Debunked - Water Spilling Into Boiler Rooms?

[Aaron_2016]

As we have no eyewitness testimony that water spilt over the tops of the bulkheads and into the adjacent boiler rooms via E-deck, could it be said that this did not sink the ship? Documentaries and films show boiler room 6 flooding and the water rising up to E-deck and spilling over into boiler room 5 from above, but eye witness accounts show the water broke the coal bunker door and flooded boiler room 5 from below, not from above. This was around 1:30am. Quartermaster Rowe said Collapsible C was lowered at this same time and he believed the ship sank about 20 minutes later around 1:50am. Watches stopped around that same time as the ship exploded and took a dive. Was there really time enough for boiler room 5 to flood and spill over the top into boiler room 4 and so on, in that short interval between collapsible C leaving and the ship breaking in two?

Is it more plausible that the portholes and watertight doors were left open and the water rushed aft towards the engine room from below? Charles Joughin was in his cabin around 1:30am and saw the water had left the corridor on E-deck, and instead of flooding the deck, the water had receded and was rushing aft via the open watertight doors under his feet towards the engine room?


Watches stopped when the water rushed onto the boat deck.

Mr. Weikman's account was read at the US Inquiry His watch stopped at 1:50am:


"This boat was the last to leave, to the best of my knowledge. He was ordered into the boat by the officer in charge. I think that Mr. Ismay was justified in getting in that boat at that time. I was proceeding to launch the next boat when the ship suddenly sank at the bow and there was a rush of water that washed me overboard, and therefore the boat was not launched by human hands. The men were trying to pull up the sides when the rush of water came, and that was the last moment it was possible to launch any more boats, because the ship was at an angle that it was impossible for anybody to remain on deck."

Q - State further what you know about the case.

A - "After I was washed overboard I started to swim, when there was a pile of ropes fell upon me, and I managed to get clear of these and started to swim for some dark object in the water. It was dark. This was about 1.50 a. m. toward the stern."

Q - How do you know it was 1.50 a. m.?

A - "Because my watch was stopped at that time by the water."

Q - Did you hear any noise?

A - "Yes; I was about 15 feet away from the ship when I heard a second explosion."

Q - What caused the explosion?

A - "I think the boilers blew up about in the middle of the ship. The explosion blew me along with a wall of water toward the dark object I was swimming to, which proved to be a bundle of deck chairs, which I managed to climb on. While on the chairs I heard terrible groans and cries coming from people in the water."

Q - Was it possible to help them?

A - "No; it was not. The lifeboats were too far away."

Q - Do you think if the lifeboats were nearer they could render any assistance?

A - "Yes; had the lifeboats remained close to the Titanic they could have take 10 to 15 or maybe 20 more passengers to each boat. There was a great number of people killed by the explosion, and there was a great number that managed to get far enough away that the explosion did not injure them, and these are the people that I think could have been saved had the lifeboats been close."


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[Kyle Naber]

A - "After I was washed overboard I started to swim, when there was a pile of ropes fell upon me, and I managed to get clear of these and started to swim for some dark object in the water. It was dark. This was about 1.50 a. m. toward the stern."

Q - How do you know it was 1.50 a. m.?

A - "Because my watch was stopped at that time by the water."

Q - Did you hear any noise?

A - "Yes; I was about 15 feet away from the ship when I heard a second explosion."

Q - What caused the explosion?

A - "I think the boilers blew up about in the middle of the ship. The explosion blew me along with a wall of water toward the dark object I was swimming to, which proved to be a bundle of deck chairs, which I managed to climb on. While on the chairs I heard terrible groans and cries coming from people in the water."

Sorry that I can't answer your initial question, but doesn't the "wall of water" occurring near the stern after an explosion, suggest a high angle (compared to a break before water reached the boat deck) break and sudden instead of gradual settling?

 

[Rob Lawes]

As boiler room 6 flooded, water would enter through the boiler furnace doors, fill the fire beds up and then the water level would gradually rise through the smoke trunking. The smoke uptakes were joined between boiler rooms 5 and 6 above the watertight bulkhead on E-Deck. The water could then spill over and down the trunking into the furnace beds of boiler room 5 and then into the boiler room itself.

 

[Aaron_2016]

.........break and sudden instead of gradual settling?

Thomas Ranger was asked:
Q - When you saw the fore end of the boat break off, did the afterend come back suddenly or slowly on to a level keel?
A - She came back slowly.

