No. 4 boiler room.—One hour and 40 minutes after the collision water was coming in forward, in No. 4 boiler room, from underneath the floor in the forward part, in small quantities. The men remained in that stokehold till ordered on deck.
Nos. 3, 2, and 1 boiler rooms.—When the men left No. 4 some of them went through Nos. 3, 2, and 1 boiler rooms into the reciprocating engine room, and from there on deck. There was no water in the boiler rooms abaft No. 4 one hour 40 minutes after the collision (1.20 a. m.), and there was then none in the reciprocating and turbine engine rooms.
Electrical engine room and tunnels.—There was no damage to these compartments.
From the foregoing it follows that there was no damage abaft No. 4 boiler room.
All the water-tight doors aft of the main engine room were opened after the collision.
Half an hour after the collision the water-tight doors from the engine room to the stokehold were opened as far forward as they could be to No. 4 boiler room.
FINAL EFFECT OF THE DAMAGE.
The later stages of the sinking can not be stated with any precision, owing to a confusion of the times which was natural under the circumstances.
The forecastle deck was not under water at 1.35 a. m. Distress signals were fired until two hours after the collision (1.45 a. m.). At this time the fore deck was under water. The forecastle head was not then submerged though it was getting close down to the water, about half an hour before she disappeared (1.50 a. m.).
When the last boat, lowered from davits (D), left the ship, A deck was under water, and water came up the stairway under the boat deck almost immediately afterwards. After this the other port collapsible (B), which had been stowed on the officers' house, was uncovered, the lashings cut adrift, and she was swung round over the edge of the coamings of the deckhouse on to the boat deck.