powerful hydraulic jacks.
The great cost of the launching, which occupied
two and a half months’ time, caused the failure
of the original company, and the ship was sold
for $900,000 to a new company, who completed
her in 1859. She made several voyages to
America; and although in this service she was
unprofitable, the great ship proved that she was
staunch, eminently seaworthy, and fast for a
passenger ship of that period. Although the
Great Eastern was never employed on the Aus-
tralian service, for which she was designed,
she was usefully employed in 1865 in laying two
of the Atlantic telegraph cables, and, Subse-
quently, in similar service in other parts of the
world—a work for which her great strength
and size rendered her peculiarly adapted.
After serving an inglorious career in the hands
[80]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
of the showman, the Great Eastern was sold
for the value of her metal and was broken up in
the autumn of 1888.
The financial failure of this ship was not due
to any excessive first cost, resulting from the
very thorough character of her construction,
but rather to certain economic conditions of her
time. Traffic across the Atlantic, both freight
and passenger, was as yet in its infancy; and
even if full cargoes had been available, the
loading facilities of those days were so inade-
quate, that the ship would have been delayed in
port for an unconscionable length of time. Fur-
thermore, fuel consumption, in that early stage
of development of the steam engine, was ex-
cessive, the coal consumed per horsepower per
hour being about three and one-half to four
pounds, as compared with a modern consump-
tion of from one and a quarter to one and a
half pounds per horsepower.
A careful study of the construction of this
remarkable vessel establishes the fact that over
fifty years ago Brunel and Scott Russell pro-
duced in the Great Eastern a ship which stands
as a model for all time. Realising, in the first
place, how vulnerable is an iron vessel which
[81 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
Carries only a single skin, they decided to pro-
vide a double skin and construct the ship with
two separate hulls, placed one within the other
and firmly tied together by a system of con-
tinuous longitudinal and lateral web-plates or
frames. By reference to the cross-section, pub-
lished on page 83, it will be seen that the double-
skin construction extended entirely around the
hull, and was carried up to a continuous plate-
iron lower deck, which was from 8 to 10 feet
above the water-line, the distance varying with
the draft of the ship. The two skins were placed
2 feet 10 inches apart and they were tied to-
gether by 34 longitudinal web-members, which
ran the entire length of the double hull, and
divided the space between the two skins into
separate watertight compartments. These were
themselves further subdivided by a series of
transverse webs which intersected the longi-
tudinal webs. The cellular construction thus
provided extended from the aftermost bulkhead
right through to the bow, to which it was carried
for the purpose of protecting the forward part
of the ship against the effect of collision with
icebergs, which at that early day were recog-
nised as constituting a serious menace to navi-
[82 |
BU L K H E A D DE C K
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SH E L L B O | L E R S
G R EAT EAST E R N BUILT 1858
Two EXTREMES IN PROTECTION, AND A CoMPROMISE
:





AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
gation. The inner skin was not continued aft
of the aftermost bulkhead, for the reason that at
the stern it would have been unnecessary and
somewhat inconvenient.
The double hull was closed in by a watertight
iron deck (the lower deck), which served to
entirely separate the boiler- and engine-rooms
and the holds from the passenger quarters.
Above the lower deck the hull was built with a
single skin, which terminated at a flush, con-
tinuous, cellular steel deck, corresponding to
the shelter deck of modern steamships, which
extended unbroken from stem to stern. This
deck was an unusually rigid structure. Its
upper and lower surfaces were each one inch in
thickness, and each consisted of two layers of
half-inch plating riveted together. The double
deck thus formed was two feet in depth, and the
intervening space was intersected by longi-
tudinal girders, the whole construction forming
an unusually stiff and strong watertight deck,
which was admirably suited to meet the
heavy tensional and compressive stresses, to
which a ship of the length of the Great East-
erm is subjected when driving through head
Sea.S.
[85 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
The watertight subdivision of the Great
Eastern was more complete than that of any
ship that was ever constructed for the merchant
Service, more thorough even than that of recent
passenger ships which have been designed for
use as auxiliary cruisers in time of war. In
addition to the great protection afforded by her
double hull, she was subdivided by nine trans-
verse bulkheads, which extended from the bot-
tom clear through to the upper deck, or to a
height of 30 feet above the water-line. Com-
pare this with the practice followed in the
Titanic and in all but a very few of the mer-
chant ships of the present day, whose bulkheads
are carried up only from one-third to one-half
of that height, and too often terminate at a deck
which is not, in the proper sense of the term,
watertight.
In addition to these main bulkheads, the
Great Eastern contained six additional trans-
verse bulkheads, which extended to the iron
lower deck. Five of these were contained in
the machinery spaces and one was placed aft
of the aftermost main bulkhead. The sub-
merged portion of the hull, or rather all that
portion of it lying below the lower deck, was
[86 ||
From an old photograph, taken in 1860
* –-
- -- -
GREAT EASTERN, Lying AT Foot of CANAL STREET, North River.
NEw York
- - :- •:
- - -*. -- * : - --
- - - - - - --
- - -
- - - - -
-- - - -

AN UNSINE(ABLE TITANIC
thus divided by 15 transverse bulkheads into 16
Separate watertight compartments.
Not content with this, however, Brunel ran
throughout the whole of the machinery and en-
gine spaces two longitudinal bulkheads, which
extended from the bottom of the ship to the top
deck. A further subdivision consisted of a
curved steel roof which separated the boiler-
rooms from the coal-bunkers above them. Al-
together the hull of the Great Eastern was di-
vided up into between 40 and 50 separate water-
tight compartments. An excellent structural
feature, from which later practice has made a
wide departure, was the fact that no doors were
cut through the bulkheads below the lower deck.
Such was the Great Eastern, a marvel in her
time and an object lesson, even to-day, in safe
and unsinkable construction. That her valu-
able qualities were not obtained at the cost of
extravagance in the use of material is one of
the most meritorious features of her design and
construction. On this point we cannot do bet-
ter than quote from the address of Sir William
... White, delivered when he was President of the
Institution of Civil Engineers: “I have most
thoroughly investigated the question of the
[89 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
weight absorbed in the structure of the Great
Eastern, and my conclusion is that it is con-
siderably less than that of steel-built ships of
approximately the same dimensions and of the
most recent construction. Of course these ves-
Sels are much faster, have more powerful en-
gines, and have superstructures for passenger
accommodation towering above the upper deck.
These and other features involve additional
weight; and the Great Eastern has the advan-
tage of being deeper in relation to her length
than the modern ships. After making full al-
lowance for these differences, my conclusion is
that the Great Eastern was a relatively lighter
structure, although at the time she was built
only iron plates of very moderate size were
available.”
[90
CHAPTER VI
TEIE SINEABLE TITANIO
IN all the long record of disasters involving the
loss of human life there is none which appeals
so strongly to the imagination as those which
have occurred upon the high seas, and among
these the loss of the Titanic stands out pre-
eminent as the most stupendous and heart-
rending tragedy of them all. The ship itself
was not only the latest and largest of those
magnificent ocean liners which, because of their
size and speed and luxurious appointments,
have taken such a strong hold upon the public
imagination, but it was popularly believed that
because of her huge proportions, and the spe-
cial precautions which had been taken to render
her unsinkable, the Titanic was so far proof
against the ordinary accidents of the sea as to
survive the severest disaster and bring her pas-
sengers safely into port.
The belief that the Titanic stood for the
“last word ” in naval architecture certainly
seemed to be justified by the facts. She was
[91]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
not a contract-built ship in the commonly ac-
cepted sense of that term. On the contrary,
She was built under a system which conduces to
high-class workmanship and eliminates the
temptations to cheap work, which must always
exist when a contract is secured in the face of
keen competition.
