Titanic's Watertight Compartments 

In a nutshell, the "one" extra compartment flooded added so much weight to the foreship, that the top ends of the watertight bulkheads were below the outside water level. Interesting, and I didn't know it, that it was calculated/concluded AFTER the sinking that you could add one more compartment filled without the ship sinking. This would mean, to quote the movie scene, "four, but not five" should have been "three, but not four (or more)", given the knowldege DURING the sinking. But I think this would have confused the audience... Great content, keep it coming!

The coal bunker of boiler room 5 was taking on water, making it technically the sixth compartment damaged. Even so, Boiler room 6 and beyond were breached. Boiler room 5 breached or not, she was doomed. Had only four been breached, she would have taken on water, and would've been down in the water quite far, however, just that one extra compartment breached sealed her fate.

This is what Thomas Andrews had in his mind while telling Captain Smith how long Titanic had left.

I honestly love the lighting in your CGI background video, it looks like a deleted scene from the CG parts of James Cameron's movie

It's thanks to your channel I learned that the water tight doors had a fail safe mechanism. I been studying Titanic for 20+ years and never knew that.

It’s such a saddening thing that she had water gushing in so fast and after the FIRST 10 mins after striking the iceberg she had over 10,000+ gallons of water in those breached compartments. When Lead Fireman Fred Barrett evacuated from Boiler Room 6 to 5 he met with Chief Engineer Joseph Bell for the LAST TIME to tell him IF he makes it out alive to tell his wife and child he loved them so much. I watched that video on here about Barrett and Bell exchanging final words and it REALLY saddened my emotions. I’m reading right now about how Lookout Frederick Fleet lived after the sinking till he committed suicide in 1965 at the age of 77. Fleet REALLY blamed himself bc he felt responsible for the lives LOST that night. Third Class passenger Lillian Goodwin and her siblings and parents ALL perished that night. Jack Thayer lost his father that night and his mother died on the the anniversary of the sinking (I THINK 🤔) in 1945 .. He lost one of his sons during the Second World War in the Pacific against the Japanese too. The lives of the survivors I’m diving into since I’m practically a “Titanic addict “ it is a part of my life forever. Thanks to Titanic Animations for uploading this 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 #TitanicLivesMattered

Another great video! Although to many the idea of how many compartments Titanic could have breached before sinking with no way of stopping, I like how videos like these can take those questions and add so much more information to them! Thanks as always!

This is a very informative and good video. Also may I add that your Titanic renders look beautiful in the video.

I've always heard the phrase "spilling over" used to describe the water moving from one compartment to another. That always confused me. Like, its not just an empty hull divided into 16 empty compartments. There were rooms and ceilings and walls and floors. I know none of them were watertight like the compartments, but "spilling over" just doesn't sound like the right way to describe it. Anyone else? Or is it just me? I'm super curious as to how the water ACTUALLY moved. Like, did it flow down through the rooms starting at the first room at the top of the bulkhead?

That's an accurate forensic of the flooding process, straight and simple. Greetings.

Love these kind of videos ! Thank you (:

Nice to see an X-ray of what happened inside the ship. It deserves a propper 3D animation as well.

Those are some beautiful animations, really nice.

pretty cool and informative video, it deserves more views

This is THE best video explaining Titanics Bulkheads and how the water “spilled over” as a Titanic fan , this scenario always stumped me . I’ve always heard the water spilled over and that led me to believe that the bulkheads never fully connected to the deck head of E deck ( the floor of E Deck “ . So in my mind I pictured a gap between the bulkhead and deck head of E Deck and that’s how the water spilled over but with that diagram showing Bulkheads in a ship and the explanation of the science behind fluid dynamics and the characteristics of the sinking, I now understand better that water would’ve come into the compartments via stairwells , open escape hatches , air vents and possibly as some evidence suggests the bulkheads could have buckled causing water to seap between the joints of the bulkheads . Very informative video well done

Wow, super documentary (or whetever it can be called). Very informative. You really have a talent to do this, so as an observer who sees that it is less and less videos/materials on your channel, I’d like to encourage you to continue this way, improve and move forward. I see your potential same as Mike's Brady from oceanlinersdesign, before he got so recognizable.

