Trouble is, when survivors witness a room or corridor flooding, it does not mean the rooms adjacent to that corridor or room are also going to flood at the same rate, or at all, and these rooms could become air pockets. The ship had a list to starboard and at some point this list changed to port and became rather heavy, but it is difficult to say how much water left the flooded or partially flooded rooms on the starboard side and rushed over to the port side.
Mr. Ray said -
"I went to the rail and looked over and saw the first boat leaving the ship on the starboard side. By that time I was feeling rather cold, so I went down below again, to my bedroom, the same way that I came up.....I went along E deck and forward, and the forward part of E deck was under water. I could just manage to get through the doorway into the main stairway. I went across to the other side of the ship where the passengers' cabins were; saw nobody there. I looked to see where the water was and it was corresponding on that side of the ship to the port side."
He believed the ship the water was already concentrating on the port side of E-deck after the first lifeboat had left the starboard side. The water likely came up the staircase on the starboard side and poured down the staircases on the port side, causing the ship to list to port.
Charles Joughin was in his cabin 1 hour later around 1:30am and he noticed the water had travelled up Scotland Road on the port side and reached his cabin all the way aft near the Engine room. This gives us an idea of how the ship was flooding.
He then noticed that the water had moved over to the port side of the corridor. E-deck was in theory supposed to be the deck that caused the water to spill over into the next compartment below, but it was going aft.
Joughin left his cabin sometime after 1.30am and noticed the water had flooded the port side of his cabin all the way aft. He noticed the sea had left the corridor almost entirely and he noticed two men trying to close the watertight door outside his room. Perhaps the water was no longer rising up the starboard staircase and had flooded the deck below and was now flooding from the port side, causing the ship to list dangerously over to port.
It should be noted that the Titanic was a vast maze of decks and rooms. Where and when each room and deck flooded would not necessarily follow a predetermined path. e.g. Who knows how many gangway doors and portholes were left open. This alone would greatly affect how the ship flooded.
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