# It's been bugging me for a month...\[question about sinking boats\]

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-bugging-me-for-a-month-question-about-sinking-boats/651601>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 28, 2013, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-bugging-me-for-a-month-question-about-sinking-boats/651601 "2013-02-28T04:44:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-bugging-me-for-a-month-question-about-sinking-boats/651601/21 "2013-03-07T19:06:56Z")

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> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> There seems to be a persistent belief that a sinking ship will somehow drag down lifeboats (nearby) with it. In the movie “Titanic”, a seaman commanding a lifeboat tells the people to row away from the ship, because he fears that the lifeboat will be pulled down.  
> Is this true? Are seamen told to move away from a sinking ship?

They tried this on Mythbusters and there was no sucking in their small-scale experiment.

[http://mythbustersresults.com/episode11](http://mythbustersresults.com/episode11)

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