The famous White Star Company have
pointed with pride to the fact that the excellence
of their ships was due largely to the fact that
they had been built in the same shipbuilding
yard and under an arrangement which encour-
aged the builders to embody in the ships the
most careful design and workmanship. Under
this arrangement, Messrs. Harland & Wolff,
of Belfast, build the White Star vessels with-
out entering into any hard and fast agreement
as to the price: the only stipulation of this
character being that, when the ship is accepted,
they shall be paid for the cost of the ship, plus
a certain profit, which is commonly believed to
be ten per cent.
Of the strength of the Titanic and the general
high character of her construction there can be
no doubt whatever. Not only was she built to
the requirements of the Board of Trade and
[92 |
warestine- 7-E-----
GREAT EASTERN 1858
Four waſ E-RT-GHT cor-1 PART-ENTS
wartººns
TITAN ic -12.
one wa-E-RT-c-T co-º-º-º-º-º-NT
Titanic shows omission of inner skin, longitudinal bulkheads,
and watertight decks. Transverse bulkheads are lower by 20 feet.
Fifty YEARS’ DEcLINE IN SAFETY CoNSTRUction
:



AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
the insurance companies, but, as we have
noted, she was constructed by the leading ship-
building company of the world, under condi-
tions which would inspire them to put into the
world’s greatest steamship the very best that
the long experience and ample facilities of the
yard could produce.
The principal dimensions of the Titanic, as
furnished by her owners, were as follows:
PARTICULARS OF TEIE TITANIC
Ft. Ins.
Length over all. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 882 9
Length between perpendiculars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850 0
Breadth extreme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 6
Depth moulded to shelter deck... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 3
Depth moulded to bridge deck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 3
Total height from keel to navigating bridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 ()
Load draft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 6
Gross tonnage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45,000
Displacement in tons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,000
Indicated horsepower of reciprocating engines. . . . . . . . . . 38,000
Shaft horsepower of turbine engine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22,000
In this connection the following table, giving
the dimensions of the most notable steamships,
from the Great Eastern of 1858 to the Impera-
tor of 1913, will be of interest. How rapidly
the weight (displacement) increases with the
length of these large ships, is shown by the
fact that, although in length the Titanic is only

[95 ||
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
about 27 per cent. greater than the Great
Eastern, in displacement she exceeds her by
considerably over 100 per cent.
PARTICULARS OF NOTED TRANSLANTIC LINERS
§ 3 , E! -->
# £ E. 5 5
* | # 3 a Ä # #
NAME 3 | * = § rº 3 3.
ſº * † º Q} *- &n
# # # # | #
* 2- Ø- | Q
Feet | Feet, Ins. | Feet Ins. | Tons
Great Eastern. . . . . . . . . . 1858 | 680 83.0 58.0 27,000 7,650
City of Paris . . . . . . . . . . . 1888 528 63.0 41.9 13,000 | 20,700
Teutonic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1890 565 57.6 42.2 12,000 | 19,500
Campania. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1803 600 65.0 41.6 18,000 || 30,000
St. Paul. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1895 536 63.0 42.0 16,000 | 18,000
E. Wilhelm der GroSSe. 1897 || 625 66.0 43.0 20,890 30,000
Oceanic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1899 || 685 68.5 49.0 28,500 || 27,000
Deutschland . . . . . . . . . . . 1900 | 663 67.0 44.0 23,600 || 36,000
Kaiser Wilhelm II. . . . . . 1903 || 678 72.0 52.6 26,000 || 38,000
Adriatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1907 || 700 75.6 56.9 40,800 | 16,000
Mauretania. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1907 || 760 88.0 60.6 44,640 70,000
La France . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1912 685 75.5 52.10 || 27,000 || 45,000
Titanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1912 850 92.6 64.3 60,000 || 60,000
Imperator. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1913 880 96.0 62.0 || 65,000 || 70,000
;
Knots
14.0
21.8
21.0
22.01
21.08
22.5
20.7
23.5
23.5
17.0
26.01 -->
23.5
22.5
23.0
The general structure of the Titanic is shown
by the midship section, page 83, and the side
elevation, page 129. For about 550 feet amid-
ships she contained 8 steel decks, the boat
deck, promenade deck, bridge deck, shelter deck,
saloon deck, upper deck, middle deck, and lower

[96]


Page Missing
in Original
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Page Missing
in Original


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AN UNSINEABLE TITANTC
deck. The highest steel deck that extended
continuously throughout the full length of the
ship was the shelter deck. For 550 feet amid-
ships the sideplating of the ship was carried up
one deck higher to the bridge deck. The
moulded or, plated depth of the ship to the shel-
ter deck was 64 feet 3 inches and to the bridge
deck 73 feet 3 inches. This great depth of over
73 feet, in conjunction with specially heavy
steel decks on the bridge and shelter decks, and
the doubling of the plating at the bilges, (where
the bottom rounds up into the side,) conjoined
with the deep and heavy double bottom, served
to give the Titanic the necessary strength to
resist the bending stresses to which her long
hull was subjected, when steaming across the
heavy seas of the Atlantic. The doubling of
the plating on the bridge and shelter decks
served the same purpose as the cellular steel
construction which, as mentioned in the previ-
ous chapter, was adopted for the upper deck of
tile Great Eastern.
The dimensions of the frames and plating of
the hull were determined by the builder’s long
experience in the construction of large vessels.
The cellular double bottom, which extended the
[99]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
full width of the ship, was of unusual depth and
strength. Throughout the ship, its depth was 5
feet 3 inches; but in the reciprocating engine-
room, it was increased to 6 feet 3 inches. The
keel consisted of a single thickness of plating,
11% inches thick, and a heavy, flat bar, 3 inches
in thickness and 191% inches wide. Generally
Speaking, the shell plates were 6 feet wide, 30
feet long, and 21% to 3 tons in weight. The
largest of these plates was 36 feet long and
weighed 41/4 tons.
Amidships, the framing, which consisted of
channel sections 10 inches in depth, was spaced
3 feet apart. Throughout the boiler-room
spaces, additional frames, 21% feet deep, were
fitted 9 feet apart, and in the engine- and
turbine-rooms, similar deep frames were fitted
on every second frame, 6 feet apart. These
heavy web-frames extended up to the middle
deck, a few feet above the water-line, and added
greatly to the strength and stiffness of the hull.
Had the inside plating of the double bottom
been carried up the sides and riveted on the
inner flanges of these frames, as shown in the
sketch on page 107, it would have served the
purpose of an inner skin; and when the outer
[100 |
AN UNSINE(ABLE TITANTC
skin of her forward boiler-rooms was rup-
tured by the iceberg, it would have served
to prevent the inflow of water to these two large
compartments. Mr. Ismay, the President of
the International Mercantile Marine Company,
in his testimony at the Senate Investigation,
stated that among the improvements, which
would be made in the Gigantic, now under con-
struction for the company, would be the addi-
tion of an inner skin. Doubtless he had in mind
the construction above suggested.
The 10-inch channel frames extended from the
double bottom to the bridge deck, and some of
these bars were 66 feet in length and weighed
nearly 1 ton apiece. The frames were tied to-
gether along the full length of each deck by the
deck beams of channel section, which, through-
out the middle portion of the ship, were 10
inches deep and weighed as high as 114 tons
apiece. The transverse stiffness of the framing
was assured by stout bracket knees, riveted to
the frames and deck beams at each point of con-
nection, and by the 15 watertight bulkheads,
which were riveted strongly to the bottom and
sides of the ship, and also by 11 non-watertight
bulkheads, which formed the inner walls of the
[101 ||
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
coal bunkers on each side of the main bulk-
heads.
The bridge, shelter, saloon, and upper decks
were supported and stiffened by four lines of
heavy longitudinal girders, worked in between
the beams, which were themselves carried by
solid round pillars placed at every third deck
beam. In the boiler-rooms, below the middle
deck, the load of the superincumbent decks was
carried down to the double bottom by means of
heavy round pillars.
