An Unsinkable Titanic: Every Ship its own LifeboatWalker, John Bernard
History
An Unsinkable Titanic: Every Ship its own Lifeboat
Walker, John Bernard
Shipbuilding; Titanic (Steamship)
The double-skin construction, which was used to such good effect in the
_Great Eastern_, is found in every large warship; and in a battleship
of the first class, the two skins are spaced widely apart, a spacing of
three or more feet being not unusual. The double-hull construction, with
its exceedingly strong framing, is carried up to about water-line level,
where it is covered in by the protective deck above referred to. Below
the protective deck the interior 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. Forward 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 battleship,--the _Connecticut_,--which
give a clear impression of the completeness with which the interior is
bulkheaded. Although the ship shown is less than one-half as long as
the _Titanic_, 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 longitudinal 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. Forward and aft of the machinery spaces
are other longitudinal bulkheads, which form the fore-and-aft walls of
the handling-rooms and ammunition-rooms.
To appreciate the completeness of the subdivision, we must look at the
inboard profile and note that the spaces forward and aft of the engine-
and boiler-rooms are further subdivided, 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 of the battleship _Connecticut_, below
the protective deck, is divided up into as many as 500 separate and
perfectly watertight compartments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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