Page:Walker - An Unsinkable Titanic (1912).djvu/189

AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC and the Mauretania 26 knots for the whole run across the Atlantic.

The purpose of the present chapter is to show how successfully the methods of underwater protection employed in naval ships may be applied to passenger ships of the first class; and the Mauretania is given first consideration, for the reason that she is the best example afloat to-day of a merchant ship fully protected against sinking by collision. The protective elements may be summed up as consisting of multiple subdivision, associated with a complete inner skin and a watertight steel deck, answering to the heavy protective deck at the water-line of the warship. By reference to the hold plan on page 129 it will be noticed that she is subdivided by 22 transverse bulkheads, 12 of which extend entirely across the ship and 10 from the side inboard to the longitudinal bulkheads. The space devoted to the turbine engines is subdivided by two lines of longitudinal bulkheading, and the compartment aft of the engine-room spaces is divided by a longitudinal bulkhead placed upon the axis of the ship. Altogether there are 34 separate watertight compartments below the water-line. The most [ 169 ]