Posted by Scott Andrews on September 24, 1999 at 15:50:27 in 192.11.221.98:
In Reply to: Re: Accumulating Room posted by Bruce Beveridge on September 24, 1999 at 05:19:16:
: I understand why you would trust the Engineering book but I have seen the length written from 882'9" on up. The length was not enlarged due to the inner skin, the ship was designed with the inner skin. It wasn't an add on. I do believe, though some may argue, that the ship had a wider beam because of the inner skin. If the ship were the beam of T & O, the outboard boilers would not fit inside (this was discussed before). The Olympic, upon getting an inside skin, had to have her out board boilers replaced with smaller diameter boilers. For the sake of argument, I will relook the plans over to see if they match with the O and T plans in length, However, I have found these plans to be pretty accurate to the lengths and widths and as I said, it measured out to 882'9".
: Bruce
James and Bruce,
I just recently acquired the "After Sections" drawing for the Brit. This drawing takes a detailed section at each and every frame from 108 aft to 148 aft, which is the stern post. The aft frame spacing and numbers are exactly the same as that on the Olympic and Titanic. From other drawings I have copies of for these ships, I discovered that the "zero" location of the framing was in exactly the same place on all three ships. If there were any increase in length, it had to occur by addition of frames forward of the center of the ship. Since my main concern in checking these drawings when I received them was to determine whether or not they could be taken as accurate templates for modeling purposes of the shape of the wing and center bossings (and, they can) , I studied the amidships and aft portion very carefully, but paid little attention to the areas forward. As a result, I can't say for sure, but I THINK that the number of frames forward on the Brit may have been a few greater than the O and T. I'll check this out when I get home this evening, but Bruce, I know you have a sufficient number of resources that you may be able to answer this question.
As for the Brit's increased width, it is a myth that this had anything to do with the inner skin. In their paper presented before the Royal Institute of Naval Architects, "The Sinking of the SS Titanic Investigated by Modern Techniques", Bedford and Hackett (both retired chief naval architects at H&W)touched on this subject and cleared up the confusion surrounding this. This increase in width was part of the original design of the ship, and was instigated by the results of calculations done for the Titanic to determine what effect the numerous alterations to her superstructure had on her stability, center of buoyancy, etc. The calculations predicted (and the inclined ship tests conducted on the Titanic in March, 1912 confirmed) that the ship's metacentric height had indeed been adversely affected as compared to that of the Olympic. Based on the results of these calculations and in view of the even greater changes anticipated to the Brit's accommodations above the shelter deck, it was decided to increase the breadth of the Brit by two feet, an amount sufficient to correct any resulting loss in righting arm. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise after the decision was made to add the inner skin since the double bottom had been completed by this time and a good deal of the framing was already fabricated. Also, it was still possible to use all of the standard size boilers, also being fabricated at that stage. Things were a little tight, though not as tight as on the Olympic where the outboard boilers ended up hard against the inner skin and where the center boiler of number 5 boiler room had to be replaced by one of smaller diameter to allow the outer two on either side to be moved inwards. Had the extra breadth been added directly as a result of the inner skin, it is likely that another foot or two may have been added. As it was, due to this inner skin, both ships lost approximately 500 tons of bunker space and a day's steaming range, a condition which was only remedied on the Olympic after her conversion to oil-firing and the inner skin spaces were used as tank space.
Regards,
Scott