Titanic (33 page)

Author’s Note:
On July 30, 1912, the British Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry Report was released. It included an account of the damage to the ship from the water, based on the testimony of witnesses. Today researchers continue to debate this same testimony to try to learn as much as possible about what happened after the ship struck an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912.

Description of the Damage to the Ship and its Gradual Final Effect

Extent of the Damage

The collision with the iceberg, which took place at 11.40 p.m., caused damage to the bottom of the starboard side of the vessel at about 10 feet above the level of the keel, but there was no damage above this height. There was damage in: The forepeak, No. 1 hold, No. 2 hold, No. 3 hold, No. 6 boiler room, No. 5 boiler room.

The damage extended over a length of about 300 ft.

Time in which the Damage was Done

As the ship was moving at over 20 knots, she would have passed through 300 ft. in less than 10 seconds, so that the damage was done in about this time.

Flooding in the First Ten Minutes

In
No. 1 hold
there was 7 ft. 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 3½ 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 watertight door opening to No. 5 boiler room because the water was flooding the place. The watertight 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 watertight 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.

Gradual Effect of the Damage

It will thus be seen that all the six compartments forward of
No. 4 boiler room
were open to the sea by damage which existed at about 10 feet above the keel. At 10 minutes after the collision the water seems to have risen to about 14 feet above the keel in all these compartments except No. 5 boiler room. After the first ten minutes, the water rose steadily in all these six compartments.

The forepeak above the peak tank was not filled until an hour after the collision when the vessel’s bow was submerged to above C deck. The water then flowed in from the top through the deck scuttle forward of the collision bulkhead. It was by this scuttle that access was obtained to all the decks below C down to the peak tank top on the Orlop deck.

At 12 o’clock water was coming up in
No. 1 hatch
. It was getting into the firemen’s quarters and driving the firemen out. It was rushing round No. 1 hatch on G deck and coming mostly from the starboard side, so that in 20 minutes the water had risen above G deck in No. 1 hold.

In
No. 2 hold
about 40 minutes after the collision the water was coming in to the seamen’s quarters on E deck through a burst fore and aft wooden bulkhead of a third class cabin opposite the seamen’s wash place. Thus, the water had risen in No. 2 hold to about 3 ft. above E deck in 40 minutes.

In
No. 3 hold
the mail room was afloat about 20 minutes after the collision. The bottom of the mail room which is on the Orlop deck, is 24 feet above the keel.

The watertight doors on F deck at the fore and after ends of No. 3 compartment were not closed then.

The mail room was filling and water was within 2 ft. of G deck, rising fast, when the order was given to clear the boats.

There was then no water on F deck.

There is a stairway on the port side on G deck which leads down to the first class baggage room on the Orlop deck immediately below. There was water in this baggage room 25 minutes after the collision. Half an hour after the collision water was up to G deck in the mail room.

Thus the water had risen in this compartment to within 2 feet of G deck in 20 minutes, and above G deck in 25 to 30 minutes.

No. 6 boiler room
was abandoned by the men almost immediately after the collision. Ten minutes later the water had risen to 8 feet above the top of the double bottom, and probably reached the top of the bulkhead at the after end of the compartment, at the level of E deck, in about one hour after the collision.

In
No. 5 boiler room
there was no water above the stokehold plates, until a rush of water came through the pass between the boilers from the forward end, and drove the leading stoker out.

It has already been shown in the description of what happened in the first ten minutes, that water was coming into No. 5 boiler room in the forward starboard bunker at 2 feet above the plates in a stream about the size of a deck hose. The door in this bunker had been dropped probably when water was first discovered, which was a few minutes after the collision. This would cause the water to be retained in the bunker until it rose high enough to burst the door which was weaker than the bunker bulkhead. This happened about an hour after the collision.

No. 4 boiler room.
— One hour and 40 minutes after collision water was coming in forward, in No. 4 boiler room, from underneath the floor in the forward part, in small quantities. The men remained in that stokehold till ordered on deck.

Nos. 3, 2, and 1 boiler rooms.
— When the men left No. 4 some of them went through Nos. 3, 2, and 1 boiler rooms into the reciprocating engine room, and from there on deck. There was no water in the boiler rooms abaft No. 4 one hour 40 minutes after the collision (1.20 a.m.), and there was then none in the reciprocating and turbine engine rooms.

Electrical engine room and tunnels.
— There was no damage to these compartments.

From the foregoing it follows that there was no damage abaft No. 4 boiler room.

All the watertight doors aft of the main engine room were opened after the collision. Half an hour after the collision the watertight doors from the engine room to the stokehold were opened as far forward as they could be to No. 4 boiler room.

Final Effect of the Damage

The later stages of the sinking cannot be stated with any precision, owing to a confusion of the times which was natural under the circumstances.

The forecastle deck was not under water at 1.35 a.m. Distress signals were fired until two hours after the collision (1.45 a.m.). At this time the fore deck was under water. The forecastle head was not then submerged though it was getting close down to the water, about half an hour before she disappeared (1.50 a.m.).

When the last boat, lowered from davits (D), left the ship, A deck was under water, and water came up the stairway under the Boat deck almost immediately afterwards. After this the other port collapsible (B), which had been stowed on the officers’ house, was uncovered, the lashings cut adrift, and she was swung round over the edge of the coamings of the deckhouse on to the Boat deck.

Very shortly afterwards, the vessel, according to Mr. Lightoller’s account, seemed to take a dive, and he just walked into the water. When he came to the surface all the funnels were above the water.

Her stern was gradually rising out of the water, and the propellers were clear of the water. The ship did not break in two [we now know that the
Titanic
did, in fact, break apart] and she did eventually attain the perpendicular, when the second funnel from aft about reached the water. There were no lights burning then, though they kept alight practically until the last.

Before reaching the perpendicular when at an angle of 50 or 60 degrees, there was a rumbling sound which may be attributed to the boilers leaving their beds and crashing down on to or through the bulkheads. She became more perpendicular and finally absolutely perpendicular, when she went slowly down.

After sinking as far as the after part of the Boat deck she went down more quickly. The ship disappeared at 2.20 a.m.

By Bill Wormstedt, Tad Fitch, and George Behe, with contributions by Sam Halpern and J. Kent Layton.

(Originally published in edited form in the “
The Titanic Commutator
” No. 155, 2001.
Titanic
Historical Society.)

(This revised and expanded version © 2009, 2010 by Bill Wormstedt, Tad Fitch, and George Behe.)

Reprinted with permission. Available as Table 2 online in the article at: wormstedt.com/Titanic/lifeboats/lifeboats.htm.

Figures supplied by Lester J. Mitcham and used with permission.

Passengers and crew on board when the
Titanic
left Queenstown.