On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 00:45:45 GMT "NSM" wrote:

The edge connections would inevitably be weak points. Didn't Titanic pop
many of her joints when she hit the berg?

I'm not a ship expert, but when I visited the Queen ??? in Long Island
many years ago, I was impressed by the construction of the hull. The
plates were mayby 4-6" thick and not all that big: no dimension much
over 16'. The joints were overlapped with big rivet heads every few
inches. The scale of the joinery boggled my mind.

I'm sure the Titanic must have been similar, yet it sank. I guess you
can bend/break anything if you have virtually infinite forces to play
with.

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Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
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