Bulkheads

Source #1: RMS Titanic Icon Manual

From: RMS Titanic; Owners' Workshop Manual

Research By: Micah Rick

Abstract:

The Titanic used vertical bulkheads with strengthening girders to keep the ship afloat in case of a hole in the hull. These bulkheads extended a few feet above the waterline, but when the ship began to tilt the water over-flowed from one compartment to the next causing the ship to sink. If the shipbuilders had decided to extend the bulkheads higher instead of using strengthening girders the ship would have stayed afloat longer or possibly not sinking the ship in all.

Notable Quotations:

“The massive stiffening of watertight bulkheads on the Britannic (a nearly identical Olympic class liner to the Titanic) showing the vertical strengthening girders" (pg.42) Period 4.

Source #3: Titanic's Bulkheads & Watertight Compartments

By: Andrew Clarkson

Researcher: Joy Botros

Image By: Nathaniel Arteaga

Abstract

“For the watertight compartments to actually work, they need to be enclosed on 6 sides to form a box or cube within the shape.” If they were not in that form then the water compartments wouldn’t work on the ship and the ship would sink. The damage caused by the collision between the ship and the iceberg allowed water to flood six of the sixteen major watertight compartments. As water rushed into the starboard side of the ship's bow, the ship began to tilt down in front and slightly to the right. By midnight, water in the damaged compartments began to spill over into others because the compartments were watertight only horizontally and the walls extended only a few feet above waterline thus, sinking the ship into the cold water night, losing thousands of lives.

Notable Quotations

“The belief that the ship was unsinkable was, in part, due to the fact that the Titanic had sixteen watertight compartments. However, the compartments did not reach as high as they should have done. The White Star Line did not want them to go all the way up because this would have reduced living space in first class. If Mr Andrews, the ship’s architect, had insisted on making them the correct height then maybe the Titanic would not have sunk” (History on the net) Period 4.

"My friend Clinch Smith made the proposition that we should leave and go toward the stern. But there arose before us from the decks below a mass of humanity several lines deep converging on the Boat Deck facing us and completely blocking our passage to the stern. There were women in the crowd as well as men and these seemed to be steerage passengers who had just come up from the decks below. Even among these people there was no hysterical cry, no evidence of panic. Oh the agony of it."

-Colonel Archibald Gracie, Titanic Survivor (Period 4)

Source #5:An analysis of Titanic’s vertical and lateral watertight doors

By Brad Payne

Research by Nathaniel Arteaga

image by Nathaniel Arteaga

Abstract

The Titanic’s bulkheads were located at the top of the Titanic and started at Bulkhead D all the way to Bulkhead A. Some people believe that it was the shipbuilders fault for putting the bulkheads there, since the iceberg hit the front Bulkheads and they couldn’t work due to being damaged. That is part of the reason why Titanic sank because the front bulkheads broke and they couldn’t contain the water.

Notable Quotations

"Harland & Wolff to having a watertight door actually adjacent to coal, which has to be worked during the voyage" Period 4.