Such was the construction of the Titanic; and
it will be agreed that, so far as the strength and
integrity of the hull were concerned, it was ad-
mirably adapted to meet the heavy stresses
which are involved in driving so great and
heavy a ship through the tempestuous weather
of the North Atlantic.
The first sight of such a gigantic vessel as
the Titanic produces an impression of solidity
and invulnerability, which is not altogether jus-
tified by the facts. For, to tell the truth, the
modern steamship is a curious compound of
strength and fragility. Her strength, as must
be evident from the foregoing description of
the framing of the Titanic, is enormous, and
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
ample for safety. Her fragility and vulnerabil-
ity lie in the fact that her framework is over-
laid with a relatively thin skin of plating, an
inch or so in thickness, which, while amply
strong to resist the inward pressure of the
water, the impact of the seas, and the tensile
and compressive stresses due to the motion of
the ship in a seaway, etc., is readily fractured
by the blow of a collision.
In a previous chapter it was shown that when
the Titanic is being driven at a speed of 21
knots, she represents an energy of over 1,000,-
000 foot-tons. If this enormous energy is ar-
rested, or sought to be arrested, by some rigid
obstruction, whether another ship, a rock, or
an iceberg, the delicate outside skin will be torn
like a sheet of paper.
It was shown in Chapter TV that protection
against flooding of a ship through damage
below the water-line is obtained by subdividing
the hull into separate watertight compartments,
and that, roughly speaking, the degree of pro-
tection is proportionate to the extent to which
this subdivision is carried. , Applying this to
the Titanic, we find that she was divided by 15
transverse bulkheads into 16 separate compart-
[105 ||
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
ments. But, in this connection it must be noted
that these bulkheads did not extend through the
whole height of the ship to the shelter deck,
as they did in the case of the Great Eastern,
and therefore it cannot be said that the whole
of the interior space of the hull received the
benefit of subdivision. As a matter of fact,
Only about two-thirds of the total cubical space
contained below the shelter deck was protected
by subdivision. Water, finding its way into the
ship above the level of the decks to which the
bulkheads were carried, was free to flow the
whole length of her from stem to stern. Fur-
thermore, the value of the subdivision below
the bulkhead deck depends largely upon the de-
gree to which this deck is made watertight. If
the deck is pierced by hatchways, stairways, and
other openings, which are not provided with
watertight casings and hatch covers, the integ-
rity of the deck is destroyed, and the bulkhead
subdivision below loses its value.
It was largely this most serious defect—the
existence of many unprotected openings in the
bulkhead deck of the Titanic—that caused her
to go down so soon after the collision.
Referring now to the side elevation of
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
the Titanic on page 129, it will be noted that
the only bulkhead which was carried up to
the shelter deck was the first, or collision
bulkhead. The second bulkhead extended to
the saloon deck, and on the after side
of this and immediately against it was a
spiral stairway for the accommodation of the
crew, which led from their quarters down
to the floor of the ship. Here the stairway
terminated in a fireman’s passage, which led
aft through the third and fourth bulkheads, and
gave access through a watertight door to the
foremost boiler-room. The seven bulkheads,
from No. 3 to No. 9, extended only to the upper
deck, which, at load draft, was only about 10
feet above the water-line. Bulkhead No. 10 was
carried up one deck higher to the saloon deck,
as were also bulkheads 11, 12, 13, and 14. Bulk-
head No. 15 terminated at the upper deck.
Now, it will be asked: what was the factor in
the calculations which determined the height of
these bulkheads? The answer is to be found in
the Board of Trade stipulations, to which ref-
erence was made in Chapter IV, page 62. These
stipulations establish an imaginary safety line,
below which a ship may not sink without danger
[109]
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
of foundering. The safety line represents the
depth to which a ship will sink when any two
adjoining compartments are opened to the sea
and therefore flooded. If the two forward com-
partments are flooded, for instance, the bow
may sink with safety, until the water is only
three one-hundredths of the depth of the ship,
at the side, from the bulkhead deck. If two
central compartments are flooded, the ship is
supposed to settle with safety until the bulk-
head deck at that point is only three one-
hundredths of the depth of the side, at that
place, above the water.
The raising of the height of the bulkheads, by
One deck, at the engine-room, is due to the
operation of this rule; for here the two adjoin-
ing compartments, those containing the recip-
rocating engines and the turbine, are the largest
in the ship, and their flooding would sink the
ship proportionately lower in the water.
Now it takes but a glance at the diagrams on
page 66 to show that the application of the
Board of Trade rule brought the bulkhead line
of the Titanic down to a lower level than that
of any of the other notable ships shown in com-
parison with her. It was the low bulkheads,
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
acting in connection with the non-watertight
construction of the bulkhead deck, that was
largely answerable for the loss of this other-
wise very fine ship.
Another grave defect in the Titanic was the
great size of the individual compartments, cou-
pled with the fact that the only protection against \
their being flooded was the one-inch plating of
the outside skin. If this plating were ruptured
or the rivets started along the seams, there was
nothing to prevent the flooding of the whole
compartment and the entry, at least throughout
the middle portion of the ship, of from 4,000 to
6,000 tons of water—this last being the approx-
imate capacity of the huge compartment which
contained the two reciprocating engines. Now,
if safety lies in minute subdivision, it is evident
that in this ship safety was sacrificed to some
other considerations. The motive for the plan
adopted was the desire to place the coal-bunkers
in the most convenient position with regard to
the boilers. By reference to the hold plan of
the Titanic, page 129, it will be seen that her
29 boilers were arranged transversely to the
ship. With the exception of the five in the
aftermost compartment, they were “double-
[113 ||
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
ended,” with the furnaces facing fore and aft.
To facilitate shovelling the coal into the fur-
naces, the coal-bunkers were placed one on each
side of each transverse watertight bulkhead.
The coal supply was thus placed immediately
back of the firemen, and the work of getting the
coal from the bunkers to the furnaces was
greatly facilitated. Now, while this was an ad-
mirable arrangement for convenience of firing,
it was the worst possible plan as far as the
safety of the Titanic was concerned; since any
damage to the hull admitted water across the
whole width of the ship. The alternative plan,
which should be made compulsory on all large
ocean-going passenger steamers, is the one
adopted for the Mauretania, Kaiser Wilhelm
II, Imperator, and a few other first-class ships,
in which the coal-bunkers are placed at the sides
of the ship, where they serve to prevent the
flooding of the main boiler-room compartments.
It is probable that any one of the ships named
would have survived even the terrific collision
which sank the Titanic.
The objection has been raised against longi-
tudinal coal-bunkers, that they are not so con-
veniently placed for the firemen. A large force
[114 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
of “ coal passers ” has to be employed in wheel-
ing the coal from the bunkers to the front of
the furnaces. This, of course, entails an in-
creased expense of operation.
The use of transverse coal-bunkers must be
regarded as one among many instances, in
which the safety of passenger ships is sacrificed
to considerations of economy and convenience
of operation.
[ 115
CHAPTER VII
EIOW THE GREAT SHIP WENT DOWN
THE Titanic, fresh from the builder's hands,
sailed from Southampton, Wednesday, April
10, 1912. She reached Cherbourg on the after-
noon of the same day, and Queenstown, Ireland,
at noon on Thursday. After embarking the
mails and passengers, she left for New York,
having on board 1,324 passengers and a ship’s
Complement of officers and crew of 899 persons.
The passenger list showed that there were 329
first-class, 285 second-class, and 710 third-class
passengers.
The weather throughout the voyage was clear
and the sea calm. At noon on the third day out,
a wireless message was received from the Baltic,
dated Sunday, April 14, which read: ‘‘ Greek
steamship Athimai reports passing icebergs and
large quantity of field ice to-day in latitude
41.51 north, longitude 49.52 west.” At about 7
P.M. a second warning was received by the Ti-
tanic, this time from the Californian, which re-
ported ice about 19 miles to the northward of
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANTC
the track on which the Titanic was steaming.
