406 Air-tight Subdivisions in Ships 



The other ships, especially the American ones, were so 

 deficient in power that they were unable to make any front to 

 the storm at all. Even with her great power the "Calliope" 

 was only able to attain an effective speed of half a knot per 

 hour in the teeth of the storm. All praise is due to the men 

 who were able to make such good use of this very meagre 

 margin as to save a costly ship and many valuable lives for the 

 further service of their country. 



The Samoan disaster has thus, in a dramatic and even 

 tragic way, shown the uses of steam power in saving a vessel 

 by propelling her against a storm. Reflections on the loss of 

 the "Sultan" lead us to ask if steam power cannot be made 

 more useful in succouring and saving a ship after she has 

 struck a rock, or in any other way received such damage to 

 her hull as to render her loss by foundering imminent. 



According to convention an engine is working at the rate 

 of one horse power when it is lifting a weight of one ton against 

 gravity at a velocity of 14-74 feet per minute. If, then, a 

 ship is fitted with engines indicating one horse power per ton 

 of displacement, these engines would, if their whole power 

 could be usefully applied and directed against gravity, be able 

 to keep the ship afloat so long as she did not sink at a greater 

 rate than 14-74 feet per minute. The "Vanguard" took 72 

 minutes to sink. The practical question comes to be, How can 

 the ship's power, of engines or men, be best applied so that the 

 greatest proportion of it may be made available for keeping 

 her from sinking? 



Hitherto it has been usual to fit all ships with suction 

 pumps, capable of being worked, some by steam and some by 

 hand power. To use such pumps with effect it is necessary 

 that they be worked at such a rate as to throw overboard 

 more water than can enter the ship in a given interval 

 of time. The lower they bring the water in the hold of the 

 damaged ship, the greater is the facility offered for the water 

 to enter, and the harder becomes the work of lifting it. If the 

 damage to the ship's hull is in any way serious, dealing in this 

 way with its effect is almost always hopeless, unless it is possible 

 to get at the leak and reduce its dimensions or close it altogether. 



