Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-06-02
ASSERTS BULKHEADS
CRIPPLED LUSITANIA
Chief Engineer Cartnell Says Long
itudinal Compartments Had
Closed Down.
FAVORS CONNECTING HOLES.
Water Thus Would Flood Evenly, and
Not Stay On One Side, New
York's Officer EXPLAINS.


chief Engineer of the American liner
New York, which sailed Saturday for
.iverpool.the reason the Cunarder Lu-
sitania sank so quickly after being tor
pedoed was that her doors in the long
tundinal bulkheads of the side bunk
ers were closed
Had they been open, he contended
the water would have rushed over
from the starboard side TO the port
side coal bunker and the ship would
have remained on am even keel This
would have enabled the crew TO lower
the life boats properly and the Lusita-
MIA might have fioated until assist
ance arrived
All the bulkhead doors on the Lusi-
tania were closed automatically from
the bridge directly after the torpedo
had struck the ship. according to the
evidence given by her captain, W. T.
Turner, at the inquest which was held
in Queenstown.
Cartnell cited the case six years ago
of the White Star liner Republic,
which remained afoat for nearly two
days after eolliding with the Florida.
which made a hole in her side. big
enough for truck and team to drive
through
why do all the British cruisers and
battleships, as we'll as German war
ships, turn turtle when they are ram
med or torpedoed and never give the
below deck a chance to fight for their
lives% the Chief Engineer inquired
The only reason for this is the fore
and-aft bulkhead The ship is not
built that can stand upright with one
or two of these watertight compart-
ments filled TO sea level on one side.
The only battleship that went down
steadily into the water on even keel
since this war started was the Turkish
ship Mejidieh two weeks ago on the
Dardanelles
THE American warships have fore
and-aft bulkheads for the side bunk
ers which are connected across the
ship by pipe so that when the water
enters on one side it runs over into the
opposite compartment, but thepipe is
not big enough for thepurpose.
For safetys sake there should be a
hole four feet by three cut in the fore
and-aft bulkhead i'm each compart-
ment, and the holes should be fitted
with doors, so that it would be impossi-
bic to close them by mistake from the
bridge of the vessel.
The fore-and-aft bulkhead is good
only as stiffener to a ship. The
main bulkheads of ship are the
wartshins bulkheads, and there can
not be too many of them. These should
be constructed without doors or OPEN
ings of any description. Then we
should have the unsuitable ship even
if three compartments were filled with
water.
mo merchant steamships have been
fitted with solid fore-and-aft bulkheads
for the last twenty years. or even the.
doors in them, except those in the side
bunkers of the Lusitania and Maure-
tania. The other ships have holes in
each compartment in the Longitude
nal bulkhead.
THE French ship, Admiral Gantea-
ume was an example, as she stood up
after being torpedoed, while $500 ref
ugees disembarked and was afterwards
towed into Bologne. The British cruis-
ers Cresy, Aboukir and dialogue start
ed TO turn turtle as soon as they were
hit with the same size torpedo as the
Admiral Ganteaume.
Mr., Cartnell added that the solid
Longitudinal bulkhead was menace
to safety at sea, and ships that had
them should be cut by an oxy-acetyl-
lene torch. Ships equipped with doors
should have them taken off and thrwn
away, he said.