The message read: ‘‘ Latitude 42.3 north, longi-
tude 49.9 west. Three large berg's five miles to
southward of us.” Later there was a third
message: “Amerika passed two large icebergs
in 41.27 north, 50.8 west on the 14th of April.’’
A fourth message, sent by the Californian,
reached the ship about an hour before the acci-
dent occurred, or about 10.40 o’clock, which
said: ‘‘We are stopped and surrounded by ice.”
These wireless warnings prove that the cap-
tain of the Titanic knew there was ice to the
north, to the south, and immediately ahead of
the southerly steamship route on which he was
steaming. The evidence shows that Captain
Smith remarked to the officer doing duty on the
bridge, “If it is in a slight degree hazy we
shall have to go very slowly.” The officer of
the watch instructed the lookouts to “keep a
sharp lookout for ice.” The night was starlit
and the weather exceptionally clear.
After leaving Queenstown the speed of the
Titanic had been gradually increased. The run
for the first day was 464 miles, for the second
519 miles, and for the third day, ending at noon
Sunday, it was 546 miles. Testimony given be-
[119 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
fore the Court of Inquiry under Lord Mersey,
showed that the Chief Engineer had arranged
to drive the vessel at full speed for a few hours
either on Monday or Tuesday. Twenty-one of
the twenty-nine boilers were in use until Sunday
night, when three more were “lighted.” It is
evident that the engines were being gradually
speeded up to their maximum revolutions. Both
On the bridge and in the engine-room there was
a manifest reluctance to allow anything to in-
terfere with the full-speed run of the following
day. This is the only possible explanation of
the amazing fact that, in spite of successive
warnings that a large icefield with bergs of
great size was drifting right across the course
of the Titanic, fire was put under additional
boilers and the speed of the ship increased.
It was shown in a previous chapter on “The
Dangers of the Sea,” that one of the greatest
risks of high-speed travel across the North
Atlantic is a certain spirit of Sangfroid which
is liable to be begotten of constant familiarity
with danger and a continual run of good luck.
If familiarity ever bred contempt, Surely it
must have done so among the captain and offi-
cers of the Titanic on that fatal night. One
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
looks in vain for evidence that the situation was
regarded as highly critical and calling for the
most careful navigation;–calling, Surely, for
something more than the mere keeping of a
good lookout—an imperative duty at all times,
whether by day or night. Yet the fate of that
ship and her precious freight of human life
hung upon the mere chance of sighting an Ob-
struction in time to avoid collision by a quick
turn of the helm. The question of hitting or
missing was one not of minutes but of Seconds.
A ship like this, nigh upon a thousand feet in
length, makes a wide sweep in turning, even
with the helm hard over. At 21 knots the Ti-
tanic covered over a third of a mile in a min-
ute’s time. Even with her engines reversed she
would have surged ahead for a half mile or so
before coming to a stop. Should she strike an
obstruction at full speed, the blow delivered
would equal that of the combined broadsides of
two modern dreadnoughts.
And so the majestic ship swept swiftly to her
doom—a concrete expression of man’s age-long
Struggle to subdue the resistless forces of na-
ture—a pathetic picture both of his power and
his impotence. As she sped on under the dim
[123 ||
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
light of the stars, not a soul on board dreamed
to what a death-grapple she was coming with
the relentless powers of the sea. Latest
product of the shipbuilder’s art, she was about
to brush elbows with another giant of the sea,
launched by nature from the frozen shipyards
of the north, and she was to reel from the con-
tact stricken to the death like the fragile thing
she was
At 11.46 P.M. the sharp warning came from
the lookout: “Iceberg right ahead.” Instantly
the engines were reversed and the helm was put
hard a-starboard. A few seconds earlier and she
might have cleared. As it was, she struck an
underwater, projecting shelf of the iceberg, and
ripped open 200 feet of her plating, from for-
ward of the collision bulkhead to a few feet
aft of the bulkhead separating boiler-rooms
numbers 5 and 6. It was a death wound !
How deeply the iceberg cut into the fabric of
the ship will never be known. Probably the first
incision was deep and wide, the damage, as the
shelf of ice was ground down by contact with
the framing and plating of the ship becoming
less in area as successive compartments were
ruptured.
[124 J


Page Missing
in Original
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Page Missing
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
Whatever may have been the depth of the in-
jury, it is certain from the evidence that the six
forward compartments were opened to the sea.
Immediately after the collision the whistling of
air, as it issued from the escape pipe of the fore-
peak tank, indicated that the tank was being
filled by an inrush of water. The three follow-
ing compartments, in which were located the
baggage-room and mail-room, were quickly
flooded. Leading fireman Barrett, who was in
the forward boiler-room, felt the shock of the
collision. Immediately afterwards he saw the
Outer skin of the ship ripped open about two
feet above the floor, and a large volume of
Water came rushing into the ship. He was
quick enough to jump through the open door
in the bulkhead separating boiler-rooms 6 and
5, before it was released from the bridge.
The damage just abaft of this bulkhead ad-
mitted water to the forward coal-bunker of
room No. 5, which held for a while, but being
of non-watertight and rather light construction,
must have soon given way; for the same witness
testified to a sudden rush of water coming
across the floor-plates between the boilers.
In spite of the frightful extent of the dam-
[127 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
age, the Titanic, because of the great height to
which her plated structure extended above the
water-line, and the consequent large amount of
reserve buoyancy which she possessed, would
probably have remained afloat a great many
hours longer than she did, had the deck to which
her bulkheads extended been thoroughly water-
tight. As it was, this deck (upper deck E) was
pierced by hatchways and stairways which, as
the bow settled deeper and deeper, permitted
the water to flow up over the deck and pass aft
Over the tops of the after bulkheads and so-
called watertight compartments. See page 129.
Now, it so happened that for the full length
of the boiler-rooms there had been constructed
on upper deck E what was known as the “work-
ing-crew alleyway.” On the inboard side of
this passage six non-watertight doors opened
on to as many iron ladders leading down to the
boiler-rooms. Not only were these doors non-
watertight, but they consisted of a mere open
frame or grating, this construction having been
adopted, doubtless, for purposes of ventilation.
Unfortunately, although there was a watertight
door at the after end of this alleyway, there was
none at its forward end. The water which
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
boiled up from the forward flooded compart-
ments, as it flowed aft, poured successively
through the open grating of the alleyway doors,
flooding the compartments below, one after the
other.
It does not take a technically instructed mind
to understand from this that the safety ele-
ments of the construction of the Titanic were as
faulty above the water-line as they were below
it. The absence of an inner skin and the pres-
ence of these many openings in her bulkhead
deck combined to sink this huge ship, whose re-
Serve buoyancy must have amounted to at least
80,000 tons, in the brief space of two and one-
half hours.
Not until the designer, Mr. Andrews, had
made known to the captain that the ship was
doomed was the order given to man the life-
boats. The lifeboats, forsooth ! Twenty of
them in all with a maximum accommodation, if
every one were loaded to its full capacity, of
Something over one thousand, for a ship’s com-
pany that numbered 2,223 in all. Just here, in
this very fatal discrepancy, is to be found proof
of the widespread belief that a great ship like
the Titanic was practically unsinkable, and
[131 ||
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
therefore in times of dire stress such as this,
Was well able to act as its own lifeboat until
rescuing ships, summoned by wireless, should
Come to her aid.
