Page 77 - British Inquiry into Loss of RMS Titanic Day 19 - 22

running to the stern. The Commissioner: It goes under the mail room, and under the stewards’ accommodation. 21081. (Mr. Raymond Asquith.) Yes, that is the line. (To the Witness.) There is also a double bottom to the ship? - Yes. 21082. Carried up to a height of 8 feet above the bottom of the ship? - That is so. The Commissioner: I think we have had that before. Mr. Raymond Asquith: Yes, my Lord, we have. (To the Witness.) Will you give us your view about the comparative merits of the systems of longitudinal and transverse divisions? 21083. (The Commissioner.) You have a combination of both in those ships? - For ships of this class, I think that the transverse and longitudinal combined is best for all purposes, for very large ships. 21084. (Mr. Raymond Asquith.) That combination is best? - Yes, that combination is best. 21085. Were you in Court when Mr. Wilding was asked his views about some of the difficulties of longitudinal divisions? - Yes, I was. 21086. Did you hear him mention, I think, two difficulties, one of them being that there might be a tendency, if the ship was wounded at the side, for water to get in and cause a list, because there would be a difficulty in the water getting out again? - Yes, I heard that. That can be counteracted. 21087. In what way? - Supposing that any two compartments were flooded on either side, the opposite side could be filled in several ways; also you could flood the engine room and the compartment immediately abaft it; also the shaft tunnel aft. 21088. (The Commissioner.) But that is rather heroic, is it not? - There would be less trouble in doing that latter part than any of the other parts. 21089. (Mr. Raymond Asquith.) Have you made any experiments to see how far that is practicable? - No, no experiments have been made. 21090. Another objection which Mr. Wilding mentioned was that there had to be watertight doors in the bunkers and that these doors had to be open, of course, continuously during the voyage? - That is so. 21091. Do you regard that as an objection, or as a serious objection? - It is an objection, but not a serious one. The doors are all closed by hydraulic pressure, or rather all the principal doors are closed by hydraulic pressure on the Stone-Lloyd principle. The pressure is applied at the door frame; that is, the cylinder operating the door is adjacent to the frame, so that any distortion of the bulkhead does not interfere with the operation of closing the door. 21092. Are you speaking now of the doors in the bunkers? - Yes, in the principal bunkers the doors are closed by the Stone-Lloyd system, and also all the doors in the transverse bulkheads and all the doors in the machinery spaces - that is, referring to the engine spaces. 21093. Another objection which was mentioned to having these doors in the bunkers was that the coal dust and so forth might get into them and prevent their working effectively? - Inside the bunker doors are iron screens, which prevent very much coal from falling down, but where the hydraulic doors are fitted the coal on many occasions has been allowed to come to the angle of rest from a full bunker and the door has closed down through the lot. It has never been known to fail. I was not putting to you that the coal might get in the way of the door and prevent it shutting, but that, owing to there being a lot of dust and grit about, the door might not work very easily. 21094-5. (The Commissioner.) It gets clogged? - The doors are constantly working, and we have never found any difficulty in closing the doors at any time. 21096. (Mr. Raymond Asquith.) You always find that they work quite easily? - Yes, quite easily. 21097. (The Commissioner.) How often do you close these doors? - This is, of course, a matter