Watertight compartment

“ One compartment may be injured so as to fill with water, while the others, being uninjured, their buoyancy will still keep the ship afloat. An objection, however, to the use of compartments lies in the fact that, as they must be riveted to the sides, the rows of holes for the rivets necessarily weaken the strength of the sides, so that a ship with compartments, which touches on a rock or other obstacle, at one end, is more apt to break apart than one without compartments, as the sides, unsupported by the buoyancy of the water, have the less strength to support her weight in the length. ”

“ Water-tight compartments.—When ships of any class are divided into efficient water-tight compartments to the satisfaction of the board of trade, they shall only be required to carry additional boats, rafts and buoyant apparatus of one-half of the capacity required by these rules, but the exemption shall not extend to life jackets or similar approved articles of equal buoyancy suitable to be worn on the person. ”

“ In addition to this, G deck in the after peak was made a water-tight flat. The orlop deck between bulkheads which formed the top of the tunnel was also water-tight. The orlop deck in the forepeak tank was also a water-tight flat. The electric-machinery compartment was further protected by a structure some distance in from the ship's side, forming six separate water-tight compartments, which were used for the storage of fresh water. ”

“ It flows into the compartment at the top and the weight being exerted on one side of the supporting axle causes the wheel to revolve, the water spilling out when the compartment, or water pocket, reaches the bottom. ”

“ But the greatest improvement of all in the direction of safety is the system of bulkheads and double bottoms introduced by the builders of the City of New York and the City of Paris. For many years past it has been the custom to divide all steamers by transverse bulkheads into so-called water-tight compartments, the purpose of which is to increase their buoyancy and stability in case of collision. The Etruria, the Umbria, the Britannic, the Germanic, and the Arizona have nine compartments each. ”

“ The most important feature of the subdivision is the two lines of longitudinal bulkheads, which extend each side of the boiler-rooms and serve the double purpose of providing watertight bunker compartments and protecting the large boiler-room compartments from being flooded, in the event of damage to the outer skin of the ship. The main engine-room, containing the low-pressure turbines, is similarly protected against flooding. ”

“ Lawyer Gooch would say, “are constructed for safety, with separate, water-tight compartments in their bottoms. If one compartment springs a leak it fills with water; but the good ship goes on unhurt. Were it not for the separating bulkheads one leak would sink the vessel. Now it often happens that while I am occupied with clients, other clients with conflicting interests call. With the assistance of Archibald—an office boy with a future—I cause the dangerous influx to be diverted into separate compartments, while I sound with my legal plummet the depth of each. ”

“ That space was divided by a fore-and-aft bulk-head, making two water-tight compartments.
'The mode of filling the compartments was by stop-cocks in the sides of the vessel opening into the water-tight compartment; the draught of water could be increased from her natural draught of water, say to feet to 18 feet, according to the quantity of water let into the tanks. The more of operating was by running the vessel up and down over the bar, and thus stirring up the mud with the propeller screws. ”

“ The team recommended that no new main deck class B compartment designs be approved to the existing class B criteria and that main deck cargo compartments provide a level of safety equal to class C compartments or that cargo be carried in fire resistant containers meeting class C requirements including smoke detection and fire suppression capability. ”

“ The container for a sanitary privy may be small—for example, a galvanized-iron pail or garbage can, to be removed from time to time by hand; it may be large, as a barrel or a metal tank mounted for moving; or it may be a stationary underground metal tank or masonry vault. The essential requirement in the receptacle is permanent water-tightness to prevent pollution of soils and wells. Wooden pails or boxes, which warp and leak, should not be used. Where a vault is used it should be shallow to facilitate emptying and cleaning. ”

“ The safety line represents the depth to which a ship will sink when any two adjoining compartments are opened to the sea and therefore flooded. If the two forward compartments are flooded, for instance, the bow may sink with safety, until the water is only three one-hundredths of the depth of the ship, at the side, from the bulkhead deck. If two central compartments are flooded, the ship is supposed to settle with safety until the bulkhead deck at that point is only three one-hundredths of the depth of the side, at that place, above the water. ”

“ A dry dock difiers from an ordinary dock only in the fact that it is smaller, and provided with machinery for pumping out the water in order that the vessel may be repaired. All injuries suffered by the hulls of vessels below the water line, by collision or stranding, must necessarily be repaired in a dry dock, to prevent the inflow of water, but it has never been supposed, and it is believed the proposition is now for the first time made, that such repairs were made on land. ”

“ If, as is too often the case, this deck is not watertight—that is to say, if it is pierced by hatch openings, stair or ladder-ways, ventilator shafts, etc., which are not provided with watertight casings or hatch covers, the water will flow aft along the deck, and find its way through these openings into successive compartments, gradually destroying the reserve buoyancy of the ship until she goes down. ”

“ The bottoms require to be made water-tight, either by a thin layer of concrete or by a pavement upon a puddle layer. For the sides either masonry walls or embankments are used, the former saving space, but being in general more expensive in construction. Embankments must, of course, be substantially paved near the [Pg 12] water-line to withstand the action of ice, and must not be injured by rapid fluctuations in the water-levels in the filters.
Failure to make the bottoms water-tight has perhaps caused more annoyance than any other single point. ”

“ This, of course, measures their reserve of buoyancy in the surface condition, which in different examples of boats varies from as little as 5% to as much as 60% of their surface displacement. It is obvious that, the more water ballast carried, the less of some other weight of machinery or equipment can be carried on a given submerged displacement, and the whole problem resolves itself into making the compromise which will best meet the requirements of the service for which the boat is intended. ”

