Ship floodability

Floodability is a characteristic of the construction of a ship to resist flooding.

Floodability is achieved by dividing the volume of the hull into watertight compartments with decks and bulkheads (which also increase the strength of ships), use of double bottom, and by other means.

Watertight bulkhead compartments were written of by the Song Dynasty Chinese author Zhu Yu, in his book "Pingzhou Table Talks" of 1119 AD (written from 1111 to 1117 AD).

Alexei Krylov and Stepan Makarov worked extensively on ship floodability in the early 20th century.