RMS Titanic Alternative Theories - Closed Watertight Doors

Closed Watertight Doors

Another theory involves Titanic's watertight doors. This theory suggests that if these doors had been opened, the Titanic would have sunk on an even keel and therefore, perhaps, remained afloat long enough for rescue ships to arrive. But this theory is far from reality for two reasons: firstly, there were no watertight doors between any of the first four compartments, thus it was impossible to lower the concentration of water in the bow significantly. Secondly, Bedford and Hacket have shown by calculations that any significant amount of water aft of boiler room No.4 would have resulted in capsizing of the Titanic, which would have occurred about 30 minutes earlier than the actual time of sinking. Additionally, the lighting would have been lost about 70 minutes after the collision due to the flooding of the boiler rooms. Bedford and Hacket also analysed the hypothetical case that there were no bulkheads at all. Then, the vessel would have capsized about 70 minutes before the actual time of sinking and lighting would have been lost about 40 minutes after the collision.

Later, in a 1998 documentary titled Titanic: Secrets Revealed, the Discovery Channel ran model simulations which also rebut this theory. The simulations indicated that opening Titanic's watertight doors would have caused the ship to capsize earlier than she actually sank by more than one half hour, confirming the findings of Bedford and Hacket.