“ Three orifices are made into the elongated lock, which are arranged in such a way that the vessels are divided, and do not knock against each other while in the lock. In emptying the lock, the upper sluice is let down and the lower sluice is drawn, the water entering the culvert through the orifices and discharging at the lower end. In working the sluices, a man only requires to turn the handle and it raises itself, while with three turns in the other direction it is lowered. The locks on this system are 215 feet long, 22 feet wide, and have 9 feet of water on the sills. ”

“ CHAPTER XIII. THE DISCHARGE OF SEA OUTFALL SEWERS. The head which governs the discharge of a sea outfall pipe is measured from the surface of the sewage in the tank, sewer, or reservoir at the head of the outfall to the level of the sea. As the sewage is run off the level of its surface is lowered, and at the same time the level of the sea is constantly varying as the tide rises and falls, so that the head is a variable factor, and consequently the rate of discharge varies. A curve of discharge may be plotted from calculations according to these varying conditions, but it is not necessary ”

“ The lift system thereby differing from the lock system also requires the attention of skilled men, entailing extra expense. Whilst it may be said that locks are wasteful of water, and that this waste must be made up by pumping, there is this advantage over a mechanical arrangement, that in times of large rainfall no cost is incurred in supply. ”

“ Rule 12 of the life-saving appliances rules of 1902, which deals with water-tight compartments and boat accommodation, ought to be abolished. The provision of such compartments is of supreme importance, but it is clear that it should not be sought at the expense of a decrease in boat accommodation. When naval architects have devised practical means for rendering ships unsinkable, the question of boat accommodation may have to be reconsidered, but until that time arrives boat accommodation should, where practicable, be carried for all on board. ”

“ Independently of the security attained by the perfect division of the ship into really water-tight compartments of a sufficient number, so that the entire filling of one or even two of them will not endanger the buoyancy of the whole, the chances of any such damage as can cause the filling of one of them are greatly diminished by the mode adopted in the construction of the ship’s bottom. ”

“ Floating docks themselves are in occasional need of repair, and when it was found that they could be constructed of a greater size than any then existing dry dock, it being customary to dry dock them for repair, the necessity arose of devising a means whereby the repairs could be made without taking the floating dock out of the water. Sometimes a dock can be tilted endways or sideways as occasion requires, for a portion of its under-water surface to be exposed, but there is obviously a limit to this operation and to the effectiveness with which work under these conditions can be carried out. ”

“ The banks of the stream, if not hard, can be protected by sandbags, stones, staking or fascining.
The chief cause of failures of attempts to close flowing streams is neglect to provide a proper floor or mattress. The stones or other materials may be of insufficient weight or not closely laid, or the extent of the floor may be insufficient. In a soft channel and deep water loose stones in almost any quantity may fail unless a mattress of fascines is laid under them. Another cause of failure is running short of materials, such as sandbags. ”

“ Tanks for drinking-water are objectionable; if indispensable, they must never be lined with lead, galvanized iron, or zinc. They should be constructed of iron, or wood lined with tinned and planished copper. The overflow should discharge upon the roof, or be trapped and discharge into an open sink, never into any soil or waste pipe or water-closet trap, nor into the drain or sewer.
45. Rain-water leaders must never be used as soil, waste, or vent pipes; nor shall any soil, waste, or vent pipe be used as a leader.
46. When within the house, the leader must be of cast-iron, with leaded joints ”

“ A puddle-trench is sunk 26 feet below the natural surface to the rock. After the reservoir was full, a leak appeared at one end of the dam caused by an unsound rock. While the reservoir was full a shaft was sunk 80 feet deep to the point, and the rock removed and replaced with puddle. This reservoir is 46 feet deep, and has a capacity of 1,083 million gallons, with a water surface of 692 feet above the sea. The water is conducted 13 miles, through a flume partly of 30-inch wrought-iron pipe, to Lagunda Honda Reservoir, 377 feet above the sea, with a capacity of 33 million gallons. ”

“ In any case in which the provision of a proper mattress has been omitted, or when the mattress has been destroyed, or when a breach has occurred in an embankment, whenever, in short, it is evident that the gap cannot be closed until some other escape for the water is provided, it may be possible to provide such an escape by cutting partly through the dam or embankment on the downstream side at another place, and thoroughly protecting the place and extending the protection downstream and away from the dam or embankment. ”

“ It is not desirable to fasten the chain to any part of the outfall instead of using a sinker, because at low water the slack of the chain may become entangled, which by preventing the buoy from rising with the tide, will lead to damage; but a special pile may be driven for the purpose of securing the buoy, at such a distance from the outlet that the chain will not foul it. ”

“ By placing the latter back to back, 12 can be developed at a time. Sheet rubber is fitted between the cover and the body of the tank, and the cover, upon being screwed down, makes a water-tight compartment of the box. The asphaltum paint used is not affected by the developer, and preserves the wood. Fixing and developing may both be done in the one tank, but it is preferable to use the tank for developing only.
Assembly Views, Showing the General Construction and Detail of the Cover
The two sides are plain pieces, 1⁄2 by 4 by 41⁄2 in. ”

“ In the tropics the washdown is a pleasure, and also a necessity, as it alone keeps the decks tight and the ship sanitary.
A "water spar" would be rigged over the side to leeward at a point in the waist abreast of the main hatch. A clump block and a single whip with a canvas water bucket, the rim weighted with a ring of lead, was used to haul aboard the water which was dumped into a deck barrel. Coir brooms, wooden buckets, and much slopping about in bare feet would usher in the day, no part of the deck being neglected. ”