UNSINKABLE SHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 298, 13 June 1912, Page 4

UNSINKABLE SHIPS.

To the Editor. Sir,—With reference to the late unparalleled fatality to the "Titanic" liner, it might be mentioned that Sir I. JL Brussel'g ship, the "Great Eastern," waa, I think, party vetoed for passenger traffic as being so big. necessitating the risking of too many lives at once. Yet, it ever a ship approximated to the unBinkable it was the "Great Eastern," she being a double ship throughout. That is to say, she had one complete hull built within the exterior one, and separated from the outer hull by a given space, connected therewith bv bolts and stays. If then the ship had been ripped the interior hull, uninjured, might have kept the vessel afloat. The possibilities of longitudinal watertight compartments might be entertained dividing the ship lengthways into, say, three divisions, the middle section being the widest. Cross or transverse bulkheads might also be added. In the event of a ripping catastrophe, all the water shipped might be contained in that portion of the fore and aft of the ship division to which the leak or injury was opposite, thus causing perhaps a* considerable list while by no means sinking the ship. The air pipes said to be introduced into the forthcoming "Gigantic liner might not be of much more service than a series of gas pipes or perhaps at sea ft sufficiency of boats is scarcely so much to be considered as whether the ship itself is taut and seaworthy.—l am, et0 -' C.W.W.