QM2's Safety Features

[Ryan McKeefery]

But does anyone know what type of safety features the Queen carries (ie, watertight compartments, double bottom and the like), or of any sites where I can gather this information?

I recently acquired the Airfix model for £25.00 and painted everything below the plimsoll line in the wrong shade of red, so I decided to conduct an experiment (it's what I'm good at) with it since it is already ruined, and I saw the better Revell model for £10.00 extra last week.

I require the exact details of the safety features, as I have already constructed one transverse watertight bulkhead inside the hull, creating one small compartment at the bow, which I subsequently drilled a hole into in the interests of science. What can I say? I was bored.
Anyway...
At the first instant of water entering the compartment, I noticed that the ship began to list severely from port to starboard, starboard to port.
As the compartment swallowed more water, The listing became more sluggish and acute, until she finally rolled onto her port side and sank after 90 seconds or so.
This made me wonder if anything like this would happen with the Queen's exact layout of safety features inside the plastic hull.

Thanks in advance, and my results will be posted in due time.
Regards, Ryan.

 

[Jason D. Tiller]

Hello Ryan,

I've re-named this thread, in order to better reflect what you are asking. I don't have the answers that you're seeking, but perhaps others will.

 

[Ryan McKeefery]

Cheers Jason. I expect I shall achieve a better response now.

 

[Tom Bates]

One answer Security Reasons. NO ship builder or cruse line will give out the layout of the watertight compartments for fear of terrorism

 

[Ryan McKeefery]

Bugger.

I shall have to guesstimate.

 

[Tom Bates]

Tell me about it. I cant even get site piping plans for a small sewage plant let alone a cruse ship. Big difference from the QM1 where you can find the plans from the ship builder. Though If you would be able to get the layout could you send it my way? Thanks

 

[Ryan McKeefery]

Not a problem Tom, but my search so far has proved itself as unfruitful as an apple tree in a bed of salt.
Bit of a ruddy inconvenience, really.

 

[Brent Holt]

You would think they would at least say how many compartments the ship is divided into and how many can be flooded for the ship to stay in a floating condition. (And if the ship has an inner skin)They wouldn't have to release the general plans for it.

Brent

 

[Stephen Carey]

I'm not sure why it should be secret, as you could easily work it out if you were on board.
As a rough guide, many ships have around 10 "sections", either side of which is a WT bulkhead.
Most merchant ships are built to "Two Compartment Damage Stability" meaning that the ship can stay afloat with 2 adjacent compartments flooded. Most ships to this design standard can manage one or two more, though not as a design criteria.
If the designers consider more are required (statistically they aren't) then they can add more transverse subdivisions - ie more "sections".
Passenger ships have WT doors in the WT bulkheads, but only below the water level and the "V-line" (look it up) which are all in non passenger areas. Having them all the way up to the weather deck would impede movement around the ship to an impracticable degree; imagine a lady in heels and evening dress having to knock 8 clips off a WT door, open it, step over the coaming without barking her shins, and close and clip the door after her... And of course bid goodbye to Grand Staircases...

 

[Stephen Carey]

But does anyone know what type of safety features the Queen carries (ie, watertight compartments, double bottom and the like), or of any sites where I can gather this information?

I recently acquired the Airfix model for £25.00 and painted everything below the plimsoll line in the wrong shade of red, so I decided to conduct an experiment (it's what I'm good at) with it since it is already ruined, and I saw the better Revell model for £10.00 extra last week.

I require the exact details of the safety features, as I have already constructed one transverse watertight bulkhead inside the hull, creating one small compartment at the bow, which I subsequently drilled a hole into in the interests of science. What can I say? I was bored.
Anyway...
At the first instant of water entering the compartment, I noticed that the ship began to list severely from port to starboard, starboard to port.
As the compartment swallowed more water, The listing became more sluggish and acute, until she finally rolled onto her port side and sank after 90 seconds or so.
This made me wonder if anything like this would happen with the Queen's exact layout of safety features inside the plastic hull.

Thanks in advance, and my results will be posted in due time.
Regards, Ryan.

Ryan
What you are missing in trying to get your ship to sink properly is the "permeability" of the spaces in the ship, ie those that are filled to a certain percentage with the likes of machinery, bunkers etc., all of which move the Centre of Gravity (CoG) of the ship towards this added weight. For machinery it's all in the bottom spaces, which makes the ship more stable of course. Your model has no weight in it at all, and therefore doesn't behave like a normal ship. If you take Costa Concordia as an example (carbon copy of Titanic), she was flooded in between 5 and 6 spaces which resulted in an immediate list to the side the water was coming in (Port) which then evened out as the water spread across the beam of the ship - same as Titanic. As this is an added weight low down, the CoG moves towards this, making the ship stable even though flooded. She would have continued like this until she sank in deep water if she hadn't drifted to shore and landed on a rock on the port side. This "held" the ship on the port side (ie not subject to buoyant force) such that the water rushed over to the starboard side and thus capsized the ship. Your ship needs to have a lot of weight added to it, but this probably won't work as the hull is not a true geosym and cannot take the weight of the machinery without a waterline round the bridge deck! You could try the effect of sticking a few coins in the bottom to simulate machinery weight, which may make a difference. Let us know?

As for QM2's construction, there isn't anything that I've seen that equates to the "Engineer & Shipbuilder" extracts that the old traditional liners had in some cases. This is probably because no one has the interest that these ships had in the past, coupled with the designers not wanting to give too much away - especially in terms of Lines and Body plans. A general standard is at least 10 WT subdivisions (see my other post on this page), but QM probably has more - possibly 15 even, though it would depend on the number of WT compartments flooded that are included in the design. The longer spaces on older ships tended to be the machinery spaces of course, including boiler rooms. I think you'll find that if you divide your model up in to reasonable "sections" going from the profiles that are available on the web (even though they are pictorial) you'll see where most of the weight needs to be added. As you add it, you need to be mindful of the draft by the head and stern such that the model floats upright at the correct draft. Ship design is a spiral, amongst which is the Weight Estimate of which I have done several, where you have to be mindful of where you put stuff!
I've had a quick look for construction details and found the Haynes manual which is by Stephen Payne the naval architect. RMS Queen Mary 2 Manual: An insight into the design, construction and operation of the world's largest ocean liner: Payne, Stephen: 9780857332448: Amazon.com: Books though quite expensive. Someone may have a 2nd hand one on amazon or ebay.

 

[Tim Gerard]

I know this is a 15 year old thread, but I do have technical drawings of a cruise ship that I was involved with getting in and out of dry dock more than once for periodic US Coast Guard inspections over the past several years. All of the company's drawing are marked as something to the effect of "proprietary information" and not to be distributed to the general public. There are no more details than that so there's no way to tell if they're trying to protect against terrorism or the competition stealing any ideas.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

Most merchant ships are built to "Two Compartment Damage Stability" meaning that the ship can stay afloat with 2 adjacent compartments flooded.

Just to emphasize, that not only means it can stay afloat, but also that there are hard limits on the degree of list that a ship can take on in a damaged condition.