Page:Walker - An Unsinkable Titanic (1912).djvu/131

AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC the Titanic on page 129, it will be noted that the only bulkhead which was carried up to the shelter deck was the first, or collision bulkhead. The second bulkhead extended to the saloon deck, and on the after side of this and immediately against it was a spiral stairway for the accommodation of the crew, which led from their quarters down to the floor of the ship. Here the stairway terminated in a fireman's passage, which led aft through the third and fourth bulkheads, and gave access through a watertight door to the foremost boiler-room. The seven bulkheads, from No. 3 to No. 9, extended only to the upper deck, which, at load draft, was only about 10 feet above the water-line. Bulkhead No. 10 was carried up one deck higher to the saloon deck, as were also bulkheads 11, 12, 13, and 14. Bulkhead No. 15 terminated at the upper deck.

Now, it will be asked: what was the factor in the calculations which determined the height of these bulkheads? The answer is to be found in the Board of Trade stipulations, to which reference was made in Chapter IV, page 62. These stipulations establish an imaginary safety line, below which a ship may not sink without danger [ 109 ]