CONCLUSIONS
I. The fact that the _Titanic_ sank in two hours and thirty minutes
after a collision demonstrates that the margin of safety against
foundering in this ship was dangerously narrow.
II. It is not to the point to say that the collision was of an unusual
character and may never occur again. Collision with an iceberg is one
of the permanent risks of ocean travel, and this stupendous calamity has
shown how disastrous its results may be. We cannot afford to gamble with
chance in a hazard whose issue involves the life or death of a whole
townful of people.
III. If it be structurally possible, and the cost is not prohibitive,
passenger ships should be so designed, that they cannot be sunk by any
of the accidents of the sea,--not even by such a disaster as befell the
_Titanic_.
IV. That such design and construction are possible is proved by the fact
that the first of the large ocean liners, the _Great Eastern_, built
over half a century ago, so far fulfilled these conditions, that, after
receiving injuries to her hull more extensive than those which sank the
_Titanic_, she came safely to port.
V. It is not to the point to attribute the financial failure of the
_Great Eastern_ to the costly character of her construction. She failed
because, commercially, she was ahead of her time, passenger and freight
traffic being yet in their infancy when the ship was launched. Cheap
steel and modern shipyard facilities have made it possible to build a
ship of the size and unsinkable characteristics of the _Great Eastern_,
with a reduction in the cost of twenty to thirty per cent.
VI. The principles of unsinkable construction, as formulated by Brunel
and worked out in this remarkable ship, have been adopted in their
entirety by naval constructors, and are to be found embodied in
every modern warship. These elements--the double skin, transverse and
longitudinal bulkheads, and watertight decks--are the _sine qua non_ of
warship construction; and in the designing of warships, they receive the
first consideration, all other questions of speed, armour-protection,
and gun-power being made subordinate.
VII. In the building of merchant ships, unsinkable construction has been
sacrificed to considerations of speed, convenience of operation, and
the provision of luxurious accommodations for the travelling public. The
inner skin, the longitudinal bulkhead, and the watertight deck have
been abandoned. Although the transverse bulkhead has been retained, its
efficiency has been greatly impaired; for, whereas these bulkheads in
the _Great Eastern_ extended thirty feet above the water-line; in the
_Titanic_, they were carried only ten feet above the same point.
VIII. The portentous significance of this decline in the art of
unsinkable construction will be realised, when it is borne in mind that
the _Titanic_ was built to the highest requirements of the Board of
Trade and the insurance companies. She was the latest example of current
and approved practice in the construction of high-class passenger ships
of the first magnitude; and, judged on the score of safety against
sinking, she was as safe a ship as ninety-five out of every hundred
merchant vessels afloat to-day.
IX. That the narrowing of the margin of safety in merchant ships during
the past fifty years has not been due to urgent considerations of
economy, is proved by the fact that shipowners have not hesitated to
incur the enormous expense involved in providing the costly machinery to
secure high speed, or the equally heavy outlay involved in providing the
sumptuous accommodations which characterise the modern liner.
X. If, then, by making moderate concessions in the direction of speed
and luxury, it would be possible, without adding to the cost, to
reintroduce those structural features which are necessary to render a
ship unsinkable, considerations of humanity demand that it should be
done.
XI. Should the stupendous disaster of April the 14th lead us back to the
sane construction of fifty years ago, and teach us so to construct the
future passenger ship that she shall be not merely fast and comfortable,
but practically unsinkable, the hapless multitude who went down to their
death in that unspeakable calamity will not have died in vain.
XII. In conclusion, let us note what changes would render such a ship as
the _Titanic_ unsinkable:
(a) The inner floor of the double bottom should be extended up the sides
to a watertight connection with the middle deck. This inner skin should
extend from bulkhead No. 1 at the bow to bulkhead No. 14, the second
bulkhead from the stern.
(b) The lower deck should be made absolutely watertight from stem to
stern, so as to form practically a second inner bottom; and it should
be strengthened to withstand a water pressure equal to that to which the
outer bottom of the ship is subjected at normal draft.
(c) All openings through this deck, such as those for hatches and
ladders and for the boiler uptakes, should be enclosed by strong
watertight casings, carried up to the shelter deck, and free from any
doors or openings leading to the intervening decks,--the construction
being such that the water, rising within these casings from the flooded
spaces below the lower deck, could not find its way out to the decks
above.
(d) The second bulkhead from the bow and the second from the stern
should be carried up to the shelter deck. All the intermediate bulkheads
should be extended one deck higher to the saloon deck, D.
(e) The cargo spaces in compartments 3 and 4, lying below the middle
deck, should be divided by a central longitudinal bulkhead, and the
hatches, leading up from these holds, should be enclosed in watertight
casings extending, without any openings, to the shelter deck, where
they should be closed by watertight hatch covers. The huge
reciprocating-engine-room should be divided by a similar, central,
longitudinal bulkhead.
(f) Finally, the passenger spaces on decks A, B, C, and D, should be
protected against fire by the construction, at suitable intervals, of
transverse bulkheads of light construction, provided with fire-doors
where they intersect the alleyways.
* * * * *
A _Titanic_, as thus modified, might reasonably be pronounced
unsinkable. To such a ship we could confidently apply the verdict of
Brunel, as recorded in his notes on the strength and safety of the
_Great Eastern_: "No combination of circumstances, within the ordinary
range of probability, can cause such damage as to sink her."
[Transcriber's Note
All words printed in small capitals have been converted to uppercase
characters.
Some illustrations contain explanatory text; the keywords have been
added to the captions.
The following modifications have been made,
Page 10:
"3 1-2 inches" changed to "3½ inches"
(some small angle-bars, 3½ inches in width)
Page 36:
"24 1-2 knots" changed to "24½ knots"
(to accomplish the average speed of 24½ knots)
Page 96:
"TRANSLANTIC" changed to "TRANSATLANTIC"
(PARTICULARS OF NOTED TRANSATLANTIC LINERS)
Page 145:
"U. S. N." changed to "U.S.N."
(courtesy of Naval Constructor R. H. M. Robinson, U.S.N.)
Not modified but retained as printed:
Inconsistent spelling of "underwater" / "under-water"
Inconsistent spelling of "watertight" / "water-tight"]
End of Project Gutenberg's An Unsinkable Titanic, by John Bernard Walker