Did the Stern Support the Bow?

[Kyle Naber]

When the ship broke apart, it’s likely that the heavy bow swung down, leaving the buoyant stern on the surface. Did the stern have enough buoyancy hold the bow in a downward vertical position while it floated horizontally as shown here?

Or would the bow be heavy enough to drag the stern down as soon as the bow achieved 90°?

 

[Arun Vajpey]

White the commentary seems oversimplified, the scenario depicted in the video seems plausible. The question though is the definition of "support"; after the breakup, the double bottom might have remained intact for 20 to 25 seconds before the two parts separated, but I would not call it 'support'.

There is also the question of how long the stern section remained on the surface before sinking. It is my belief that after the bow section separated and sank, the stern could not have remained afloat loner than a minute, if that. But from the onlookers point of view, in this case people in the lifeboats, time stretches out a lot under those circumstances and so it might have seemed a lot longer to those who saw and recognized the break-up.

 

[Kyle Naber]

Yeah, I realized that I could’ve picked a better title after it was too late

Also, I agree about the period of time the stern floated on the surface. I doubt it was horizontal for the full five minutes that many theorized. I’d give it one, maybe two minutes tops.