The Mystery of the Titanic's First Watertight Compartment! 

This has been my hypothesis for years actually. I used to toy around in the game "Sinking Simulator" and the best way to recreate the sinking of the Titanic involve not flooding the first compartment as it would help keep the bow buoyant long enough

You’ll note how in the 1997 film, Andrews warns that five compartments were flooded, even though six were breached. A nice attention to detail.

I like how he uses survivor testimony to support his claims because there is a lot of evidence in those claims and that’s what I like about his videos

another BANGER be watchin this over bright side 110% of the time

I find it fascinating that, to this very day, we're still gathering new information on the most iconic shipwreck of all modern history. Bravo segment, Sam. 🏆

I had read about this quite some time ago (and actually won a point for the comment section in trivia one Sunday live stream for a question about this), and I'm glad to see Compartment One is getting the attention it deserves!

I noticed this happening in sinking simulator, whilst trying to sink the Titanic accurately I thought it was just a mistake in the ships image file, but now I know otherwise thanks Sam

The problem with the first compartment is that its so small volumetrically (short and comes to a point at the prow) that it doesn't make much difference whether its flooded or not. The issue was the larger compartments like the 3rd hold and BR6. That's what it came down to in the end, if BR6 was intact the ship would either not have sank at all or sank much more slowly, we are talking about mere seconds, maybe even less than a second of contact with the iceberg making the difference between the ship sinking or not.

I'm no engineer , but I'd imagine compartment 1 or that general area of the ship would be the strongest part given its shape and general strength.

Amazing to think that compartment one staying buoyant perhaps helped the entire ship stay buoyant long enough to launch the vast majority of life boats thus saving many lives.

I came into this video thinking “hey, that can’t be right, I read some testimony from a crewman who heard a hissing sound near the front of the ship which would indicate flooding in that area” and what do you know, that same testimony is actually why the video *is* right 😂

Another great video Sam! Big fan of your work

there is never a bad video from historic travels keep making great video sam

I love your videos Sam, keep up the amazing Titanic content and I heard that they're going down to retrieve the marconi system from the Titanic wreck next year, I'm excited that they're finally doing it.

Awesome Video Sam hope you're well my awesome friend . love all your video Buddy .

Fantastic work again Sam!

I started reading about Titanic back in 1968. Back in the when we read books we got in a library. Your presentation and knowledge is very good.

Excellent work as always, Sam!

Sam, thank you for all your Titanic videos! You're doing tons of research every time, and this is golden. I enjoy so much your serious approach and reveal of all the mysteries of the ship's sinking. I honestly hate wrong conclusions, which still for some reason are being promoted by documentaries and famous movies, and you channel is the best to find out the truth

What a very informative video; especially using the testimony to support the evidence. Great work there, Sam 🙂

Fascinating! Great evidence. Thanks for all the work you do, your content is always wonderful!

Thanks Sam for another great video!! Keep up your brilliant work!!!

I just love your channel! Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

I just love this channel! Ive followed your channel for years and it has matured so nicely.

At first I thought the first 5 water tight compartments were breached because of a huge gash then I heard the 6 compartments flooded and now I hear the small gashes were made instead

Titanic had sixteen "watertight" compartments. But they were not really watertight since they were open at the top above the waterline. The Battleship USS New Jersey is about the same size of the Titanic and it has well over 2000 watertight compartments and none of those were open anywhere.

Great video and very informative!!! Keep them coming!

Love your videos man! Keep them coming...

Well that is most interesting. This is why I enjoy your Titanic videos so much; because you find new and interesting things to discuss that are of interest and are well researched (unlike another channel we could name).

Great job Sam 👏🏽👍🏽 I have always wondered about the areas of the iceberg damage below the waterline of the hull. It makes complete sense that the damage in the compartment #1 wouldn't have flooded as fast like it did for in Boiler Room #6, crewman's passage, the mailroom and Cargo Hold of compartment #2 bc those steel plates were breached MUCH WORSE. Didn't the breached steel plates in Boiler Room #6 was about 45 ft long ?

Great video, Sam 🙂 I didn't know about this happening so i learnt something new! I love your channel ❤

I've always been fascinated with the sinking of Titanic and I was minus 67 years & 9 months old when she sank. Thanks for these videos, I am a long time subscriber.

Titanic wasn't badly made. She fought against nature and always did her best until the end.

Very good job. Great analysis and fascinating new news as to how the Titanic sunk.

Interesting, thank you. Never heard about this before.

THERE IS ALWAYS SO MUCH MORE TO LEARN about the TiTANIC!!!!!

Epic!

many thanks for another brilliant report Sam. Bravo Mate!

