Dome collapse

[Michael H. Standart]

>>What surprises me is that there are actually so many windows still intact, both on the exterior and interior of the ship.<<

With the portholes, this isn't quite as surprising as you might be tempted to think. These windows were small but made extremely tough (Very thick) for what I would think would be obvious reasons. The North Atlantic always finds the weak spot!

However, as you noted, the glass dome wasn't designed for this sort of thing. There really wasn't any need. If the water got that high, you were already royally screwed! :-()

 

[Adam Went]

Michael:

Portholes I agree with you on, as you say they were small, relatively tough and thick and well fitted into the ship. What I was referring to more specifically though was the windows which were seen in the GOTA expeditions, such as the ones in the dining rooms which were still intact and, better still, the mirrors and glasses in the staterooms. That was what surprised me the most out of everything.

On the plus side, the loss of the dome has provided an excellent entrance point for such robotic expeditions to the shipwreck.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>was what surprised me the most out of everything.<<

Join the club. A lot of weird things happened during the sinking. The breakup was an extremely violent event, and yet down in the third class spaces, an unbroken glass water carafe was found intact and undisturbed in it's holder.

>>On the plus side, the loss of the dome has provided an excellent entrance point for such robotic expeditions to the shipwreck.<<

Yeah...absent that, any of the explorers who came along would have had a bear of a time getting inside the wreck.

 

[TimTurner]

I see what your saying there, I was under the impression that the water inside the staircase rose up to meet the waterline. Does this mean that water from the boat deck doors and windows flowing down into the stairwell could have created a whirlpool affect and sucked passengers deep into the ship?

I suppose so. But there would have been a lot of things to get caught on, especially the staircase railings. I suspect most people (if anyone) who got sucked into the ship would have been caught on the railings. I'm not sure how the waterline inside and outside the boat measured up. I think some of the people here who have done sinking analyses (weight/volume) might be able to guess about how much mis-match there actually would have been.

On the subject of what survived and what didn't, I'm not too surprised to see unbroken glass in the midst of such a violent sinking. I suspect that much of the Titanic worked like a gigantic crumple zone, cushioning some parts of the ship from the more violent happenings in other parts. It's basically a giant steel sponge.

 

[Augusto Félix Solari]

Maybe the presence of unbroken glass has to do with the cushioning effect of water. If the Titanic had fallen from a position located 3 kms in the air into the ground it would have broken to pieces. The water must have slowed down her fall to the bottom and prevented further destruction of its interior.

 

[Adam Went]

Augusto:

Yes, that's a good point - being that the GOTA expedition was almost entirely centred on the bow section, which was already filled (or close enough to) with water when the ship plunged under, it is understandable that the interior would be in better condition than the mangled stern which went through all kinds of traumas as it approached the bottom. It wasn't so surprising to see intact glass down there as much as WHAT glass was intact, and HOW it was intact, such delicate, intricate windows and mirrors and so forth.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

[Charles Francis Dowling]

But in the film , and many other scenarios , the water is already up to the A Deck and Boat Deck foyers of the grand staircase when the dome implodes, so my theory is that the water at D Deck , well obviously , flooded when the last boats were lowering , then when the purser office above was flooding , the entrance doors on B Deck crashed open, submerging water up to A Deck fast , then up to the boat deck , and the waterline up to the crowning clock , the Dome SMASHED OPEN WITH FORCE!!!

 

[JMGraber]

I think it's obvious to everyone that the waterline outside was a lot different and higher than the water line. In my opinion, the water was probably still in the reception room or a deck higher at the grand staircase when B-deck started flooding. To me, when the water flowed over the rail onto B-deck from the outside it had easy access to the staircase on B-deck and started to flow down the staircase onto lower decks. Must have bee a frightening sight for passengers on A-deck or higher as they tried to make their escape, or just enjoying brandy like Ben Guggenheim. 'd imagine by then it was more likely that passengers ere making their escapes through the aft grand staircase or the second-class staircase.

 

[Mike1]

Hi,

i was always interested in the mismatch of the inner and outer waterline during the sinking.
I've created a sequence of images that shows a similar ship in a 2D sinking simulator (you can found it on google). It is a "Titanic-like" ship, because I'm not able to produce an accurate 2D version of the Titanic. However, i think it is well enough to study a "sinking by the bow".
1) Shows a situation early in the sinking. I also labeled the decks (BD - boat deck to F-deck). The open pathway through the decks should be somewhat similar to the forward grand staircase.
2) Flooding of the E-Deck begins, the hole in the hull is the open gangway door on D-Deck.
3) Forecastle starts to dip under water, until now sinking was slow and steady state.
4) Plunge begins, bow bends down, Forward C-deck floods via open portholes, D-Deck reception room floods via open gangway door and from E-Deck below.
5) The bow is falling like a rock bending the whole structure, the bridge dips under water and the keel breaks near the stern. B-Deck floods via broken windows, but water is still on D-Deck.
6) Water rushes through the broken keel upwards, water reaches forward funnel, outer water line is now several times higher then the inner one, the forward D-Deck and reception room is nearly flooded.
7) Forward funnel and dome collapses, water rushes down to C-deck level. Superstructure near stern starts to fail.
8) Stern comes up and now pushes upper decks.
9) Upper decks fail.
10) Floating stern pulls parts out of the superstructure as the bow sinks.

Could something similar happened to Titanic? This would mean that around 2:15, when the Bridge dipped under water the Grand staircase was open to D-Deck which can explain the surge of 3rd class passengers that arrived on boat deck during the last minutes. And that would mean that the dome collapse was more severe then shown in Titanic 1997.
Also interesting: The 2D-model shows a massive increase in sinking just as the forecastle dips under water. So most time little is happening, and then everything in just 20 minutes.

 

[Chung Rex]

Awesome simulation! Although the program is rather "coarse" in simulation, it can further explain:

1. The destiny of many who neither survived nor bodies were recovered;
2. Thus the low recovery rate of body (~300 out of ~1500, about 20%), which can hardly be explained by drifting current;
3. The flooding time for BR 1 to 5;
4. The shape of broken session between bow and stern;
5. Why the stern could never stay afloat for long, in contrary to Titanic (1997)'s description;
6. The place where passengers and crews most probably be trapped.

 

[Mike1]

The bridge also didn't dip gently under water like in Titanic 1997. It was more like crashing into the water.
What is really odd is that the First class dining saloon stays mostly dry (starts flooding at ~2:17 here) until the breakup and then floods violently, maybe there are some misleading observations with this "coarse" model.

 

[Mike1]

I've tested another scenario, now with starting top-down breakup and a 4-funnel version of the ship.
1. Somewhere early in the sinking (6 minutes in simulation).
2. Scotland road starts flooding (10 minutes in simlation).
3. Forecastle dips under (12 minutes in simulation).
4. Break-up from top to bottom, water rushes into broken sections (13 minutes in simulation).
5. Bridge crashes into water, flooding of D-deck at GSC (13:30 minutes in simulation).
6. Foreward funnel and dome collapse, D-deck at GSC nearly completely flooded, all boilerrooms flooding (13:45 minutes in simulation).
7. Splitting of hull down to double bottom (14 minutes in simulation).
8. Bow separates from stern, parts of the superstructure fall out of the stern.