Sound Effects during collision

[Arun Vajpey]

Can someone please take me through in chronological detail the warning and other sounds within the ship after Murdoch tired to take evasive action?

- First, when Murdoch yelled "Hard-a-Starboard!" and Hichens complied, would it have sounded any alarms or warnings elsewhere other than the Bridge?

- Next, when he yanked the Engine Room Telegraph witch to "FULL STOP", what are the places in the ship where the warning bells would have been heard? If so, for how long?

- Immediately after the collision, Murdoch pulled (or pressed?) the switch controlling the watertight doors in the buklheads. What sort of visual and/or audible warnings would that have produced and what are the places they would be heard? For how long?

- Was there any time or place where the warning sounds from the Engine Room Telegraph superimposed upon those for the watertight doors?

Thanks in anticipation.

 

[Christophe Puttemans]

I don't think any alarms would have to be sounded for a helm order.

When the engine order was given, the Boiler Rooms were alerted by a red light. Then the Leading Firemen would order his men to shop fueling the furnaces and shut the dampers on the boilers. In the engine room, the telegraph would have made a sound as it switched. Then the engineers complied and a telegraph on the bridge synced with the one Murdoch changed, confirming his order was executed.

Then the watertight doors were closed. A warning bell sounded through the boiler rooms as the doors slowly closed and then dropped into place. The bell would keep on sounding until the doors are closed automatically. However, Murdoch had no visual confirmation that the watertight doors were actuallly closed and did not know it when a door was re-opened manually.

 

[B-rad]

Murdoch orders helm, while ringing down both the emergency and none-emergency engine room telegraphs to the engine room. The engine room rings back that the order has been acknowledged. The engine room would thus indicate to the boiler rooms their orders. The boiler room telegraphs would make a gong/bell sound, and visually identify the order.

The watertight door notice read as such:

In case of emergency, to close watertight doors on tank top, press bell; push ten seconds to give alarm; then move switch to ‘on’ position and keep it there, Note: Doors cannot, however, be operated mechanically whilst switch is on.

Pitman described how the doors were shut, stating, "On the bridge; close to the man at the wheel. All you have to do is to just pull it over like that [indicating by describing half a circle]."

The doors once closed by the bridge could not be reopened again unless the bridge deactivated the clutch, therefore the bridge would know if any doors were reopened, due to the fact the men had to ask permission. However, if the doors were shut locally, than they could be reopened if needed, without the bridge ever knowing if they were shut or not shut.