Mountain advocate. (Barbourville, Ky.) 1904-1935, 1912-05-03
WRECK or
THE "TITANIC"
How The Worlds Greatest
Steamship Went Down
With 600 Souls

IN last weeks Scientific American
and is farther from yellow journal.
ism and appears to be nearer the
true facts and conditions concerning
the recent disaster than any &C.
count yet published. Oar readers
will do well not to overlook this
article.-EDIToR.
In the long list Of maritime disas.
tiers there is none to compare with
that which, on Sunday, April 14th,
overwhelmed the latest and most
magnificent of the ocean liners on
her maiden voyage across the West
ern Ocean. Look at the disaster
fir 'm whatever point we may, it
ands out SIMPLIFYING in it's horror
and prodigious in it's many.sidsd
significance.
The Titanic" stood for the last
word" in naval architecture. Not
only did she carry to a far greater
degree than any other ship the as.
surance Of safety which we have
come to associate with mere size;
not only did she embody every safe
guard against accident, known to
the naval architect; not only was
there wrought into her structure
greater proportionate mass of steel
than had been put into any, even Of
the recent giant liners; but she was
built at the foremost shipyard OF
Great Britain, and by a company
whose vessels are credited with
being the most strongly and care
fully constructed Of any affoat.
To begin with, the floor of the
ship was of exceptional strength
and stiffness. Keel, keelson, longi-
tudinals and inner and outer bot
toms, were of a weight, size and
thickness exceeding those of any
previous ship. The floor was car
ried well up into the sides of the
vessel, and in addition to the con-
ventional framing, the hull was stiff.
ened by deep web frames-girders
OF great strength-spaced at fire.
quent a d regular intervals
throughout the whole length OF the
vessel. Tying the ships sides to-
gether were the deck beams, 10
inches in depth, covered, floor above
floor, with unbroken decks of steel
Additional strength was afforded
by the stout longitudinal bulkheads
OF the coal bunkers, which extend
ed in the wake OF the boiler rooms,
and. incidentally, by their water
tight construction, served, or rather
in view Of the loss of the ship, we
should say were intended to serve,
to prevent water. which might enter
through rupture in the ships out
or shell, from finding it's way into
the boiler rooms.
AS further protection against
sinking, the Titanic" was divided
by 10 transverse bulkheads INTO 16
separate watertight compartments;
and they were so proportional that
any two of them might have been
flooded without endangering the
Aotation of the ship.
Furthermore. all the multitudin-
GUS compartments of the cellular
double bottom, and all the 16 main
compartments OF the ship, were
connected through an elaborate sys-
tenn OF piping, with a series of pow
erful pumps. whose joint capacity
would suffice to greatly delay the
rise of water in the holds, due 10
any of the ordinary accidents of the
sea involving rupture of the hull
of the ship.
Finally there was the security
against laundering due to vast size
! "a safeguard which might reason,
ably be considered the most effective
of all. For it is certain that with
a given amount Of damage to the