How do sunken ships like the titanic not get crushed under the pressure?

Question

I assume the metal and materials the boats are made of are strong but surely not to withstand the pressure of being 12,000 feet underwater? At the end of the day it’s not like the engineers had to consider holding up to that much pressure in their design right?

In: 495

Answer 1

They don’t have to hold up to because they’re full of water, thus there’s no pressure differential acting upon them. This is different from a submarine which has to maintain a specific air pressure inside the passenger compartment whilst being at depths with extreme outside pressure acting on the submarine. If the pressures are equalised then there’s no pressure exerted on the ship because it’s being pushed equally by all sides.