Well, unfortunately and sometimes things like a nuke submarine runnning head-on into an underwater mountain at almost 40 MPH then makes it back to port on its own.....kinda gives them an indication as to how strong.
Somethings just can't be helped. Far preferable to entirely losing the ship and crew.
Same comment applies in the case of the U.S.S. Cole, I imagine. Modern U.S. combatant, large amount of explosive delivered directly against the hull, dozens killed or wounded, extensive damage to the ship, ship doesn't sink, recovered, repaired, returned to duty. All on video tape.
Recently, we sank one of our amphibious "big decks." in a series of attacks from various missiles and set charges. (I should note that these sinkings are an opportunity to gather empirical performance data to validate ship design, so not all of the attacks/explosions were intended to fatally wound the ship. But if it happens, it happens.) After two days, it remained afloat even though there was no crew aboard to do damage control. Finally sunk at the end of Day Two with pre-set demolition charges. Sunk in very deep water for obvious reasons. Video tape of her final moments is up on the Internet somewhere. (Can't take time find the link at the moment but I will post it to you later today when I do.)