Kirk, who
installed the compartment doors in the ships of the United
States Navy. Mr. Kirk's opinion follows:
"The Titanic's disaster will cause endless speculation as to
how similar disasters may be avoided in the future.
BULKHEAD DOORS PROBABLY OPEN
"The Titanic had bulkheads, plenty of them, for the rules
of the British Board of Trade and of Lloyds are very specific
and require enough compartments to insure floating of the
ship though several may be flooded. She also had doors in
the bulkheads, and probably plenty of them, for she was
enormous and needed easy access from one compartment to
another. It will probably never be known how _FEW_ of these
doors were closed when she struck the iceberg, but the probability
is that many were open, for in the confusion attending
such a crash the crews have a multitude of duties to perform,
and closing a door with water rushing through it is more of a
task than human muscle and bravery can accomplish.
"A Lloyds surveyor in testing one of these hand-operated
doors started two men on the main deck to close it. They
worked four hours before they had carried out his order. If
all the doors on the ship had worked as badly as this one,
what would have happened in event of accident?"
MANIA FOR SPEED
General Adolphus W.
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