Popular Science Monthly 



65 



torpedo will not sink her. A torpedo ex- 

 ploding against the hull of the ship and 

 crushing one or two of these compartments 

 does not sink the ship because of the re- 

 latively small size of the few compartments 

 punctured, compared with the remaining 

 dozen or more that are left intact. 



The reason that one torpedo is not 

 liable to break 

 open more 

 than two or 

 three of these 

 tanks is that 

 a torpedo is 

 in no sense an 



If the proposed freighter should 

 be struck in a vital spot she 

 would still keep afloat, the inside 

 of the tank acting as a new hull 



armor-pierc- 

 i ng shell 

 which passes 

 through the 

 boat from one 

 side to the 

 other or ex- 

 plodes inside, 

 blowing 

 everyth ing 

 apart. On 

 striking a vessel's side it explodes and does 

 its work by the rapid expansion and con- 

 cussion of the gases of its charge. 



The majority of the new boats will be 

 of steel and not of wood as first planned, 



WATER TI&HT CENTER 

 LINE BULKHEAD 



and illustrated and described in the June 

 issue of the Popular Science Monthly. 

 They will be of steel because there is still 

 some skepticism as to the practicability of 

 the 3000- or 5000-ton wood vessel, because 

 such a ship has never been built before. 

 Questions have arisen as to the racking 

 stresses and strains which would be set up 

 in a ship by 

 the use of un- 

 seasoned 

 wood and as 

 to our ability 

 to raise a suf- 

 ficient army 

 of shipbuild- 

 ers to carry 

 on the work. 

 All of these 

 argu ments 

 and the facts 

 that wood 

 ships would 

 probably 

 have shorter 

 lives than 

 steel ones and be at a disadvantage in com- 

 peting with the steel ships of other nations 

 after the war, seem to have killed the 

 wooden fleet proposition. Besides, there 

 is no longer a shortage of steel. 



The old type of oil tank sinks 

 at the stern if struck in the 

 engine or boiler compartments 

 — its only vulnerable spots 



the ship. In the broken-away portion of the drawing the bulkheads dividing the space into 

 compartments to reduce the crushing effects of the torpedo's explosion are very clearly shown 



