Know anything about how the steel plates were riveted onto Titanic?

Every time I see a photo of the underside of Titanic, I ponder how they bent the plates to fit that area of the ship…and how they lined up all the holes for rivets…and how they ever got the fit so tight that the water was sealed out. Obviously it was possible, because Olympic (Titantic’s sister ship) sailed for 23 years and never had a problem. How on earth did they accomplish that? How do you get 1-inch thick steel to bend that perfectly?

The plates were plotted out by draftsmen on paper. These drawings were then scaled upward and drawn on a large floor in chalk. Flat plates would be cut to fit these outlines. Specially trained craftsmen would use huge oversized hydraulic presses to bend the plates at the right places. It took a lot of skill to do this right. The plates were kept from cracking by bending only a little at a time, relaxing it, bending a little more, relaxing… Holes for the rivets would be drilled along the edges at predetermined points. Then the finished plated would be lifted onto a truck and driven out to the ship.

Once there a large crane would lift the plate into position from above. Men would push the plate up against the side of the ship where holes already drilled into the frames would line up with those on the plate. It was all precision work – and done with slide rules, not computers! A red hot rivet – shaped a lot like a mushroom – would be placed through the holes from the inside until it poked through to the outside. Someone on the inside would lean an iron mallet against the inside of the rivet while men took turns hammering the outside into another mushroom shape. This action pulled the plate together. Once the rivet was flattened it cooled and contracted, pulling the plate together even more. The edges were then caulked. It was demanding, back breaking, precision work. My hat’s off to them!

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