Bomb damage can accumulate through repeated hits and ignite a carrier's flammable upper spaces, while a torpedo opens the underwater hull directly to flooding. Many other impact positions on Indomitable would have caused only a fraction of the damage produced beside the boiler room. The vulnerability remained in an improved Illustrious design because machinery layout, protection, and available technology imposed compromises. Indomitable retained substantial reserve buoyancy and trapped air, leaving uncertainty about whether she would have sunk without immediate counter-flooding. The danger depended on how quickly water could migrate through the funnel system into other boiler rooms and extinguish the remaining boilers.
Notable Point · 3:20:04-3:23:22
Indomitable's survival depended on where the torpedo struck
A hit beside a large machinery space caused exceptional flooding, although reserve buoyancy left uncertainty about Indomitable's immediate risk of sinking.