Could Titanic Still Sink With 4 Compartments Flooded?

[Jay Roches]

There's a book, published in July 1912, titled "An Unsinkable Titanic: Every Ship Her Own Lifeboat". It sings the praises of transverse bulkheads. It has a photo of a ship sailing away with the following caption: This ship, with 34 compartments below a water-tight steel deck, would serve as its own lifeboat in the event of collision. / The 44,000-ton, 25.5-knot Lusitania

 

[David G. Brown]

Uh...pardon...but all of Titanic's bulkheads above the tank top were transverse -- that is they went across the ship. This separated it into a series of compartments like pearls on a string. They are designed to keep water isolated within a small portion of the ship.

Longitudinal bulkheads run fore-and aft parallel to the keel line. They are designed to keep water to one side (port or starboard) of the hull.

Fore-and-aft bulkheads were common in military vessels of Titanic's era and continue to be used today. A few years later, neither side took passenger liners to the Battle of Jutland. In theory the compartmentalization should have prevented catastrophic losses like the British suffered. A warship must be able to confine fires, flooding and other battle damage. The opposite is the case in commercial vessels where large open spaces are needed to profitably carry cargo or passengers. Imagine Titanic's first class dining saloon with a steel wall across the middle.

True enough that longitudinal bulkheads might have confined the floodwaters in Titanic, but they would have done so entirely on the starboard side. A heavy list to port would have resulted. Somebody with too much time on their hands and too little to do might be able to calculate the amount of that list. However, the real problem would have been the reduction of the ship's righting moment. Ships have been capsized by a shifting of their own cargoes. (Look up the steamer Charles S. Price aka the "Mystery Ship" which was found floating upside down on Lake Huron in 1913.)

Anyway, the rule-of-thumb in 1912 or now is "longitudinal bulkheads bad," while "transverse bulkheads good."

-- David G. Brown

 

[Jay Roches]

Uh...pardon...but all of Titanic's bulkheads above the tank top were transverse [...]

Apologies, I used the wrong term, it's longitudinal. Unfortunately I can't edit the post to correct the error. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[B-rad]

Mr. Brown is correct. The fact is titanic acquired enough damage to cause its demise no matter how you slice it. Titanic was neither the first or last ship to be called 'practically unsinkable'. It wasn't until after world war 1 when this tag starts to dissaper as people started to realise nothing is unsinkable (though it still has never gone away Unfortantly).

 

[Harland Duzen]

However, the real problem would have been the reduction of the ship's righting moment. Ships have been capsized by a shifting of their own cargoes. (Look up the steamer Charles S. Price aka the "Mystery Ship" which was found floating upside down on Lake Huron in 1913.)

Anyway, the rule-of-thumb in 1912 or now is "longitudinal bulkheads bad," while "transverse bulkheads good."

-- David G. Brown

Another example of this is that one (of many) reasons that the Tudor Warship Mary Rose sank was her ballast of stones and cargo shifted and pilled up on her Starboard Side which prevented the ship from righting itself and led to her capsizing.

Mr. Brown is correct. The fact is titanic acquired enough damage to cause its demise no matter how you slice it. Titanic was neither the first or last ship to be called 'practically unsinkable'. It wasn't until after world war 1 when this tag starts to dissaper as people started to realise nothing is unsinkable (though it still has never gone away Unfortantly).

Sadly still true and still used with ironic results:

HMS Audacious - Sinks
Bismarck - Sinks
Boat Witchcraft (fitted with unsinkable device) - Sinks
Andrea Doria (claimed unsinkable by media) - Sinks

You would think people would stop doing this as it seems to be unlucky...

 

[Aaron_2016]

You would think people would stop doing this as it seems to be unlucky...

Reminds of the sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1956. The newsreels called her unsinkable.

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