The manner of the stricken ship’s final
plunge to the bottom may be readily gathered
from the stories told by the survivors. As com-
partment after compartment was filled by over-
flow from the decks above, her bow sank deeper
and her stern lifted high in the air, until the
ship, buoyed up by her after compartments,
swung almost vertically in the water like a gi-
gantic spar buoy. In this unaccustomed posi-
tion, her engines and boilers, standing out from
the floor like brackets from a wall, tore loose
from their foundations and crashed down into
the forward part of the ship. Probably it was
the muffled roar of this falling machinery that
caused some of the survivors to imagine that
they witnessed the bursting of boilers and the
breaking apart of the hull. As a matter of fact,
the shell of the Titanic went to the bottom prac-
tically intact. One by one the after compart-
ments gave way, until the ship, weighted at her
forward end with the wreckage of engine- and
boiler-rooms, sank, straight as an arrow, to
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANTC
bury herself deep in the ooze of the Atlantic
bottom two miles below. There, for aught we
know, with several hundred feet of her hull
rising sheer above the ocean floor, she may now
be standing, a sublime memorial shaft to the
fifteen hundred souls who perished in this un-
Speakable tragedy
[135 |
CHAPTER VIII
WARSHIP PROTECTION AGAINST RAM, MINE, AND
TORPEDO
THE most perfect example of protection by sub-
division of the hull into separate compartments
is to be found in the warship. It is safe to say
that there is no feature of the design to which
more careful thought is given by the naval con-
structor than this. Loss of stability in a naval
engagement means the end of the fight so far
as the damaged ship is concerned. Nay, even a
partial loss of stability, causing the ship to take
a heavy list, may throw a ship's batteries en-
tirely out of action, the guns on the high side
being so greatly elevated and those on the low
side so much depressed, that neither can be
effectively trained upon the enemy. Further-
more, deep submergence following the entrance
of large quantities of water, will cut down the
ship's speed; with the result, either that she
must fall out of line or the speed of the whole
fleet must be reduced.
In the battle of the Sea of Japan it was the
[136 |
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
bursting of heavy 12-inch shells at or just
below the water-line of the leading ship of the
Russian line that sent her to the bottom before
she had received any serious damage to her
main batteries. Later in the fight, Several other
Russian battleships capsized from the same
cause, assisted by the weight of extra Supplies
of coal which the Russians had stowed on the
upper decks above the water-line.
In the matter of subdivision as a protection
against sinking, there is this important differ-
ence between the merchant ship and the war-
ship, that, whereas the merchant ship is sunk
through accident, the warship is sunk by delib-
erate intention. The amount of damage done to
the former ship will be great or small accord-
ing to the accidental conditions of the time;
but the damage to the warship is the result of a
deliberately planned attack, and is wrought by
powerful agencies, designed to execute the
maximum amount of destruction with every
blow delivered.
A large proportion of the time and money
which have been expended in the development
of the instruments of naval warfare has been
devoted to the design and construction of
[139 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
Weapons, whose object is to sink the enemy by
destroying the integrity of the submerged por-
tion of the hull. Chief among these weapons
are the ram, the torpedo, and the mine. There
can be no question that the damage inflicted by
the ram of a warship would be far greater,
other things being equal, than that inflicted by
the bow of a merchant ship. The ram is built
especially for its purpose. Not only is it an
exceedingly stiff and strong construction; but
it is so framed and tied into the bow of the
warship, that it will tear open a long, gaping
wound in the hull of the enemy before it is
broken off or twisted out of place. The bow
of the merchant vessel is a relatively frail
structure, and many a ship that has been
rammed has owed its salvation to the fact that
immediately upon contact, the bow of the ram-
ming ship is crumpled up or bent aside, and the
depth of penetration into the vessel that is
rammed is greatly limited. Furthermore, be-
cause of its underwater projection, the ram de-
velops the whole force of the blow beneath the
water-line, where the injury will be most fatal.
Even more potent than the ram is the tor-
pedo, which of late years has been developed
[140 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
to a point of efficiency in range, speed, and de-
structive power which has rendered it perhaps
the most dreaded of all the weapons of naval
warfare. The modern torpedo carries in its
head a charge of over 200 pounds of guncotton
and has a range of 10,000 yards. Ordinarily,
it is set to run at a depth of 10 to 12 feet below
the water; and should it get home against
the side of a ship, it will strike her well below
the armour belt and upon the relatively thin
plating of the hull.
Most destructive of all weapons for under-
water attack, however, is the mine, which sent
to the bottom many a good ship during the
Russo-Japanese war. The more deadly effects
of the mine, as compared with the torpedo, are
due to its heavy charge of high explosive, which
Sometimes reaches as high as 500 pounds.
Contact, even with a mine, is not necessarily
fatal; indeed the notable instances in which war-
ships have gone to the bottom immediately upon
striking a mine have been due to the fact
that the mine exploded immediately under, or
in close proximity to the ship's magazines,
which, being set off by the shock, tore the ship
apart and caused her to go down within a few
[141 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
minutes’ time. This was what happened to our
OWn battleship Maine in Havana harbour, and
to the Russian battleship Petropavlovsk and the
Japanese battleship Hatsuse at Port Arthur.
Enough has been said to prove that when the
naval architect undertakes to build a hull that
will be proof against the blow, not merely of
One but of several of these terrific weapons, he
has set himself a task that may well try his in-
genuity to the utmost. Protection by heavy
armour is out of the question. The weight
would be prohibitive and, indeed, all the side
armour that he can put upon the ship is needed
at the water-line and above it, as a protection
against the armour-piercing, high-explosive
shells of the enemy.
Heavy armour, then, being out of the ques-
tion, he has to fall back upon the one method of
defense left at his disposal,—minute subdivision
into watertight compartments. Associated
with this is the placing at the water-line of a
heavy steel deck, known as the protective deck,
which extends over the whole length and
breadth of the hull and is made thoroughly
watertight.
The double-skin construction, which was used
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to such good effect in the Great Eastern, is
found in every large warship; and in a battle-
ship of the first class, the two skins are spaced
widely apart, a spacing of three or more feet
being not unusual. The double-hull construc-
tion, with its exceedingly strong framing, is
carried up to about water-line level, where it
is covered in by the protective deck above re-
ferred to. Below the protective deck the in-
terior is subdivided into a number of small
compartments by transverse bulkheads, which
extend from the inner bottom to the protective
deck, and from side to side of the ship. The
transverse compartments thus formed are made
as Small as possible, the largest being those
which contain the boilers and engines. For-
ward and aft of the boiler- and engine-room
compartments the transverse bulkheads are
spaced much closer together, the uses to which
these portions of the ship are put admitting of
more minute subdivision.
By the courtesy of Naval Constructor R. H.
M. Robinson, U. S. N., we reproduce on page 143
from his work “ Naval Construction ” a hold
plan and an inboard profile of a typical battle-
ship, the Connecticut, -which give a clear im-
[145 ||
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
pression of the completeness with which the
interior is bulkheaded. Although the ship
shown is less than one-half as long as the Ti-
tanic, she has 27 transverse bulkheads as
against the 15 on the larger ship; and all but
nine of these are carried clear across the ship
from side to side.
Equally complete is the system of longi-
tudinal bulkheads. Most important of these is
a central bulkhead, placed on the line of the
keel, and running from stem to stern. On each
side of this and extending the full length of the
machinery spaces, is another bulkhead, which
forms the inner wall of the coal-bunkers. For-
ward and aft of the machinery spaces are other
longitudinal bulkheads, which form the fore-
and-aft walls of the handling-rooms and am-
munition-rooms.
To appreciate the completeness of the sub-
division, we must look at the inboard profile
and note that the spaces forward and aft of
the engine- and boiler-rooms are further sub-
divided, in horizontal planes, by several steel,
watertight decks or ‘‘ flats,” as they are called.
Including the compartments enclosed between
the walls of the double hull, the whole interior
[146 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
of the battleship Connecticut, below the protec-
tive deck, is divided up into as many as 500
separate and perfectly watertight compart-
ments.
Moreover, in some of the latest battleships
of the dreadnought type the practice has been
followed of permitting no doors of any descrip-
tion to be cut through the bulkheads below the
water-line. Access from one compartment to
another can be had only by way of the decks
above. Furthermore, all the openings through
the protective deck are provided with strong
watertight hatches or, as in the case of the
openings for the Smoke stacks, ammunition-
hoists, and ventilators, they are enclosed by
watertight steel casings, extending to the upper
decks, far above the water-line.
