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 convenience 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 simultaneously from the bridge, or separately, by hand. The safer plan is to permit no bulkhead 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. The advantage of lofty bulkheads was admirably 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 through the bulkheads, and in spite of strenuous objections on the grounds of passenger accommodation and general convenience in the operation of the ship, he carried his point. [Illustration: COURTESY OF ENGINEERING OLYMPIC AND TITANIC 1912 LUSITANIA 1906 GREAT EASTERN 1858 CAMPANIA 1893 PARIS 1868 A COMPARISON OF BULKHEAD PROTECTION IN SOME NOTABLE SHIPS] The wisdom of this construction was demonstrated years later, when, as a result of an accident 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 condition. Thanks to her lofty bulkheads, the good ship stood the ordeal and was finally brought into port without the loss of a single passenger. BULKHEAD SPACING ON NOTABLE SHIPS