HYDROGRAPHY 161 



suspended at the various depths. Sir John Murray, writing 

 in 1913 {The Ocean, p. 96) in regard to this myth, said :— 



" Within the past year the writer has often been asked if 

 the ' Titanic ' really reached the bottom in a depth of three 

 miles. During the ' Challenger ' expedition, after a funeral 

 at sea, the bluejackets sent a deputation aft to ask if ' Bill ' 

 would go right to the bottom when committed to the deep 

 with a shot attached to his feet, or would he ' find his level ' 

 and there float about for evermore ? Another question was, 

 if ' Bill ' really did go to the bottom, what would he be like 

 on reaching bottom at four or five miles ? 



" A living rabbit was on one occasion sent down to over 

 500 fathoms on a line. The body came up very little altered 

 to all appearance, the bones were all intact, and the lungs 

 were the only viscera that seemed to be affected by the 

 pressure. Even at 3,000 fathoms a human body would be 

 little altered in outward appearance. 



*' The ' Titanic ' is probably now lying on the bottom in 

 a very little altered condition : only those parts of the struc- 

 ture would be burst inwards (' imploded ') into which water 

 could not enter rapidly enough to equalize the pressure on 

 the two sides, say, of an iron plate. As the vessel sank 

 deeper and deeper, the corks in all the wine and beer bottles 

 would be driven in if not quite fuU, and ultimately every 

 hermetically closed chamber or recess would be im- 

 ploded." 



One interesting effect of the pressure is that if deep-sea 

 animals are brought up too rapidly to the surface, they are 

 killed by the disorganization of their tissues, due to the release 

 from pressure, and if deep-sea fishes accidentally get out of 

 their accustomed depth, and pressure, the expansion of the 

 air in their swim-bladders renders them so buoyant that they 

 continue to tumble upwards to the surface, helpless, and 

 eventually killed by the distension of their bodies and the 

 disorganization of their tissues, due to the diminished pressure. 

 They die a violent death from falling upwards. 



M 



