To provide against just such
an accident as she is said to have encountered she had set back
a good distance from the bows an extra heavy cross partition
known as the collision bulkhead, which would prevent water
getting in amidships, even though a good part of her bow should
be torn away. What a ship can stand and still float was
shown a few years ago when the Suevic of the White Star
Line went on the rocks on the British coast. The wreckers
could not move the forward part of her, so they separated her
into two sections by the use of dynamite, and after putting
in a temporary bulkhead floated off the after half of the ship,
put it in dry dock and built a new forward part for her. More
recently the battleship Maine, or what was left of her, was
floated out to sea, and kept on top of the water by her water-
tight compartments only.
CHAPTER III
THE MAIDEN VOYAGE OF THE TITANIC
PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE--SCENES OF GAYETY--THE
BOAT SAILS--INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE---A COLLISION
NARROWLY AVERTED--THE BOAT ON FIRE--WARNED OF
ICEBERGS.
EVER was ill-starred voyage more auspiciously begun
than when the Titanic, newly crowned empress of
the seas, steamed majestically out of the port of
Southampton at noon on Wednesday, April 10th, bound for
New York.
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