At first it is desirable to consider what happened in the first 10
minutes.
The forepeak was not flooded above the orlop deck--i.e., the peak tank
top, from the hole in the bottom of the peak tank.
In No. 1 hold there was 7 feet of water.
In No. 2 hold five minutes after the collision water was seen rushing in
at the bottom of the firemen's passage on the starboard side, so that
the ship's side was damaged abaft of bulkhead B sufficiently to open the
side of the firemen's passage, which was 3-1/2 feet from the outer skin
of the ship, thereby flooding both the hold and the passage.
In No. 3 hold the mail room was filled soon after the collision. The
floor of the mail room is 24 feet above the keel.
In No. 6 boiler room, when the collision took place, water at once
poured in at about 2 feet above the stokehold plates, on the starboard
side, at the after end of the boiler room. Some of the firemen
immediately went through the water-tight door opening to No. 5 boiler
room because the water was flooding the place. The water-tight doors in
the engine rooms were shut from the bridge almost immediately after the
collision. Ten minutes later it was found that there was water to the
height of 8 feet above the double bottom in No. 6 boiler room.
No. 5 boiler room was damaged at the ship's side in the starboard
forward bunker at a distance of 2 feet above the stokehold plates, at 2
feet from the water-tight bulkhead between Nos. 5 and 6 boiler rooms.
Water poured in at that place as it would from an ordinary fire hose. At
the time of the collision this bunker had no coal in it. The bunker door
was closed when water was seen to be entering the ship.
In No. 4 boiler room there was no indication of any damage at the early
stages of the sinking.