}
a vessel of the Titanic type can hardly imagine an accident
that could cause her to founder. No collision such as has
been the fate of any ship in recent years, it has been thought
up to this time, could send her down, nor could running against
an iceberg do it unless such an accident were coupled with
the remotely possible blowing out of a boiler. She would
sink at once, probably, if she were to run over a submerged
rock or derelict in such manner that both her keel plates and
her double bottom were torn away for more than half her
length; but such a catastrophe was so remotely possible that
it did not even enter the field of conjecture.
The reason for all this is found in the modern arrangement
of water-tight steel compartments into which all ships now
are divided and of which the Titanic had fifteen so disposed
that half of them, including the largest, could be flooded
without impairing the safety of the vessel. Probably it was
the working of these bulkheads and the water-tight doors
between them as they are supposed to work that saved the
Titanic from foundering when she struck the iceberg.
These bulkheads were of heavy sheet steel and started at the
very bottom of the ship and extended right up to the top side.
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