Coal Fire on Titanic Sinks Ship No Way

Coal Fire on Titanic

There was a recent story floating around the Internet that a coal fire may have contributed to the sinking of the HMS Titanic.

opens in a new windowCLICK HERE to read one of the stories.

I'm a master plumber, albeit not a PhD metallurgist, and am here to tell you that if you try to unsolder a fitting from a copper pipe that's filled with water, you'll get nowhere fast.

The water sucks all the heat out of the copper never allowing it to get to the several-hundred-degree temperature needed to melt the solder.

So think now about the HMS Titanic. Put on your high school physics hat.

A large fire in the coal bunker would create all sorts of horrible smoke. Were there any historical mentions of this smoke?

If the fire was immediately next to the steel hull, the ship passing through icy water the entire journey would not have seen the steel temperature get very hot at all. The ship moving through the water provided constant cooling to the steel, quite unlike an acetylene torch aimed at a tiny copper pipe filled with a small amount of water.

In other words, the steel hull was being cooled constantly much like you see water flowing over a spinning wet-diamond cutting blade. I'll mention the water used to cool these blades is rarely at 34 F.

Whenever you read sensational stories about things like this, stop and use some common sense.