TECHNOLOGICAL OFFENSIVE 



remain dry. Thus the ship can continue to cruise and 

 to fight.* 



But it is very difficult to maintain internal water- 

 tight integrity in older ships. In the first place, the 

 older ships have far fewer compartments. Secondly, 

 such ships have usually undergone considerable repair 

 and remodeling, which means new holes cut through 

 partitions for pipes, wiring, etc. It is almost impos- 

 sible to seal these holes perfectly. Tests can be made, 

 using compressed air, to see how tight any given com- 

 partment is, and the leaks can be found; but the job 

 is a very big one. 



Leaks between compartments would be especially 

 serious in the target ships at Bikini. A typical ship 

 might be left unmanned, with pumps shut off, for days 

 or weeks. Water pouring into a single compartment 

 might slowly spread throughout the ship and sink it. 

 This, of course, would give a very false impression as 

 to the effectiveness of the bomb ; even a skeleton crew 

 might have prevented the flooding. 



Admiral Solberg's job, therefore, was to test water- 

 tight integrity and to improve it so that the ships 

 would have normal survival power, even when one or 



* During the war there were several occasions when a ship not 

 only survived hut actually continued fighting after several holes 

 had been torn in her hull plating below the ivaterline; there were 

 even instances where ships were broken in halves, and yet one or 

 both halves were kept afloat. The so-called "unsinkability" of the 

 largest warships derives in fact more from effectiveness of com- 

 partmentation than from mere toughness of exterior. 



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