Twenty-sixth Index Card

http://www.lostliners.com/Titanic/construction.html

• Olympic and Titanic had a classic triple-deck superstructure, the uppermost decks comprising the Boat, Promenade and Bridge decks.
• Although standard shipbuilding practices allowed for the use of lighter materials to be used in this design to avoid making the ship top heavy and susceptible to rolling in heavy seas as well as making the ships lighter and therefor faster, the builders again noted that speed was not the consideration and that the ships were perfectly square amidships and therefor extremely stable.
• The superstructure was constructed according to the same specifications as the outer hull and internal structure so as to provide the highest level of structural rigidity.
• An additional design feature was the incorporation of expansion joints above the Bridge deck that completely severed the superstructure.
• As large and complex as the ships were, provisions had to be made for the structure to flex.
• Without the expansion joints, the ship would snap like a twig. The joints were literally hinges, composed of leather, steel and iron riveted to the deck plates. They allowed for as much as two feet of hull deflection from the horizontal plane.
• The expansion joints were designed to counter the stresses placed on the hull when the ship hogged or sagged.
• Hogging is when the hull is supported in the middle by a large wave, leaving the bow and stern unsupported. Gravity then pulls those areas of the ship down, causing the vessel to take on a banana shape.
• Sagging is the opposite; a ship is supported at the bow and stern by waves, leaving the middle of the hull unsupported. The ship’s midsection then sags down into the trough of the wave.
• Today, in lieu of expansion joints, special steels and internal bracing compensate for this flexing on large vessels.
• The two White Star sisters were constructed by over 15,000 men who worked long hours hammering the ships into being.
• They were skilled craftsmen who took great pride in their work.
• They were accustomed to working on a tight schedule and work proceeded at a lightning pace.
• According to legend, it was during the plating of Titanic that she claimed her first victim. A worker was accidentally sealed inside the lining of the hull when he crawled between the layers of the double bottom to check the internal riveting.
• As horrifying as it sounds, this was not uncommon for the period, given the pace at which new ships were constructed. Unfortunately, once the plates had been riveted, there was no way to rescue the man.
• The cost of removing the rivets and the damage to the hull and frame work in doing so made for a hopeless situation.
• His screams were inaudible through the heavy plates, the banging of his hammer was the only indication that he was still alive.
• That soon faded and stopped altogether as he ran out of air. Accidents and mishaps aside, construction proceeded at breakneck speed. Nothing was allowed to impede the progress of construction. Too much was at stake.
• The Cunard Line’s new ships were dominating the North Atlantic and White Star needed to get it’s new liners into service as soon as possible.