Ship sinking times: A post-war analysis

[Captain Nemo]

I am currently reading a book called "Survivors - British Merchant Seamen in the Second World War". In one of the chapters it mentions the following:

"A post-war analysis of the time taken to sink, from all causes, by a sample of 296 ships where survivors had given clear information on this point found that 69.6 per cent sank in the first quarter of an hour after being hit, 9.5 per cent in the second quarter of an hour, and a further 9.8 per cent before an hour had elapsed. Only 11.1 per cent remained afloat for more than an hour. A different study of 110 British ships sunk by torpedoes from submarines between 1940 and 1943 found 47.7 per cent sank in the first quarter of an hour, 12.6 per cent in the second quarter of an hour, and a further 11.7 per cent before an hour had elapsed. Some 27.9 per cent remained afloat for more than an hour, of which one or two did not sink for several days. Where ships stayed afloat for several hours, the final plunge might occur very rapidly indeed if it were brought about by a second torpedo or the collapse of a vital internal bulkhead".

It does go on to say that these figures might not be entirely accurate because of the stress the seamen were under when abandoning ship etc. However, I thought I'd post them because there has been several debates on this forum with regard to sinking times of ships in SH3.

Nemo