titanic blueprints Lessons From History Series

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Titanic Blueprints

Titanic was built up of 9 horizontal decks that comprised of Deck's A through G, and the Orlop and Tanktop Decks.

A principal safety system of Titanic was the use of watertight bulkheads, were 15 bulkhead walls divided the ship into 16 compartments. However, in reality because of compromises in the design these compartments were not fully sealed as they were not continued the full height of the ship to Deck C. In fact, some finished as low as 10 feet above the water line (only going as far as E-Deck).

"The watertightness of bulkheads extended up to one or the other of the decks D or E; the bulkhead A extended to C, but was only watertight to D deck. Bulkheads A and B...further extended watertight up to the underside of D deck."
Source: taken from the official British Board of Trade report on the disaster

The First Class Dining Room on D deck was 114 foot long and spanned the full width of the ship. Seating 532 passengers at once, it was the largest dining room ever seen on a ship. It was also major factor to why the bulkheads ended at D deck.

This design flaw proved to be catastrophic as water spilled from compartment to compartment, like water being poured into an ice cube tray from one end.

Titanic could stay afloat with any two of its compartments flooded, eleven of fourteen possible combinations of three compartments flooding or the first/last four compartments flooded; any more and the ship would sink.

Blueprints

The following Blueprints tell an important story and provide insights to why Titanic's maiden voyage ended in catastrophe.

Deck A

Titanic blueprint Deck A