J. Dilley, a fireman on the Titanic (survivor) - “From the day we sailed, the Titanic was on fire. My sole duty, along with 11 other men, had been to fight the fire. The fire started in bunker number 6. The coal on the top was wet as all of it should have been, but the bottom had been permitted to get dry”.
“The dry coal at the bottom took fire and smoldered for days. The wet coal at the top kept the flames from coming through.”
“No, sir, we didn’t get that fire out. It was right under bunker number 6 that the iceberg tore the biggest hole in the Titanic”.
From “Sinking of the Titanic”, Official Edition, 1912, Russell
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And it is still smoldering after all these years.