Page 41 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

lower part which forms the after boundary of the forepeak is tested because it forms part of the forepeak tank, and the double bottomed tanks are tested, but not the peak transverse bulkheads above the inner bottom. 20613. Is the bulkhead at the afterend of the ship tested at all? - Only in the “Olympic” collision to which I have referred; they were tested because the aftermost hold was flooded. 20614. Yes, but that is not what I mean at all. Was the aftermost bulkhead of the “Titanic” ever tested by water being let in? - Into the afterpeak, yes. 20615. You do it in the forepeak and do not do it in the afterpeak? - Yes. 20616. Why do you do that? - Because those are tanks in which water is frequently carried and which are connected with the pumps which can apply a considerable pressure head to them. 20617. Then it is done merely for the purpose of seeing whether they are fit to carry water that is required in the ship? - That may be required in the ship without endangering the ship. The Commissioner: You will excuse me, Mr. Edwards, it was only that I wanted to exhaust the subject. 20618. (Mr. Edwards - To the Witness.) What I will call the resistibility of the watertight bulkhead will not only depend upon the height, it will also depend upon its thickness; it will also depend upon what I think you technically call stiffeners, and it will also depend upon what I may call the construction? - The putting together of the stiffeners and the plating. 20619. Yes, and not merely that, but also upon the form of construction immediately abaft the watertight bulkheads; that is to say, if I may use a simple illustration, if it is simply a bulkhead and no deck abaft it, it will want to be a good deal stronger in itself than if there are a series of decks running straight up against it? - And supporting it at different points? 20620. Yes? - Quite right. 20621. Then if you do not apply the water pressure test how do you arrive at your standard of resistibility? - There are two well known standards in this country, one of them furnished by Lloyd’s Rules, and the other furnished by the Bulkhead Committee of 1891; and one is guided, in the first instance, in arranging bulkheads and the stiffeners and plating connected with them by those rules. 20622. Then it is not by any scientific estimate of your own? - That is how it was first arrived at. One does check it by making a calculation of one’s own. In the case of these very large ships one does not take anything for granted that can be checked. 20623. What were the heights of the bulkheads in the “Titanic”? - They were carried up to D deck after; after D deck forward. 20624. Will you tell me the height of the bulkheads forward? - I can give it to you approximately by scaling from the plan. Which will you have? 20625. Give me the bulkhead immediately in front of Boiler Section 6. The Commissioner: I am asked to ask you, Mr. Edwards, and I want to ask you myself, what is the object of this examination? - There is no evidence that any of these bulkheads gave way. Mr. Edwards: I think there is. If your Lordship will remember, in the evidence of Barrett he was asked about leaving Boiler Section 5, and he said he left when there was a rush of water, and your Lordship put it to him. It is at question 2060. “Something that had been holding the water back gave way,” to which the witness answered “That is my idea, my Lord.” The Commissioner: Is it based upon that and nothing else. Mr. Edwards: Not entirely. What I am leading up to is this: I have already put certain questions - that in the case of the construction of this ship there was no independent survey. There was no check of the construction by anybody other than by the builder. The Commissioner: That I understood. You made that point some time ago, and you suggested, as I understood, at one point in the case that these bulkheads were not as strong as they would have been if they had complied with Lloyd’s requirements.