It’s my understanding that Titanic victims died or were disabled within minutes. The movie accurately shows the cries and groans of the victims fading very quickly. Maybe the water was colder than 31ºF or maybe they were cold and wet when they went in.
That must be in the O’Brian books - there’s nothing remotely like that in Forester’s Hornblower series. Forester only depicts sailors swimming when they have to perform some Naval duty – reconnaissance or a cutting-out expedition.
That seems rather long. According to the Mayo Clinic, at 31ºF, one would have less than 15 minutes.
If you are smimming in open water then there is a boat nearby (how you got there) with people on it who are interested in your well being. Assuming you don’t suddenly sink like a stone, this may well be safer than swimming alone near shore…in case of cramp, jellyfish, etc. In addition, rip tides are due to sand forming a partial dam and trapping water near shore, when they break, the sudden outflow can overwhelm a weak, or uneducated swimmers endurance…this can’t happen in open water, and the boat will drift in whatever current the swimmer is contending with.
As previously noted, though, it is boring, but a good way to cool off and stretch your legs, etc.
I remember seeing an aerial photo one time of people swimming on the beach. The photo also outlined all the sharks that were present too.
I’m pretty sure most of those people would shit their pants if they had any idea how close they were to sharks.
That movie has such a stupid premise that I started a new thread for it. 
[Paranoid rant]There is NOTHING safe about ANY part of the ocean! Have you seen what kind of things live in there? Have you?? Jezuz! It’s not safe to dip your big toe into that seething pool of death! Just the fact that sharks live in it ought to be enough deterrent. But noooo! Every year someone becomes shark bait. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. There’s a reason we crawled out of there millions of years ago. A damn good reason. [/paranoid rant]
SHAKES, I would love to see that photo if you think its online.
Seconded. I’d love to see a photo like that.
FWIW I spent around 15 years at sea in various parts of the world and the only shark I ever saw was in the Baltimore National Aquarium.
I never had a problem jumping in if the ship was stopped and the water was warm. I will however second the dull and exhausting comments.
Beer makes us do the strangest things huh?
This has already been pretty much answered, but I’ll throw this in:
In the 1968 classic I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew, it starts with a guy in the middle of now where saying “You might be wondering how I came to be stranded 600 miles from land.” The he follows it up with "Well, actually, I’m only four miles from land–but it’s straight down!.
I was a Navy flier many moons ago and I was thoroughly trained in deep water survival. Fortunately, I never had to use that training to save my life, but know people who did. There is no universal to this question, anymore than there is a universal answer to “Is is safe to hike in a forest?” What forest? What time of year?
There are some priorities to think about, though. There are more critical priorities than sharks, though. The bigger threats are:
-
Drowning. Even an good swimmer with flotation gear can drown in a high sea state and a high sea state can devlop quickly in the open ocean. Sea states tend to get higher, and be more volatile, the farther you are from land.
-
Separation: It is amazingly easy to get separated from safety in deep water. A single sea swell can put you out of site of your boat and with no points of reference, it is easy to get turned around. That is jsut one reason why ship wreck survivors are told to stay together.
-
Exposure: Even people who have spent a lot of time in salt water sometimes are caught up short by how quickly you can develop severe hypothermia (even in “comfortable” water) sun stroke, dehydration, etc. in the open ocean.
-
Critters: There are lot of critters out there, but they don’t cause most of the deaths in deep water. Sharks get all the press, but the one that I remember the most is sea snakes. There aren’t that many deaths due them each year, but they are scary because you can’t see 'em coming, they can bite through a wetsuit and they are some of the most poisonous snakes in the world. You get bit by one, especially swimming, you are dead in minutes, period.
If you know how deal with 1-3 above, you can be relatively safe swiming in deep water. #4 is a wild card and really depends on what part of the world you are in, what time of year and luck.
I once went tandem para-sailing with my now wife in Destin, FL. As soon as we got up in the air, you could see these really big fish swimming all over. Some of them had to be sharks. This para-sailing company was apparently aware of that fact and, midway through the fun and over the open ocean, they faked boat problems and let us descend screaming into the water before they gunned the boat and jerked us straight up in the air again. That was memorable.
Last year in Madisson two men students went out on a boat. The ladder had not been lowered and the boat when found seemed to indidcate a swim had been in order. The may have found one of the bodies this year, or I may be thinking of the other missing student that disapeared in the winter, and was found this summer. He likely went through the ice and I believe he was a foreigner.
The point is people die because they don’t put down the ladder before going into the water.
Doesn’t anyone else remember this? I’ve been Googling the hell out of it, and I found the names of the people who saved her (she lived), but I haven’t been able to find her name or anything else really.
It was an NOAA ship, not a cruise ship, and they were either going to or coming back from Easter Island.
I remember it. I was flying the C-27 out of Howard AFB, Panama at the time and was working “Current Operations”. We planned, scheduled and executed all airlift missions originating out of Howard. We got the call that afternoon that a woman had been attacked by a shark and needed immediate evac. The folks on the NOAA ship had already figured out that Easter Island was the nearest land with any infrastructure at all and were already headed there. We scrambled a C-130 that was on alert and sent quite a few Air Force and Navy nurses and doctors (along with a ton of equipment) along with it. It was a long flight (about 6 hours I think) but the airplane got to Easter Island not too long after the ship did. The docs stabilized the victim and flew her back to Panama. It was the middle of the night before they got back but I remember my beeper going off (remember those?) with the message that she was alive.
About two weeks ago I saw an account of this on TV and I thought “Hey! I launched the airplane that flew you back to the hospital!” Glad she survived, obviously.
Those baby C-130’s are so cool…
Holy cow! No one EVER knows what a C-27 is… thanks for noticing!
Time to show off my one photo of the Mighty Chuck-27 that got approved at Airliners.net: C-27 in Colombia
Don’t forget stingrays…