Excellent explanation and video! That would kind of explain the sudden lurch downward not long before she went under.

The ballast tanks on a passenger vessel are really from trim rather than stability. It's cargo vessels where they are important for stability, specifically when the ship is unloaded and would sit extremely high in the water. But of course when loaded these tanks are emptied as the cargo is providing the ballast, and emptying them allows more cargo.

Hi Sam. When I thought there was nothing more I could learn about Titanic, you do a brilliant video that teaches me something new, thank you. 😉🇬🇧🇺🇦

This exact question has always bothered me when I play sinking simulators, thanks for the great explanation

Thank you for your information

i could listen to sam talk about literally anything for hours

I love this channel!

Another winner Sam!

Nice short video. Didnt know anything about this. Thanks

I always wondered if the ship would have had the same fate had the damage been further back, in the middle of the ship. Anyway, wonderful video!

Interesting bit of Titanic trivia for you: it would take 3,144 credit cards laid end to end to equal the Titanic's length.

Nice!

Damn Sam! I remember you with like 11k subs or something crazy! Honestly! Your passion and investment / research has and will remain to pay off!! All love dude! Keep it up! :D

Thanks, LOVE your videos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a 7 year old ( it was when I first started getting really into studying Titanic) why all the illustrations back then showed the compartment flooding early on with the rest of the compartments when there had been no breach in the hull in that compartment. No one ever explained it back then, and said illustrations made it see like the compartment was not watertight or it seemed as if someone left a door open. Even today few people ever talk about it, and I think this is the first video I've ever seen to discuss this topic. I mean that compartment's rear bulkhead is also the collision bulkhead so it HAD to be watertight, or at least it had to be as watertight and as strong as possible to hold up to the ship smashing into various threats to the hulls of the Olympic Class. It had to at the very least slow any leaks enough that the crew could shore it up. The ship still had to sail to a safe harbor with its bow crushed in, and that would put A LOT of stress on any bulkhead. Ships of the US Navy were well known for the strength of their bulkheads during WWII. Countless times a heavily damaged USN ship could sail at speed or close to it with huge gaping holes in the hull while Japanese and German ships had to slow considerably as their bulkheads and any shoring up would fail if they travelled to quickly. Especially the Germans. I guess the USN wasn't too keen on having its ships travelling across the Pacific backwards... Well except for that one time! 🤣🤣🤣 The KMS Bismarck ( along with the Scharnhorst Class ) are a good example of this as the bulkheads and shoring up would fail over and over when the ship violently maneuvered trying to evade the torpedoes dropped by Ark Royal's Swordfish. USN and Royal Navy ships were able to, more often than not, travel at or near top speed as well as dodge incoming torpedoes. USS South Carolina is a good example of this when she was torpedoed. I'm still wondering why other nations designed such weak bulkheads when both the USN and RN could make their bulkheads so much stronger without adding too much weight if any excess weight at all. I mean the German ships had their sterns falling off if the enemy so much as looked at said sterns.

Fascinating!

Great intro video. Not too long and good animation.

I adore the way you pronounce the word “dry” 😌🎖️🥉

another AweSAM video :D

Yes very good video.

Most awesome vid!!!!!!!

When the live chat stopped working, it was sad days for everyone

Sam is back again with a banger video

But does this mean that relatively small breach of the sixth compartment was actually the reason the ship couldn't stay afloat?

That was such a cute opening animation

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽great video

Hi Sam, can you making Lusitania story about Ian Holbourn & Avis Dolphin

Something I've never understood is how they said the compartments were water tight. Now, I'm not expert on the subject but I can't see how something can be considered water tight and NOT have a roof/ceiling to keep the water from spilling over. I've also wondered how long Titanic would've lasted if the compartments were truly water tight and none of it spilled over to the other compartments.

Thanks for the information on the sinking. Would love to here your input of what was said in the hearing that Titanic was stable with her pumps and the additional pumps added, but when the captain tried to shorten the distance between her and RMS Carpathia water came over the water tight compartment and flooded the pump room which then doomed her.

The hissing noise is a pretty much definitive proof of this

Wow! So interesting! I heard bout the hissing sound in the first compartment. But didn’t realize it was the forpic tank that was flooded. So yes, 5 compartments flooded, not six.

Great content, and objective evidence to back up the details. My question, was the rear deck of the Titanic called the "Poop Deck," and if so, why was it called that awkward name?

Amazing .

Fascinating that there’s still so much I haven’t learnt

I'm so amazed by the Titanics design, pretty much the perfect ship, for it's time at time at least. Though you can never 100% account for everything. Even if she sank she was an incredible ship.