In the later warships, further protection is
afforded by constructing the first deck above
the protective deck of heavy steel plating and
making it thoroughly watertight, every open-
ing in this deck, such as those for stairways,
being provided with watertight steel hatches.
This deck, also, is thoroughly subdivided by
bulkheads and provided with watertight doors.
It sounds like a truism to say that a water-
[147 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
tight bulkhead must be watertight; yet it is a
fact that only in the navy are the proper pre-
Cautions taken to test the bulkheads and make
Sure that they will not leak when they are sub-
jected to heavy water pressure. Before a ship
is accepted by the government, every compart-
ment is tested by filling it with water and plac-
ing it under the maximum pressure to which it
would be subjected if the ship were deeply
Submerged. If any leaks are observed in the
bulkheads, decks, etc., they are carefully caulked
up, and the test is repeated until the bulkhead
is absolutely tight.
Now, here is a practice which should be made
compulsory in the construction of all passen-
ger-carrying steamships. Only by filling a com-
partment with water is it possible to determine
whether that compartment is watertight. To
send an important ship to sea without testing
her bulkheads is an invitation to disaster. The
amount of water that may find its way through
a newly-constructed bulkhead is something as-
tonishing; for although the leakage along any
particular joint or seam of the plating may be
relatively small, the aggregate amount will be
surprisingly large.
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Between the boiler rooms and the sea are four, separate,
watertight walls of steel. The whole is covered in by a 3-inch
watertight steel deck.
MIDSHIP SECTION OF A RATTLESIIIP
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Let us now pass on to consider the actual
efficiency of the watertight subdivision as thus
so carefully worked out in the modern warship.
Thanks to the Russo-Japanese war, which af-
forded a supreme test of the underwater pro-
tection of ships, the value of the present
methods of construction has been proved to an
absolute demonstration.
The following facts, which were given to the
writer by Captain (now Admiral) von Essen
of the Russian Navy, at the close of the Russo-
Japanese war, and were published in the “Sci-
entific American,” serve to show what great
powers of resistance are conferred on a war-
ship by the system of subdivision above de-
scribed. The story of the repeated damage
inflicted and the method of extemporised re-
pairs adopted, is so full of interest that it is
given in full: -
“Immediately after the disaster of the night
of February 8th,” when the Japanese, in a
surprise attack, torpedoed several of the Rus-
sian ships, ‘‘the cruiser Pallada was floated into
drydock, and the battleships C2a revitch and
Retviaan were taken into the inner harbour,
[151 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
and repairs executed by means of caissons of
timber, built around the gaping holes which had
been blown into their hulls by torpedoes. The
repairs to the Pallada were completed early in
April, and about the 20th of June the Czare-
vitch and Retviaan were also in condition to
take the sea. On the 13th of April, during the
Sortie in which the Petropavlovsk was sunk
with Admiral Makaroff on board, the battleship
Pobieda, in returning to the harbour, struck a
contact mine, and was heavily damaged. Simi-
lar repairs were executed, and this ship was
able to take her station in the line in the great
sortie of August 10.
‘‘ On June 23 Captain von Essen’s ship, the
Sevastopol, was sent outside the harbour to
drive off several Japanese cruisers that were
shelling the line of fortifications to the east of
Port Arthur. This she accomplished; but in
returning she struck a Japanese mine, which
blew in about 400 square feet on the starboard
side, abaft the foremast, at a depth of about 7
feet below the water-line. The rent was from
7 to 10 feet in depth and 35 to 40 feet in length.
The frames, ten in all, were bent inward, or
torn entirely apart, and the plating was blown
[152 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
bodily into the ship. She was taken into the
inner harbour, where the injured portion of the
hull was enclosed by a timber caisson in the
manner shown in the engravings on page 155.
The caisson—a rectangular, three-sided cham-
ber—was built of 9-in. by 9-in. timbers, tongued
and grooved and carefully dovetailed. The floor
of the caisson abutted against the bilge keel.
The outer wall, which was at a distance of about
10 feet from the hull, had a total depth of about
34 feet, the total length of the caisson being
about 75 feet. IN nee-bracing of heavy timbers
was worked in between the floor and the walls,
and the construction was stiffened by heavy, di-
agonal bolts, which passed through from floor to
outside wall, as shown in the drawing. Water-
tight contact between the edge of the caisson
and the hull of the ship was secured by the
use of hemp packing covered with canvas. The
whole of the outside of the caisson was covered
with canvas, and upon this was laid a heavy
coating of hot tar. The caisson was then
floated into position and drawn up Snugly
against the side of the ship by means of cables,
Some of which passed underneath the ship and
were drawn tight on the port side, while others
| 153 ||
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
Were attached to the top edge of the caisson and
led across to steam winches on deck. After the
Water had been pumped out, the hydraulic pres-
Sure served to hold the caisson snugly against
the hull. The damaged plating and broken
frames were then cut away; new frames were
built into the ship, the plating was riveted on,
and the vessel was restored to first-class condi-
tion without entering drydock.
“On September the 20th, during operations
Outside the harbour, the Sevastopol again struck
a mine, and by a curious coincidence she was
damaged in the exact spot where she received
her first injury. This time, however, the mine
Was much larger and it was estimated to have
contained fully 400 pounds of high explosive.
The shock was terrific and the area of the in-
jury was fully 700 square feet. The ship im-
mediately took a heavy list to starboard, which
was corrected by admitting water to compart-
ments on the port side. She was brought back
into the harbour, and a repair caisson was again
applied. The repairing of this damage was, of
course, a longer job. Moreover, it was done at
a time when the Japanese 11-inch mortar bat-
teries were getting the range and making fre-
[154 |
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
quent hits. One 11-inch shell struck the bridge
just above the caisson and, when it burst, a
shower of heavy fragments tore through the
outer wall of the caisson, letting in the Water
and necessitating extensive repairs. Neverthe-
less, the Sevastopol was again put in sea-
worthy condition, this time the repairs taking
about two and one-half months’ time. During
the eleven months of the siege of Port Arthur
five big repair jobs of the magnitude above de-
scribed were completed, and over one dozen
perforations of the hull below water, due to
heavy projectiles, were repaired, either in dry-
dock or by the caisson method.”
Now, when it is remembered that the Sevas-
topol was not a new ship, and that her internal
Subdivision was not nearly so complete as that
which is found in the most modern battle-
ships, it will be realised how effective are prop-
erly built bulkheads and thoroughly watertight
compartments against even the most ex-
tensive injury to the outer shell of a ship. It
is claimed for the latest battleships of the
dreadnought type, built for the United States
Navy, that they would remain afloat, even
[1571
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
after having been struck by three or four
torpedoes.
Now, it is inexpedient to build merchant
ships with such an elaborate system of water-
tight compartments as that described in this
chapter. Considerations of cost and con-
venience of operation render this impossible;
but it is entirely possible to incorporate in the
large passenger steamers a sufficient degree of
protection of this character to render them
proof against sinking by the accidents of col-
lision, whether with another ship, a derelict,
or even with the dreaded iceberg. The man-
ner in which the problem has been worked out
in several of the most noted passenger steamers
of the present day is reserved for discussion
in the following chapter.
[158 j
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This ship has twenty-four compartments below the water line.
Fire-bulkheads protect passenger decks.
THE 65,000-Ton, 23-KNot IMPERATOR-LARGEST SHIP
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CHAPTER IX
WARSEIIP PROTECTION AS APPLIED TO SOME OCEAN
LINERS
IT was shown in the previous chapter that the
most completely protected vessel, so far as its
flotation is concerned, is the warship, and plans
were given of a battleship whose hull below the
water-line was subdivided into no less than five
hundred separate watertight compartments.
