kyboots
Practically Family
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And they're still wrong.
I don't know who wrote that article, but they don't know all their Titanic facts. Five compartments, not six. I could show you plenty of evidence to prove this.
Five compartments were opened to the water, not six. The ship could float with four full. But the iceberg opened five. That let in more water than the ship could cope with, even with the pumps (which were never designed to stop the ship sinking anyway).
If six compartments had really been opened up, the ship would've been under water even faster than it already was, because it was pouring in. They had ash-ejector pumps, hand-pumps and hoses all going to keep the water out of Boiler Room #5, but Boiler Room 6, Hold 1, 2 and 3 were full of water, and the forepeak at the very front of the ship.
Five compartments.
If six compartments were flooded, then they wouldn't have bothered trying to pump out the water, which they were doing to the best of their ability anyway.
Here's the ship:
The horizontal green lines indicate the broken plates where water was rushing in. Boiler Room 6, Hold 1, Hold 2, Hold 3, Forepeak. Five Compartments.
Boiler Room 5 would've made the SIXTH compartment, if it had been breeched.
Which it hadn't. It was here that sailors set up pumps and hoses to try and keep the water out. It didn't work, obviously.
Five compartments.
Page 21 of Walter Lord's book "A Night to Remember" clearly noted for it's accuracy points out in fine detail how the Titanic "could float with four of it's 16 watertight compartments full" but "not with five fully flooded". I thought it was a pretty good book and would very much endorse it. One of my first real books as a child and could not put it down. With five flooded it would tip enough to continue to flood over the top and then flood six and so on. Regardless we can continue to have something to talk and debate well into the future! Hopefully we can settle this and have good healthy discussion now!--John
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