RMS Titanic - Construction - Hull
Source: ANATOMY OF THE TITANIC - Tom McCluskie
Titanic was constructed using the traditional shipbuilding method of keel, frame and shell plating built up on riveted sections. The centre keel girder, or spine, for Titanic was a hollow box section 5ft 3in deep, mounted on a flat keelplate 1½in thick. Resting on this keelplate was the keelbar itself, a solid bar of 3in thick steel, which provided the basic hull strength member. Projecting outwards from each side of the keelbar were the tank-top floor plates ready for the first longitudinal strength girders extending fore and aft along the bottom of the hull.
Titanic had four of these longitudinal girders on each side between the centre hull casing and the margin plate; however, under the machinery compartment additional girders were incorporated to provide greater hull strength. Between the margin plate and the turn of the bilge were located the wing or side tanks, which together with the double-bottom tank carried the water ballast for the vessel. The whole of the double-bottom was built up in this manner and riveted together using hydraulic power.
The whole of the bottom tank structure of Titanic was used for carrying water ballast. To facilitate the free flow of ballast water, the floor plates between the girders were provided with lightening holes, producing a honeycomb effect. At intervals along the double-bottom the floor plates were of solid construction to form the boundaries of the seperate ballast tanks.
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