It would have been fun to see the ship example in Sinking Simulator or something like that.

Basically, to someone that doesn't understand how watertight compartments work, I would say that water inside the ship always wants to even with to the level of water outside the ship. If you have for example only one compartment breached, levels of the water even out and at this point water no longer flows into the ship. When you have the situation like on Titanic, with many compartments breached, this point doesn't come until the ship is entirely submerged in water, the weight of the water inside pulls the ship down too much for water inside the compartments to even out with the level of the water outside. I think there is something worng with presentation shown, many times the water inside the ships bow is shown higher than the waterline of the ocean. Other than that, informative video.

Great video man

Thank you for this video! I think you should consider making a complimentary video explaining why the stern couldn't stay afloat after it broke off.

Great video! Very well explained

Great video! It'd be interesting if you could do an analysis of the flooding post break-up and how that changes from theory to theory. I for one, think that the flooding made the stern capsize while going under (like Cameron's 2012 simulation) but most people seem to think that the ship mainteined an even keel.

The Britannic was modified after the Titanic sinking so the bulkheads went up a couple more decks.

Thank you!

Such a good video!

Explained very well.

This is great for pepole that don:'t understand the watertight comparpments. Great content!

Why does it feel like every time I become interested in something everybody else does at the same time as me 😂😂

I've found it interesting that even before the bow went under the forward grand staircase had water at the bottom, and before the first funnel went down they indicate the first class dining was flooding. That seems like too much water too early. Esp. the 1st class dining, that is midships on deck D. That would be all the boiler rooms flooded at that point.

Keep making videos like this 👍🍿🍿❤️

I think their is a good chance that flooding a rear compartment (the farther aft the better) might have been able to save the ship, the leverage of a modest mass of water at the rear would have a big impact on the bow possibly enough to keep the water line below the key bulkheads. Remember the ship dosn't actually become heavier then water untill it's close to half full of water, the weight alone of one or more rear compartments full will not sink the ship and the aft most compartments have high bulkhead so if water is pumped in they can go above the outside water level and keep the ship level.

This video is actually helpful to be honest.

I get nothing could've stopped the inevitable but in one of the last lifeboats to be successfully launched First Class Emily Ryerson seemed to recall water washing into open cabin windows on C and B decks. Those openings (on the wreck the Straus cabin was found with an open port, there was at least one found open on D deck and then there's the open forward portside gangway door) would have allowed voluminous amounts of water inside. I wonder just how much time could've been added to stave off the ships demise if these other avenues were kept tightly sealed (perhaps there should've been an order/effort to close all portholes before going up top).

If the bulkheads had extended as high as B deck it is possible Titanic would have survived or at least lived long enough for help to arrive.

Best way to picture this’s is picture a room with four walls that go really high and there’s nothing but wall. No doors no windows it’s like a dam that keeps water in that room. These walls only went so high they go from the bottom of the ship and couple decks above the waterline I think they went as high as E deck. So if any of these watertight compartments got damaged the water would only be able to fill that area and ship would only sink up to the damaged area until the water inside the ship reaches the sea water. The ships mass and weight would keep the ship from flooding more. Kinda like a seesaw one persons weight makes the other go up or down but if you put two people on the seesaw with the same weight you can balance it out. If I stuck someone on that seesaw that was really heavy and someone on the other end that’s light we loose the balancing out act and the heavy guys going to drag you down. All boats have a weight limit like an elevator and that weight limit can easy be broken with thousand pounds of water that just keeps entering with no stopping.

