Michael H. Standart
Member
Hello Lisa, getting a few written sources may be more helpful in this, and i'm hoping you have access to a library of some really good archives. "The Birth Of Titanic" written by Michael McCaughan would be a good place to start. Also, Titanic, An Illustrated History by Don Lynch and Ken Marschal as well as Titanic,Triumph and Tragedy(second Edition) by John P. Eaton and Charales A. Haas.
None of course are entirely lacking in faults, but they are good sources and Eaton And Haas 's work includes deck plans which identify staterooms by number. If you can get your hands on them, The Shipbuilder articals as well as the report issued by the British Board OF Trade are excellant sources of technical information, and the transcripts of both investigations is a must have. There's a link to the Titanic Inquiry Project which has the transcripts and reports which you can access through the links section here on ET.
If you prefer a vidio, the Discovery Channal offers two that you would find useful. One is Titanic, Anatomy Of A Disaster, and another is Titanic, Answers From The Abysss. I have both and I highly reccomend them.
In regards to the pumps, the total capacity of the pumps was 1700 tons per hour. When the Titanic sideswiped the iceberg, six compartments were opened to the sea at depths ranging from near the waterline to 15 feet below it. This opened only 12 square feet to the sea, but at the pressures which increase as the depth increases, the initial flooding rate was 7 tons per second. The watertight bulheads only went as high as E deck, and the deck was not watertight at all, so this allowed water to come up through deck openings, through bulkheads which had no watertight features and down through deck openings into the next compartments. The simple way of describing would be a nasty variation of the Domino Effect. As the mass of water inside the ship increased, the accumulated weight served to pull the bow down ever deeper until it was heavy enough to drag the whole ship down.
As to blocking the holes, no attempt was made nor could it be. When you have the equivalant of a 47 inch wide watermain blasting water in under full pressure, there was no way they could have pulled it off.
I hope you're not in any great hurry to give this lecture as this is a subject which is going to take some time to really do a good job of researching. Getting a hold of a naval architect or marine engineer would be a good idea. If there is any further way I can help, let me know.
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
None of course are entirely lacking in faults, but they are good sources and Eaton And Haas 's work includes deck plans which identify staterooms by number. If you can get your hands on them, The Shipbuilder articals as well as the report issued by the British Board OF Trade are excellant sources of technical information, and the transcripts of both investigations is a must have. There's a link to the Titanic Inquiry Project which has the transcripts and reports which you can access through the links section here on ET.
If you prefer a vidio, the Discovery Channal offers two that you would find useful. One is Titanic, Anatomy Of A Disaster, and another is Titanic, Answers From The Abysss. I have both and I highly reccomend them.
In regards to the pumps, the total capacity of the pumps was 1700 tons per hour. When the Titanic sideswiped the iceberg, six compartments were opened to the sea at depths ranging from near the waterline to 15 feet below it. This opened only 12 square feet to the sea, but at the pressures which increase as the depth increases, the initial flooding rate was 7 tons per second. The watertight bulheads only went as high as E deck, and the deck was not watertight at all, so this allowed water to come up through deck openings, through bulkheads which had no watertight features and down through deck openings into the next compartments. The simple way of describing would be a nasty variation of the Domino Effect. As the mass of water inside the ship increased, the accumulated weight served to pull the bow down ever deeper until it was heavy enough to drag the whole ship down.
As to blocking the holes, no attempt was made nor could it be. When you have the equivalant of a 47 inch wide watermain blasting water in under full pressure, there was no way they could have pulled it off.
I hope you're not in any great hurry to give this lecture as this is a subject which is going to take some time to really do a good job of researching. Getting a hold of a naval architect or marine engineer would be a good idea. If there is any further way I can help, let me know.
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
