If the ship was launched before the 70s it had double bottom tanks. I read the question. So a ship launched in the 30s would have double bottom tanks.
Apparently, it can happen with capsized battleships: the Oklahoma after Pearl Harbor.
Obviously, the Poisedon was not built this way.
I hate to defend a dumb movie, but given the basic premise, any nitpicks about the details are sillier than the movie itself.
There were hundreds of sailors rescued from capsized ships after Pearl Harbor.
It’s been a long long time since I read the book and saw the movie. But IIRC, in the book, once they make it out, they realize that a whole lot of passengers found an easier way out. I think after they escape they see a boatload or so of rescued passengers still in evening clothes with nary a hair out of place.
It’s been a long time and maybe I misremembered but it wouldn’t have been a “feel good” ending for the movie.
Next you are going to tell me that Beyond the Poseidon Adventure was not plausible.
Also, that Nigerian cook who survived a shipwreck 100 feet down for two days before being rescued. Quite the unpleasant experience, I am sure.
Grin!
Serious question from personal ignorance…but…were those ships floating, or sitting on the bottom? I had thought they were resting on the bottom and so unable to sink any further. (They ended cutting the superstructure away from the Arizona.)
The Wikipedia page for the Poseidon Adventure movie mentioned this in the plot description:
It’s been decades since I saw the movie, but the mention of a watertight door here implies that they shut that door behind them, which would prevent much of the trapped air from escaping when the rescuers cut an access hole in the hull.
Can someone who has seen the movie more recently confirm whether they shut this watertight door behind them?
HERE is an account of the rescue efforts. Regrettably, there were many fewer survivors than I had remembered.
Have you read through any of the threads about Where Eagles Dare?
I’m no naval architect, but it doesn’t make sense that “shaft alley” would have the thinnest steel in the hull. It would seem intuitive to me that it would be the thickest in that area to support the bearings, shaft and propellers.
But what the hell do I know? Gene Hackman won’t even return my calls.
There was a real life case of a disabled sub with a similar situation, the crew spent something like 12 or more hours using a hammer and some sort of chisel device making many holes in the sub hull to make a opening large enough to escape from (much like drilling many holes in your wall in a circular pattern then knocking out the middle because you can’t find your jig saw). The multiple holes didn’t seem to affect the buoyancy.
a) No, they did not shut the watertight door once they got into shaft alley. They probably couldn’t–why would you have a handle on the propellor side of the door? Just in case the ship turns over and possible survivors need to seal themselves in awaiting rescue?
b) In the novel, there was no shaft alley (at least not as in the film); the ship funneled down to the shaft just before it went outside to the propellor.
Here’s a link to a similar thread I started 2 years ago.
I’m more concerned with the missing 30 seconds of the original film. I asked Unca Cecil to look into it, no response so far. Cece, are you out there?
But that was the general and almost logical premise - the hull leading up to the propeller shafts was thinnest and not double-hulled, tanked, or whatever that would make it hard to get through, out, cut holes whatever.
Logically the shafts would be supported by some sort of structural members, this would be more solid and reliable than using the shape of the hull for supporting the bearings. (I.e. a beam descending from the ship structure).
It makes sense that the area around the propeller shaft would be minimal thickness - being in the trailing slipstream, past the widest and deepest part of the ship - if it hit anything solid enough to breach, that would have done major damage in the hull ahead of the propellers too.
However, in numerous cases of capsized ships (the ferry off South Korea comes to mind) the ship still sinks pretty fast.
One fine day I asked my materials science instructor in Nuke School if a sub could do a barrel roll–he was a sub officer. He didn’t even dignify my question with a detailed answer, simply stating that it would not be possible.
It was only months later when I was actually thinking things through when I realized all of the havoc that inverted orientation would cause in the power plant and for the sub in general. I had a face-palm moment as I understood the look of disgust on his face at my question.
In the weak story make believe Poisedon was build a unusal way, yes. There were so many dumb things in this movie. but the OP ask if it would be possible in the real world, and I say no.
And those ships were sitting on the bottom of the harbor, not floating.
Sorry I did not watch the whole movie I thought they were rescued from the engine room. If they were in the shaft alley near the stern tube then there would have been no double bottoms.
But on a multi shaft alley there would have been 4 entrances and only 2 with water tight doors. The shaft alleys would have been connected with a cross shaft. Each shaft would have a water tight door going into the engine rooms. And there would be an access shaft on each side with a door at the top of the shaft, no need to be water tight.