Why would cork make a ship "virtually unsinkable"?
what does "virtually unsinkable" mean here? RMS Titanic proved that all ships are sinkable.
how does "640 cubic feet (18 m3) of cork lining her holds" make her virtually unsinkable [emphasis mine]?
1 answer
The point is that cork by itself has positive bouyancy. With enough cork inside the hull, keeping the ship afloat no longer depends on keeping water out of the hull.
The Titanic was not "virtually unsinkable" in this context. The components of the ship were denser than water. The ship required large sections of the interior to be filled with air. Once water got in, that was no longer the case, and the ship sank. If the Titanic had been filled with cork instead of air, then it would not have sunk as long as the pieces stayed together and continued to contain the cork.
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