I think the explosion that pushed people away and possibly the collapsible boats away was caused by the enormous expulsion of air as the water rushed in from the buckled end and forced the compressed air within the ship out at a high rate. Smoke and possibly lumps of coal were seen shooting out of the funnels at that moment. There must have been terrific pressure building up inside the ship. Perhaps not all of it was due to compressed air. The wireless operator said the noise of escaping steam and air from the expansion joint was making it difficult to read the messages and that the Captain would fix the matter. Perhaps this caused something to build up inside the ship as it was no longer being vented out, until something within the ship exploded.

Survivor Helen Candee said Hichens was busy trying to lash their lifeboat to another one when the ship sank. They tried to fasten them together but failed because their lifeboats were being rocked about by waves. The sea was dead calm at that moment, yet they were experiencing large waves at the same time the ship was going down. This quite possibly occurred when the ship broke in two.

Helen Candee
"The steersman in an increase of fear lashed our boat to another for the comfort of companionship. The waves slopped high between the boats and fell upon us, so that the lashing had to be abandoned. When I lifted up my head from that incident, the great Titanic was gone, engulfed, sunk into the sea."


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[Penguin]

What caused the explosion? When a ship sinks it is often claimed that the boilers explode when the water reaches them but I can't see why. I think it is more likely that water entering the firebox meets the hot coal and is instantly flashed into steam. This would give the appearance of an explosion.

 

[Kyle Naber]

Like I've said in other posts, I think an explosion (possibly coal dust) underneath the second funnel blasted it off of the boat deck and the result was a massive cloud of smoke and a ball of fire and sparks that rose up into the air. I still could be wrong, but I think the "explosion" that "killed many people" was just air exiting through the quickly vanishing stern. This was caused by the difference between the rates of incoming water and escaping air. Since the bow had about 2 hours and 40 minutes to completely flood, this phenomenon was not nearly as violent, but still could have had a minor impact when it swung down after the break. However, the stern is a different story. This section was being pulled down, against its will, FAST. There simply wasn't enough time for the air space to process to newly introduced water, so it was ejected out of the decks, through the windows, and any little cracks and tight spaces. Unfortunately for those still clinging on the stern on top of an exit, they would have been thrown off the sides of the stern up and away from the ship. James Cameron shows some of this in his movie:



At around 2:30, this begins to happen. I think it would have been actually a little more extreme than this, but that's just my opinion. What do you think?

 

[JTDillon]

As boiler room 6 flooded, water would enter through the boiler furnace doors, fill the fire beds up and then the water level would gradually rise through the smoke trunking. The smoke uptakes were joined between boiler rooms 5 and 6 above the watertight bulkhead on E-Deck. The water could then spill over and down the trunking into the furnace beds of boiler room 5 and then into the boiler room itself.

I apologize for replying two years later, but I was hoping you could elaborate on what you said.
Do you know exactly where in the ship these smoke trunkings met? Was it higher than E Deck?

 

[Rob Lawes]

I apologize for replying two years later, but I was hoping you could elaborate on what you said.
Do you know exactly where in the ship these smoke trunkings met? Was it higher than E Deck?

Yes, the smoke uptake trunks met above each boiler room on E deck where they combined into a single trunk up to the funnel.

Boiler room 5 and 6 combined to vent through the first funnel. 3 and 4 through the second and 1 and 2 through the third.

So, when the water filled the fire beds in Boiler Room six, the water would rise within the boiler fire beds, following the heat path up into the trunking. The rate of flooding inside the boiler would match the flooding externally such that by the time the water reached E deck above boiler room 6 it would lip over the trunk join and spill into BR 5.

 

[Seungho Kang]

Hi Aaron,

Watches stopped when the water rushed onto the boat deck.

1:45 is when the forecastle was touching the water, not when the boat deck was going under.
The forecastle goes under at 2:00, and the boat deck goes under at 2:15. Gotta memorize these so that it helps in roughly knowing the sinking timeframes.
And even if the watches stopped at the time, it would still go on for several minutes before it stopped, like how one of the watches show 2:28, while the ship sank around 2:20.

 

[yotsuya]

Hi Aaron,

1:45 is when the forecastle was touching the water, not when the boat deck was going under.
The forecastle goes under at 2:00, and the boat deck goes under at 2:15. Gotta memorize these so that it helps in roughly knowing the sinking timeframes.
And even if the watches stopped at the time, it would still go on for several minutes before it stopped, like how one of the watches show 2:28, while the ship sank around 2:20.

This is also a good example of how in 1912 time was not quite as exact as we see it now. They were in the middle of the Atlantic and the ship was sinking so some watches might not have been wound correctly and others might have been set a few minutes off. I understand the ship had a standard time but even 30 years ago, before the age of analog watched had pretty much ended, few people had their watches in sync. That is why in some films a group will synchronize their watches. In a disaster such as this I would expect watches to be more varied than at normal times.