Your videos are so good and you're sharing so many interesting facts about Titanic which I didn't know before! better than some "Facts about ..." RU-vid channels e.g. Bright Side And I've got a question which I'm curious about: Did the survivors hear the Titanic hit the ocean floor or was the implosion of the stern section the only thing that they heard?

"He said thank you and headed back up to the boat deck." Little did he know at this point the rest of the ship would go down behind him very soon...

I never new that

ok now you got me wondering if draining or shifting the balance tanks, could have saved the ship or gave the ship a longer time afloat, do to the damage being raised out of the water and air being put in the tanks

bro doesnt need an oscar bro needs 1 million subscribers

This highlights something I've been trying to point out for years - which is that everything we know about the technical side of the sinking from movies did NOT come from Thomas Andrews. It came from Edward Wilding, one of Harland & Wolff's naval architects. Wilding did a sterling job of explaining things in the hearing afterwards, but was still working with incomplete data: Hemming gave his evidence literally only the afternoon before Wilding was first called, so wilding had no time at all to rework his calculations based on this new evidence. This led to the myth of the first 5 compartments filling up and overflowing into the next compartment, because with the data Wilding had, it was the best fit to explain what had happened that night. Closer re-examination showed that, basically, by 1:30, Titanic had stopped sinking. The peak wasn't full, and compartments 2 to 5 had filled as far as they could. Compartment 6 had only flooded in the forward coal bunker - and it wasn't until the coal bunker door gave way at 1:40 (and no, nothing to do with that fire which people like to rant about - the door was not designed to be a water-tight door) that flooding could continue. Depressingly, within 5 minutes of that moment, the ship sank the extra 18 to 24 inches required to overtop both of the bulkheads between compartments 1 & 2 AND compartments 5 & 6. Half an hour later the whole ship was gone. Incidentally, it was Wilding who gave us the immortal phrase "Mathematical certainty" relating to Titanic's sinking.

Loving the videos Sam can u do the Estonia?? Cud it of been saved would love to know but like I say it's upto you

Sam I’ve watched most of your videos and have greatly enjoyed your insights . But being an old Navy guy, it’s clear to me that the Titanic’s “ water tight compartments” weren’t actually water tight. At least not in the sense of modern Naval vessels. In my world, water tight compartment bulkheads terminate with the deck directly above them, and that deck requires a watertight hatch . Therefore, the term watertight compartments could not have made the ship “ unsinkable” in any sense of the term, and I’m sure the designers knew it.

The fore peak tank the same as the aft peak tank is a fresh water tank for the ships usage.

So, could the final flooding of the first compartment be responsible for the often reported “sudden lurch” the bow took after about an hour?

Sam is it possible that there were some places in the Titanic that were still watertight and held air when she finally went down and hit bottom.

There’s still rumours that the first compartment was double enforced and had it hit head on it would’ve been fine

Man. Imagine if the first couple water tight compartments had bulkheads that were truly sealed. Perhaps even just number 1 could have potentially saved the ship or bought enough time for Carpathia to get there.

Was there a "Scotland Road" designed into the Olympic or the Britannic?

Since there is a 5 hour time difference between London and New York, how did/do ships crossing the Atlantic deal with that? Do they slowly change their clocks during the crossing? I'm really asking because the Titanic struck the berg at 11:40PM and sank at 2:20AM, but was that Eastern time, GMT? or something in the middle?

I have a question, how did the spaces below the capstan gear compartment flood? The access panel I'm pretty sure was closed since there was no need for it to be open at all times.

Hi, can you do a video on the sewol ferry tragedy?

Oh! _That's_ why it's called the Tank Top!

I happened to notice your Revell RMS Titanic model box in the lower left of your video. My wife bought me that model probably 25 years ago and i haven’t assembled it yet. Is it built and on display in your videos?

Fun fact, how did the titanic split? When the titanic hit the iceberg, the hull splits open and continued cracking as the water floods the ship. The hull plates is what makes the titanic split when the ship hit the iceberg.

yo historic travels! Can u make a video if titanic was able to get towed to land while it was sinking?

Can you make a video about how accurate the Lego titanic is please

Would you please cover the Edmund Fitzgerald?

If they could have plugged the exhaust pipe, they might of prevented water from filling that tank. Maybe it would helped keep Titanic from dipping underneath the ocean?

Would closing the exhaust pipe have done any difference? keeping the tank from flooding? ang did they purge the remaining ballast tanks to gain more buoyancy?

This makes me wonder why the water tight compartments ended in a open manner instead of closed? The need to move people through open hatches which couldn’t be closed unlike a military vessel with watertight hatches?

Interesting! So subtracting A and E, only 4 watertight compartments were flooding rapidly!