294 SECTION MECHA NICS. 



There can be no doubt that ships built of iron arc more liable to fatal 

 damage by collision or grounding than those built of wood, unless they 

 are properly divided into compartments. If so divided they are safer 

 than those built of wood. I regret to say that with few exceptions iron 

 passenger steamers are getting to be worse instead of better cared for 

 in this respect. 



There is no law enforcing the existence of bulkheads, or regulating 

 the height to which they should be carried, or what doors there should 

 be in them, either in the regulations of the Board of Trade or in those 

 of the Surveyors to Lloyds, excepting that there must be one bulkhead 

 at each end of the ship in a steamship and at one end in a sailing ship. 

 A ship may be 500 feet long, and there may be over 400 feet of the 

 central ship practically in one compartment. 



In some ships the bulkheads are sufficiently numerous, but they do 

 not extend above the deck which is nearly level with the water when 

 the ship is laden, so that if one compartment fills, the ship sinks far 

 enough to bring the tops of all the bulkheads under the water, and then 

 the bulkheads are of no more value in keeping the ship afloat than if 

 they did not exist. 



In others the bulkheads are neither sufficiently numerous nor suf- 

 ficiently high out of water. 



In others, even where there are good bulkheads, there are doorways 

 cut in them which destroy their integrity and there are no water-tight 

 doors to close them. 



It may be supposed that the power of the pumps is so great, that 

 with even a large leak the water would not be allowed to rise up to the 

 top of a bulkhead dividing the compartments. But pump-power is a poor 

 resource. It is very difficult to provide, and very rare to find, pump- 

 power in even the finest ships sufficient to cope with a hole one square foot 

 (I might almost say half a square foot) in area ten feet under water. 



It is quite true that by great care in management such ships can be 

 worked for yeai" without losses of life, but the loss of a single large 

 ship with hundreds cf women and children on board is such a terrible 

 event, that the security afforded by compartments sufficient in number 

 and in height to provide against immediate sinking, if any one is filled, 

 ought to be sought for. That this arrangement is consistent with 

 commercial success is proved by the practice of some of the best 