So what happened in boiler room 5? Barret said that Shepard, Harvey and himself were working the pump in boilerroom 5. Shepard broke his leg and was carried to a pump room at the back of boiler room 5. 15 minutes later he said there was a violent rush of water as the bulkhead separating boiler rooms 5 and 6 gave way. Harvey order Barrett up top as the section was inundated and he never saw he or Shepherd again. This sugests to me that boilerroom 5 wasnt that damaged. Maybe knee deep. Which is not a lot. The pressure of all that water on the bulkhead must have split the plates open causeing all the water to pour in through the bulkhead. Not over it.

I finally understand this now

The explanation and animation are really very good and complete. It's partly what I've always wondered about. Do you think you can make a similar explanation in the case of the Britannic? as a ship supposedly improved than the Titanic sank with fewer compartments affected.

Titanic's main anchor weighed 15tons. Plus the chain weighed tons. And there were a number of anchors. I wonder if the crew had thrown all that overboard, plus other weights, if it could have stayed afloat or at least stayed afloat long enough for Carpathia to arrive ? ?

3:12 hold up, is that electric crane on the right floating?

I’m curious about something and this bit of my observation looking at some areas where the iceberg hit on titanic I always wonder how far apart with how far those plates been knocked loose after hitting the iceberg here’s a riddle The bigger the hole The bigger the flow of water right but combine that with the water pressure on the out side of her

they still should have installed horizontal bulkheads with hatches like the do navy destroyers, especially at the water line. they could have had an alarm system in the lower decks were stewards , able-bodied seamen and even fireman could have rushed out and sealed the tops of the bulkheads compartments after an orderly evacuation and a quick search to make sure nobody was left behind.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but why would increasing the height of the watertight compartments trap the people inside or prevent the cargo to be moved around? Aren't watertight doors introduced for the purpose of crossing the watertight compartments? Also, how would it decrease the number of compartments that could be flooded before sinking?

You said that raising the bulkheads to be higher wouldn't help, but they were raised on Olympic and Britannic so that they could survive a Titanic scenario, is that just modern day knowledge that they didn't have then?

Curious could watertight door have been made for staircases and hatches and other openings between decks??? Obviously in the boiler room area it wouldn’t be very effective but in the cargo hold area and perhaps the rear of the ship area it might.

What's to say if you let the water flow into the whole ship, just then my best guess based on this video, she would took longer to sink due to the fact she had no water to pull down the ship.

I dont really understand how with 4 compartments fully flooded it would have stayed afloat? As the example of first 2 starboard side compartments heights reach until "D deck" - saloon deck - , water would easily can find a way through that deck to inside the vessel by coming up with pressure from stairs and ladders.

good vid but wish it should more of the water and exactly where it moved and came in

so if the water tight doors were extended all the way up could it have stayed a float? Or would the bow still be pulled to far down letting in water through other areas?

I feel like this has always been lost on me. What are these water-tight doors and bulkheads and why didn't they save the ship, when they sound like they should have?

Thanks for the vid, appreciate it.

Desing flaw the water went over the top of the doors.they where not complete from top to bottom so water kept going over the top and into the

Dang. I always thought of it as a truly water tight compartment. Like, you close a couple doors and water won't be able to get out, no matter how much you fill it up. Kind of like a solid box with 1 (or multiple) doors which could be closed to seal in the water. Why don't they do that? You'd think it would be safer.

I always have wondered if it would be possible to prevent the sinking by introducing horizontal watertight bulkheads in addition to the vertical ones. Don't submarines have these? Of course they should be left open until the crew (in this case, the stokers) have left the flooding rooms by ladders leading upwards. Then close and seal the top bulkheads and this should give counter-pressure to the water invading the ship below the waterline so it cannot climb any further. Of course these bulkheads must be strong and stable enough to withstand the water pressure, but the water pressure is quite low at the surface of the ocean (not the huge pressure in 3800 meters of depth where Titanic's shipwreck lies).

But but but, V break!!! Magic buoyancy!

