core

But the other thing to take into account is, when you look at the Katahdin and the Polyphemus, they both have their boiler plants pretty much amidships or slightly forward of amidships, which means that, in the event of a heat-lance strike on the boiler room, not only is that gonna core through the ship right at the center of mass, which is obviously bad for its continued structural stability, but the boilers going up is gonna incinerate pretty much anybody on the bridge, which is gonna leave it completely out of control, and is probably gonna break the ship clean in half right there and then, none of which really speaks to the ship's being able to continue onwards with enough momentum to take down a Martian tripod.