Facts were cited from the naval operations in
and around the harbour of Port Arthur, which
prove that the battleship is capable of sustain-
ing an enormous amount of injury below the
water-line without going to the bottom.
Now, if it were possible to apply subdivision
to the large ocean liners on the liberal scale on
which it is worked out in ships of war, it would
not be going too far to say that they would be
absolutely unsinkable by any of the usual acci-
dents of collision. The 60,000-ton Titanic, were
she subdivided as minutely as the warship
shown on page 143, would contain at least 1,500
Separate compartments below her lower deck,
[101 ||
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
and under these conditions even the long rent
which was torn in her plating would have done
no more than set her down slightly by the head.
Her pumps would have taken care of the leak-
age of water through the bulkheads, and the
ship would have come into New York harbour
under her own steam.
But a warship and a passenger ship are two
very different propositions. The one, being de-
signed to resist the attack of an implacable
enemy, who is using every weapon that the in-
genuity of man can devise to effect its destruc-
tion, is built with little if any regard to the
cost. The other, built as a commercial proposi-
tion for the purpose of earning reasonable
dividends for its owners, and exposed only to
such risks of damage as are incidental to Ocean
transportation, is constructed as economically
as reasonable considerations of strength and
Safety may permit.
Another important limitation which renders
it impossible to give a passenger ship the elabo-
rate subdivision of a warship, is the neces-
sity of providing large cargo spaces and wide
hatchways for the convenient handling and
stowage of the freight, upon which a large pro-
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
portion of the passenger-carrying vessels chiefly
depend for their revenue.
On the other hand, the main features of war-
ship protection may be so applied to the large
merchant ship as to render her as proof against
collision with icebergs, derelicts, or with other
vessels, as the warship is against the blow of
the ram, the mine, or the torpedo. And the
merchant ship of the size of our largest ocean
liners has the great advantage over the war-
ship (provided that the average size of her
compartments be not too greatly increased)
that her great size is in itself a safeguard
against sinking.
By way of showing what can be done in ap-
plying warship principles of subdivision to
merchant vessels, we shall consider in some de-
tail three notable ships, the Mauretania, the
Kronprinzessin Cecilie, and the recently
launched Imperator.
The Mauretamia and her sister, the Lusitania,
were built under an agreement with the Brit-
ish Government, who stipulated that they would
provide a sum sufficient to pay for the new
vessels not to exceed $13,000,000, secured on
debentures at 2% per cent. interest. The two
[165 |
AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC
ships Were to be of large size and capable of
maintaining a minimum average ocean speed of
24% knots in moderate weather. The govern-
ment also agreed that if the ships fulfilled these
conditions, the Cunard Company was to be paid
annually $750,000.00. In return for this ex-
tremely liberal assistance, the Cunard Company
agreed to employ them in the British mail-carry-
ing service; to so construct them that they would
be available for use as auxiliary cruisers; and
to hold them at the instant service of the gov-
ernment in case of war. In addition to holding
the ships at the service of the government, it
was agreed that all the officers and three-
fourths of the crew should be British subjects,
and that a large proportion should belong to the
Royal Naval Reserve. The ships were thus to
be utilised as a training school for officers and
seamen, and with this point in view a record
of the personnel was to be made each month.
The particulars of these two ships as finally
constructed are as follows: Length over all 790
feet; beam, 88 feet; displacement, 46,000 tons;
and horsepower, 70,000. Both vessels greatly
exceeded the contract speed of 241% knots, the
Lusitania having maintained over 25% knots
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AN UNSINECABLE TITANIC
and the Mauretamia 26 knots for the whole run
across the Atlantic.
The purpose of the present chapter is to
show how successfully the methods of under-
water protection employed in naval ships may
be applied to passenger ships of the first class;
and the Mauretamia is given first consideration,
for the reason that she is the best example afloat
to-day of a merchant ship fully protected
against sinking by collision. The protective ele-
ments may be summed up as consisting of mul-
tiple subdivision, associated with a complete
inner skin and a watertight steel deck, answer-
ing to the heavy protective deck at the water-
line of the warship. By reference to the hold
plan on page 129 it will be noticed that she is
subdivided by 22 transverse bulkheads, 12 of
which extend entirely across the ship and 10
from the side inboard to the longitudinal bulk-
heads. The space devoted to the turbine en-
gines is subdivided by two lines of longitudinal
bulkheading, and the compartment aft of the
engine-room spaces is divided by a longitudi-
nal bulkhead placed upon the axis of the ship.
Altogether there are 34 separate watertight
compartments below the water-line. The most
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important feature of the subdivision is the two
lines of longitudinal bulkheads, which extend
each side of the boiler-rooms and serve the
double purpose of providing watertight bunker
Compartments and protecting the large boiler-
room compartments from being flooded, in the
event of damage to the outer skin of the ship.
The main engine-room, containing the low-
pressure turbines, is similarly protected against
flooding.
Now, all of these bulkheads are carried up
to a watertight connection with the upper deck,
which, amidships, is over two decks, or say
about 20 feet above the water-line, the excep-
tion being the first or collision bulkhead, which
extends to the shelter deck. A most important
feature of the protection, borrowed from war-
ship practice, is that the lower deck, which,
amidships, is located at about the water-line,
is built of extra heavy plating, and is furnished
with strong watertight hatches. It thus serves
the purpose of a protective deck, and water,
which flooded any compartment lying below the
water-line, would be restrained by this deck
from finding its way through to the decks above.
The Mauretamia, therefore, could sustain an
[170 |
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AN UNSINKABLE TITANTC
enormous amount of damage below the Water-
line without foundering. It is our belief that
she would have survived the disaster which
sank the Titanic. The first three compartments
would have been flooded, it is true, but the
water would have been restrained from her
large forward boiler-compartment by the ‘‘in-
ner skin '' of the starboard bunkers. Further-
more, the watertight hatches of her lower, or
protective, deck would have prevented that up-
ward flow of water on to the decks above, which
proved so fatal to the Titamic.
In dealing with the question of safety, the
German shipbuilders have shown that thorough
study of the problem which characterises the
German people in all their industrial work.
Although German ships of the first class, such
as the Kronprinzessim Cecilie and the Impera-
tor are not built to naval requirements, they
embody many of the same protective features
as are to be found in the Mauretamia and Lusi-
tamia, and, indeed, in some safety features, and
particularly in those built in the ship as a pro-
tection against fire, they excel them.
The existence of side bunkers, small compart-
ments, and bulkheads carried well up above the
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Water-line, is due to
the close supervision and
strict requirements of the
German Lloyd and the
immigration authorities,
and it takes but a glance
at the hold plan of the
Kronprinzessin Cecilie to
show how admirably this
ship and her sister are
protected against col-
lision. There are 21
transverse bulkheads, 18
of which are shown in the
hold plan, the other
three being sub-bulk-
* ; heads, worked in the
Lil after part of the ship
: I ºf abaft of the machinery
| # ; | spaces. The four engines
are contained in four sep-
i
i
arate compartments, and
the boiler-rooms are en-
tirely surrounded by coal-
bunkers. These, the lar-
gest compartments, are



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protected throughout their entire length by the
inner skin of the coal-bunker bulkheads. The
engine-rooms are further protected by extend-
ing the inner floor of the double bottom up the
sides as shown on page 176. Altogether, the
hold plan shows 33 separate, watertight com-
partments. The collision bulkhead is carried
up to the shelter deck, and the other bulkheads
terminate at the main deck, which is about 19
feet above the normal water-line.
It is greatly to the credit of the Germans
that they have given such careful attention to
the question of fire protection. We have shown
in a previous chapter that the long stretch of
staterooms, with alleyways several hundred
feet in length running through them, offer dan-
gerous facilities for the rapid spread of a fire,
should it once obtain a strong hold on the in-
flammable material of which the stateroom par-
titions and furnishings are composed. On the
Kaiser Wilhelm II and Cecilie the passenger
accommodations on the main deck are protected
against the spread of fire by four steel bulk-
heads, which extend from side to side of the
ship. Where the alleyways intersect these
bulkheads, fire-doors are provided which
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are closed by hand and secured by strong
clamps.
