"I am looking at weight at the time of the breaking apart, and the tail did not rise completely out of the water,"
There is an excellent bit of research done by a member Sam Halpern which addressed the question of angle. However here is evidence of the props being out of the water. It came from Lookout George Symons on Day 10 of the UK Inquiry:
"1508. (The Commissioner.) Could you see the propellers? A: - You could just see the propellers.
11509. (The Attorney-General.) You could see the propellers? A: - Yes.
11510. Then when you saw her like that, what was the next thing that happened? A: - Being the master of the situation, I used my own discretion. I said nothing to anybody about the ship being doomed, in my opinion. I pulled a little further away to escape, if there was any suction. A little while after that we pulled a little way and lay on the oars again. The other boats were around us by that time, and some were pulling further away from us. I stood and watched it till I heard two sharp explosions in the ship. What they were I could not say.{ the giving way of the structure above the forward end of the engine room?] Then she suddenly took a top cant, her stern came well out of the water then."
This was the moment when the keel plate from the right aft to WTB K came clear of the sea. For a brief moment, but long enough, there would have been a massive bending moment which would put the keel and bottom plating into compression and an extreme, tearing tension into the structure above..the main deck and top hamper. This would have been more than enough to start the back-breaking process which produced this next observation from the witness:
11512. Head downwards?..A: - Head down, and that is the time when I saw her lights go out, all her lights. The next thing I saw was her poop. As she went down like that so her poop righted itself and I thought to myself, "The poop is going to float." It could not have been more than two or three minutes after that that her poop went up as straight as anything; there was a sound like steady thunder as you hear on an ordinary night at a distance, and soon she disappeared from view."
I don't think there's a better version of what really happened.
"Your see saw doesn't take into consideration the bulkheads your see saw now becomes a ladder with a double floor of 1 " steel. attached at the sides to 1" thick plate with 5 rows of rivets, via the ribs which like the keel are formed of heavy plate pin bent to shape."
The main purpose of WT bulkheads is to compartmentalise a vessel. They contribute to the strength of the 'box' as in 'box girder' but do very little for the longitudinal strength. Likewise, your ladder rungs simply tie the sides together and provide footholds. They will not prevent the sides buckling between the rungs if a sufficient bending moment is applied.
"The engines were not side by side, they are located to the outside. where the whole system has its maximum support."
According to the plans. the main engines of Titanic were set side by side, 15 feet 6 inches apart and 7 feet 9 inches on each side of the keel with their C of Gs located at frame No.Minus 42...They and their bed-plates occupied and area of 39 feet x 69 feet of tank top in the exact center of the main Engine Room. The total weight including bed plates was 1820 long tons. To this, you must add the weight of the stern structure and its contents aft of WTB F when calculating the bending moment just forward of WTB F.
Jim C.
