Page:Walker - An Unsinkable Titanic (1912).djvu/203

AN UNSINKABLE TITANIC to their death in that unspeakable calamity will not have died in vain.

XII.In conclusion, let us note what changes would render such a ship as the Titanic unsinkable:

(a)The inner floor of the double bottom should be extended up the sides to a watertight connection with the middle deck. This inner skin should extend from bulkhead No. 1 at the bow to bulkhead No. 14, the second bulkhead from the stern.

(b)The lower deck should be made absolutely watertight from stem to stern, so as to form practically a second inner bottom; and it should be strengthened to withstand a water pressure equal to that to which the outer bottom of the ship is subjected at normal draft.

(c)All openings through this deck, such as those for hatches and ladders and for the boiler uptakes, should be enclosed by strong watertight casings, carried up to the shelter deck, and free from any doors or openings leading to the intervening decks,—the construction being such that the water, rising within these casings from the flooded spaces below [ 183 ]