Re: Olympic's Bulkheads

Tim,
It must have been that all her compartments were extended to E-Deck then. I was looking at the plans awhile ago and this seemed to be about as high as you could go before it would have required MAJOR modification. The Brittanic I'm pretty sure had compartments that went almost all the way up, and they would have saved her if she hadn't hit when she did. When she hit the mine, they were changing shifts in the engine and boiler rooms, and the watertight dorrs had been opened so the crews could move around easier. When the mine blew it is belived that most of the doors were knocked out of alignment, especially those up front, thus preventing them from closing. Also, due to the Mediterranean climate, most of the portholes were open. She was basically a big piece of Swiss cheese, but the only people who died were the ones that were in the lifeboats that were dragged into the whirlpool created by her propellers when they tried to beach the ship.
Taylor