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watertight. A fact not fully realized by the public is 

 that the majority of warships — even warships which 

 have never seen battle — leak slightly. Particularly in 

 older ships, it is almost impossible to make all joints 

 perfectly tight. The slight continual in-fiow of water is 

 of no consequence ordinarily ; it is easily pumped out. 

 But in this Operation, where the ships might have to 

 remain for weeks without crews and without pumps 

 operating, such leaks might be very serious. There was 

 some danger that the captured Japanese ships 

 NAGATO and SAKAWA might actually sink from 

 this cause if they were left unattended for three or 

 four weeks. 



Admiral Solberg's group gave much attention also 

 to internal watertightness, a subject which may appear 

 to laymen to be of little importance, but was actually of 

 great importance. Ships expect to take punishment in 

 battles, but place reliance on internal watertightnc ss to 

 keep them afloat and mobile. Ships are, in fact, honey- 

 combs of separate compartments.* 



In battle, hatches between compartments are closed 

 securely. If a shell, bomb, or torpedo opens a hole be- 

 neath the waterline, water pours in; but if the ship's 

 watertight integrity is good, only the compartments 

 adjacent to the hole are flooded. Other compartments 



* Exact numbers of watertight compartments in modern ships 

 are kept secret. But it is no secret that for a modern U. S. battleship, 

 for example, the number of such compartments is nearer 1000 than 

 100. 



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