Ship floodability

In such cases, damage control parties can intentionally flood the corresponding compartment on the other side, equalizing the list (although this can happen in ships without longitudinal bulkheads, as well).

Such techniques can work fore-and-aft as well; for example, if a flooded bow is holding the rudder and propellers out of the water.

Similarly, submersibles and submarines also produce negative buoyancy by allowing compartments (called "ballast tanks") to flood.

[2][3][4][5] Chinese shipbuilders made sailboats with bulkheads and watertight compartments as early as the second century AD.

[8][9] The wide application of Chinese watertight compartments soon spread across East Asia and later to the Europeans through contacts with Indian and Arab merchants.