Читать книгу Deeper into the Darkness онлайн

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At this point, as I looked up the port side of the armour belt, the shell plating of the bottom of the ship, which had been largely intact all the way from the stern to this point, abruptly stopped at the bottom of the armour belt. I began to fin upwards, moving towards the original bottom of the armour belt.

As I reached the top (originally the bottom) of the armour belt, in the amazing 50-metre visibility, I was greeted by a panorama of the innards of the ship. The complete bottom of the hull from the armour belt on this side, to the armour belt on the other was missing – from about Frame No 38 all the way forward to the bow. Moving from aft forward, the largely intact keel plating of the bottom of the hull just stopped at Frame No 38 and was gone all the way up to the bow. It was as though the keel of the ship had been sliced across and the bottom of the ship completely removed all the way to the bow, visible far in the distance. All 37 hull frames – all the stringers that connected the frames, the double bottoms and shell plating – everything was gone.