What is the SD on the forces at work when a large vessel sinks, specifically with respect to dragging people down to the deeps by some sort of suction - if that is the right term.
Say I am standing on board the flight deck of the USS Nimitz. By ill-luck, the vessel is holed below the waterline by an enraged pod of warrior sperm whales and starts to sink rapidly. Once the water starts to lap at my shoes, could I break out the freestyle and swim away to safety?
According to an episode of Mythbusters, a ship sinking under you won’t suck you down so that you can’t escape.
Mythbusters ‘busted’ this. However they did not use an actual hundreds-of-feet-long ship.
According to this site:
Edit: Quote is a Titanic reference.
Let’s not cite Mythbusters for anything. They are a T.V. show, not a scientific outfit.
Fair enough?
Air bubbles escaping a large ship might displace enough water so that your body wouldn’t float in the bubble filled water and make it seem like you were being sucked down.
(And it seems like Mythbusters did test the bouyancy of aerated water, but I don’t want to muddy the waters)
I would expect that you should watch out for lines, equipment, etc, that might hit or snag you on it’s way down, though.
In In Harm’s Way, which is about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, several people did describe being taken down by the suction until their kapok life vests brought them back to the top.