Fifty Years' Decline in Safety Construction
Of the strength of the Titanic and the general high character of her construction there can be no doubt whatever. Not only was she built to the requirements of the Board of Trade and the insurance companies, but, as we have noted, she was constructed by the leading shipbuilding company of the world, under conditions which would inspire them to put into the world's greatest steamship the very best that the long experience and ample facilities of the yard could produce.
The principal dimensions of the Titanic, as furnished by her owners, were as follows:
PARTICULARS OF THE TITANIC
| Ft. | Ins. | |
| Length over all | 882 | 9 |
| Length between perpendiculars | 850 | 0 |
| Breadth extreme | 92 | 6 |
| Depth moulded to shelter deck | 64 | 3 |
| Depth moulded to bridge deck | 73 | 3 |
| Total height from keel to navigating bridge | 104 | 0 |
| Load draft | 34 | 6 |
| Gross tonnage | 45,000 | |
| Displacement in tons | 60,000 | |
| Indicated horsepower of reciprocating engines | 38,000 | |
| Shaft horsepower of turbine engine | 22,000 | |
In this connection the following table, giving the dimensions of the most notable steamships, from the Great Eastern of 1858 to the Imperator of 1913, will be of interest. How rapidly the weight (displacement) increases with the length of these large ships, is shown by the fact that, although in length the Titanic is only about 27 per cent. greater than the Great Eastern, in displacement she exceeds her by considerably over 100 per cent.
PARTICULARS OF NOTED TRANSATLANTIC LINERS
| NAME | Date | Length between Perpendi- culars | Beam | Plated Depth | Displace- ment | Horse- power | Speed |
| Feet | Feet Ins. | Feet Ins. | Tons | Knots | |||
| Great Eastern | 1858 | 680 | 83.0 | 58.0 | 27,000 | 7,650 | 14.0 |
| City of Paris | 1888 | 528 | 63.0 | 41.9 | 13,000 | 20,700 | 21.8 |
| Teutonic | 1890 | 565 | 57.6 | 42.2 | 12,000 | 19,500 | 21.0 |
| Campania | 1893 | 600 | 65.0 | 41.6 | 18,000 | 30,000 | 22.01 |
| St. Paul | 1895 | 536 | 63.0 | 42.0 | 16,000 | 18,000 | 21.08 |
| K. Wilhelm der Grosse | 1897 | 625 | 66.0 | 43.0 | 20,890 | 30,000 | 22.5 |
| Oceanic | 1899 | 685 | 68.5 | 49.0 | 28,500 | 27,000 | 20.7 |
| Deutschland | 1900 | 663 | 67.0 | 44.0 | 23,600 | 36,000 | 23.5 |
| Kaiser Wilhelm II | 1903 | 678 | 72.0 | 52.6 | 26,000 | 38,000 | 23.5 |
| Adriatic | 1907 | 709 | 75.6 | 56.9 | 40,800 | 16,000 | 17.0 |
| Mauretania | 1907 | 760 | 88.0 | 60.6 | 44,640 | 70,000 | 26.01 |
| La France | 1912 | 685 | 75.5 | 52.10 | 27,000 | 45,000 | 23.5 |
| Titanic | 1912 | 850 | 92.6 | 64.3 | 60,000 | 60,000 | 22.5 |
| Imperator | 1913 | 880 | 96.0 | 62.0 | 65,000 | 70,000 | 23.0 |
The general structure of the Titanic is shown by the midship section, page [83], and the side elevation, page [129]. For about 550 feet amidships she contained 8 steel decks, the boat deck, promenade deck, bridge deck, shelter deck, saloon deck, upper deck, middle deck, and lower deck. The highest steel deck that extended continuously throughout the full length of the ship was the shelter deck. For 550 feet amidships the sideplating of the ship was carried up one deck higher to the bridge deck. The moulded or plated depth of the ship to the shelter deck was 64 feet 3 inches and to the bridge deck 73 feet 3 inches. This great depth of over 73 feet, in conjunction with specially heavy steel decks on the bridge and shelter decks, and the doubling of the plating at the bilges, (where the bottom rounds up into the side,) conjoined with the deep and heavy double bottom, served to give the Titanic the necessary strength to resist the bending stresses to which her long hull was subjected, when steaming across the heavy seas of the Atlantic. The doubling of the plating on the bridge and shelter decks served the same purpose as the cellular steel construction which, as mentioned in the previous chapter, was adopted for the upper deck of the Great Eastern.