The fire protection also includes both an out-
Courtesy of Engineering
SECTION THROUGH ENGINE-RooM OF THE KAISER WILHELM II,
SHowTNG INNER BOTTOM CARRIED UP SIDES OF SHIP, To
FORM DOUBLE SKIN
side and an inside line of fire-mains. Fire-
drill, with full pressure on the mains, is car-
ried on every time the ship is in port, the out-

[176 |
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side lines of fire-mains being used. Once every
three months there is a fire-drill with the inside
line of mains. Every time the ship reaches
her home port, both fire-drills and lifeboat drills
are carried out under the close inspection of
German Government officials.
Now, the provision of fire bulkheads is such
an excellent protection that it should be made
compulsory upon every steamship of large
carrying capacity. Moreover, they should be
extended throughout the full tier of decks re-
served for passenger accommodation. The
bulkheads need not be of heavy construction,
and they can be placed in the natural line of
division of the staterooms, where they will
cause no inconvenience.
Special interest attaches to the Imperator of
the Hamburg-American Line, just now, because
she is the latest and largest of those huge ocean
liners, of which the Olympic and Titanic were
the forerunners. This truly enormous vessel,
900 feet long and 96 feet broad, will displace,
when fully loaded, 65,000 tons, or 5,000 tons
more than the Titanic. A study of her hold
plan and inboard profile, shown on page 163,
proves that it is possible to provide for an even
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larger boiler and machinery plant than that of
the Titanic, without making any of that sacrifice
of safety, which is so evident in the arrange-
ment of compartments and bulkheads on the
Titanic. Not only are the bulkheads through-
Out the machinery and boiler compartments
carried to the second deck above the water-line,
but the same spaces, throughout their whole
length, are protected by an inner skin in the
form of the longitudinal bulkheads of the side
bunkers. The large forward engine-room is
also protected by two longitudinal bulkheads at
the sides of the ship and the after engine-room
is divided by a central longitudinal bulkhead.
Protection against the spread of fire is assured
by several bulkheads worked across the decks
which are devoted to passenger accommodation.
[1781
CELAPTER X
CONCLUSIONS
I. THE fact that the Titanic sank in two hours
and thirty minutes after a collision demon-
strates that the margin of safety against
foundering in this ship was dangerously nar-
I’OW.
II. It is not to the point to say that the col-
lision was of an unusual character and may
never occur again. Collision with an iceberg is
One of the permanent risks of ocean travel, and
this stupendous calamity has shown how dis-
astrous its results may be. We cannot afford
to gamble with chance in a hazard whose issue
involves the life or death of a whole townful of
people.
III. If it be structurally possible, and the
cost is not prohibitive, passenger ships should
be so designed, that they cannot be sunk by any
of the accidents of the sea, not even by such
a disaster as befell the Titanic.
TV. That such design and construction are
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possible is proved by the fact that the first
of the large ocean liners, the Great Eastern,
built over half a century ago, so far fulfilled
these conditions, that, after receiving inju-
ries to her hull more extensive than those
which sank the Titanic, she came safely to
port.
V. It is not to the point to attribute the
financial failure of the Great Eastern to the
costly character of her construction. She failed
because, commercially, she was ahead of her
time, passenger and freight traffic being yet in
their infancy when the ship was launched.
Cheap steel and modern shipyard facilities
have made it possible to build a ship of the
size and unsinkable characteristics of the Great
Eastern, with a reduction in the cost of twenty
to thirty per cent.
VI. The principles of unsinkable construc-
tion, as formulated by Brunel and worked out
in this remarkable ship, have been adopted in
their entirety by naval constructors, and are
to be found embodied in every modern warship.
These elements—the double skin, transverse
and longitudinal bulkheads, and watertight
decks—are the sine qua non of warship con-
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struction; and in the designing of warships,
they receive the first consideration, all other
questions of speed, armour-protection, and
gun-power being made subordinate.
VII. In the building of merchant ships, un-
sinkable construction has been sacrificed to
considerations of speed, convenience of opera-
tion, and the provision of luxurious accommo-
dations for the travelling public. The inner
skin, the longitudinal bulkhead, and the water-
tight deck have been abandoned. Although the
transverse bulkhead has been retained, its effi-
ciency has been greatly impaired; for, whereas
these bulkheads in the Great Eastern extended
thirty feet above the water-line; in the Titanic,
they were carried only ten feet above the same
point.
VIII. The portentous significance of this de-
cline in the art of unsinkable construction will
be realised, when it is borne in mind that the
Titanic was built to the highest requirements
of the Board of Trade and the insurance com-
panies. She was the latest example of cur-
rent and approved practice in the construction
of high-class passenger ships of the first mag-
nitude; and, judged on the score of safety
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against sinking, she was as safe a ship as
ninety-five out of every hundred merchant ves-
Sels afloat to-day.
IX. That the narrowing of the margin of
Safety in merchant ships during the past fifty
years has not been due to urgent considera-
tions of economy, is proved by the fact that
Shipowners have not hesitated to incur the
enormous expense involved in providing the
costly machinery to secure high speed, or the
equally heavy outlay involved in providing the
Sumptuous accommodations which characterise
the modern liner.
X. If, then, by making moderate concessions
in the direction of speed and luxury, it would
be possible, without adding to the cost, to re-
introduce those structural features which are
necessary to render a ship unsinkable, consid-
erations of humanity demand that it should be
done.
|XI. Should the stupendous disaster of April
the 14th lead us back to the same construction
of fifty years ago, and teach us so to construct
the future passenger ship that she shall be not
merely fast and comfortable, but practically un-
sinkable, the hapless multitude who went down
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to their death in that unspeakable calamity
will not have died in vain.
XII. In conclusion, let us note what changes
would render such a ship as the Titanic un-
sinkable:
(a) The inner floor of the double bottom
should be extended up the sides to a watertight
connection with the middle deck. This inner
skin should extend from bulkhead No. 1 at the
bow to bulkhead No. 14, the second bulkhead
from the stern.
(b) The lower deck should be made abso-
lutely watertight from stem to stern, so as to
form practically a second inner bottom; and
it should be strengthened to withstand a water
pressure equal to that to which the Outer
bottom of the ship is subjected at normal
draft.
(c) All openings through this deck, such as
those for hatches and ladders and for the
boiler uptakes, should be enclosed by strong
watertight casings, carried up to the shelter
deck, and free from any doors or openings
leading to the intervening decks,—the construc-
tion being such that the water, rising within
these casings from the flooded spaces below
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the lower deck, could not find its way out to
the decks above.
(d) The second bulkhead from the bow and
the second from the stern should be carried up
to the shelter deck. All the intermediate
bulkheads should be extended one deck higher
to the saloon deck, D.
(e) The cargo spaces in compartments 3 and
4, lying below the middle deck, should be di-
vided by a central longitudinal bulkhead, and
the hatches, leading up from these holds, should
be enclosed in watertight casings extending,
without any openings, to the shelter deck,
where they should be closed by watertight
hatch covers. The huge reciprocating-engine-
room should be divided by a similar, central,
longitudinal bulkhead.
(f) Finally, the passenger spaces on decks
A, B, C, and D, should be protected against
fire by the construction, at suitable intervals,
of transverse bulkheads of light construction,
provided with fire-doors where they intersect
the alleyways.
A Titanic, as thus modified, might reason-
ably be pronounced unsinkable. To such a ship
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we could confidently apply the verdict of
Brunel, as recorded in his notes on the strength
and safety of the Great Eastern: “No com-
bination of circumstances, within the ordinary
range of probability, can cause such damage as
to sink her.’’
Univ. of MichioAN,
^^ 25 1913
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ºr sº sº.