How can water spill over the tops of the bulkheads when there are decks covering the the bulkheads? Shouldn't it have flooded the decks but left the bulkheads like air pockets inside the ship?

How would other Oceanliners like Mauretania, Vaterland or Queen Mary react to such a damage?

Amaaazing video Philip :)

what about the floatplates? were they only one a certain amount of bulkheads?

the way he says "water" ...

A cool video if you were ever in the mood would be what if a modern day cruise-ship hit an iceberg of same size, speed etc. Now they’re so large they are likely airtight and sealed off and not used by crew etc. but not sure? Another interesting video would be how the stern of the Pendleton stayed up for so long on half a ship. Funny though how we do still have crazy issues with cruise ships even today. Like the one with the absolute moron of a captain that sunk not long ago. But that scenario was purely human error and not a mixture of design/human error. But as they say you can’t fix stupid. Honestly I’m still not sure why cruise ships even exist 😂 They cost so much they can only be built on piles of debt and it only takes about a decade for them to become “dated” and no longer enjoyable. Going on a cheap cruise is just about the worst experience you can have lol. Plus they can’t really be repurposed once they become dated. That’s why they just ship them to India and have them destroyed in the most inhumane and environmentally destructive process’s that I’ve ever seen.

YES

So I’ve been thinking about this a lot. And anytime you see an animation or picture showing the water filling the compartments or flooding into the next one it just shows the previous compartment completely full. Is that correct? Because there were still floors or decks in the compartments. So the water didn’t just rise freely. It had to travel up and down stairs and openings. And had to travel up and down floors to eventually fall and fill up the next. Correct? So theoretically there could have been a time when you could have been at or near the bottom of the ship. And the floor above you could have been flooded. Before enough water had had gotten access to where you were at. Right?

what would of happened if the crew threw he in full reverse? i know it would ultimately be a loosing battle regardless, but id think the power of her going backwards would counteract the force of the flooding and buy a little time. or am i completely wrong and the water ingress would be faster

I'm curious about something if you found yourself back in let's say 1903 and you had all the evidence to prove that you're from the future and what happens to Titanic and Britannic how would you convince Harland and Wolff and the British Board of Trade long with the American legal system for ships and how would you make Titanic Olympic and Britannic even safer what they were back then

Thank you i've always wondered why the watertight compartments weren't sealed on top and wondered if that might have prevented the sinking if they were

All I'm curious is you have 16 water tight compartments, but non of them have horizontal bulkhead? ( just like you have wall but no cilling) If they added "horizontal" bulkhead and water tight doors near the water line I think the situation will be quite different!

Why does it say Titanic Liverpool on the animation when it was built in Belfast?

Did the have any means of pumping out the water? I never hear about bilge pumps on the Titanic or any kind of power distributed from the boilers to any means of pumping?

But couldn't they somewhow weld shut those escape hatches above the watertight compartments? And to weld like a 2 x 2m steel plates over the staircase opening in the vicinity of the watertight compartments? Or was welding still too incipient for the times?

I have a question about watertight compartments....what if they had flooded like 3 rear compartments, or four...wouldn't the added weight in the rear keep the bow from going down any further?

why is the titanic tilted to port in this animation?

Watertight doors

that titanic model are free?

Dumb question but wouldn't it be already too late if 3 compartments flooded? Let's say the iceberg breached only 3 compartments. Wouldn't water just keep to go in and ultimately sink it?

You again missed the problem of the open portholes that and how they excallerated the sinking process.

when you’re the 420th like :)

I can't think of something to dumb to say relating to the topic so I'm just gonna say cool again

Total BS. This must be the British admiralty Freemason channel 😂😂😂the Olympic (Titanic) could survive with 7 or 8 compartments filled...what he doesn't say here is that watertight doors ran from the bridge down to the keel...the water was allowed to get to bunker 5s wall,which was hot from the 🔥 fire in it...the wall warped and gave way and 💥 boom!

didn't hear a single cap