Grease would help, but I wouldn’t consider my efforts done at that point by any means.
Well, what else is available on a cruise ship in the 1910s? Not a lot of (preferably foam) rubber products to utilize, I’d imagine.
To each his own.
After the titanic hit the iceberg, the crew did as good as could be expected considering the situation.
It hit the iceberg in the middle of the night and the collision was not anything noticeable (Even the experienced crew barely noticed it) and many passengers would have slept through it.
It took about 30 - 45 minutes before the captain and the crew were aware that they were definitely going to sink and only when the second officer (Lightoller, who had been in a shipwreck before, strongly suggested it)
The first few boats were not filled to capacity but at the time, they could not find any additional passengers to fill the boats and as they only had a limited crew to launch these boats, it was not possible to hold them back for more passengers. There was also the thought that the boats could come back for more passengers.
Even though they were launching the boats as fast as they could (and got all 20 regular boats off), they were still trying to get the last 2 collapsible boats uncovered when the ship finally sank
Only one lifeboat,(Officer Lowe’s boat) came back to look for stragglers in the water and he only did this after unloading most of his passengers onto other boats and I think he got 6 passengers from the water onto his boat. His was also the only boat that managed to get its sail up as well.
The passengers in the other boats reported the water being really cold (28 F) and even though they were mostly women in the boats, they rowed these lifeboats as well as the guys but they were too scared to go back to recover other passengers in the water as it was taking everything they had physically just to row the boats.
One can not understand just how cold 28 F water is unless they experience it. One has to get out of the water to avoid hypothermia rather quickly.
Interestingly enough, one person that officer Lowe encountered in the water he though to be dead and was going to leave him behind but he then got a burst of energy (or woke up) and was among the of the best of the rowers in Lowe’s boat.
The cook was a big burly guy and he was not in the water that long before he came up upon one of the collapsible lifeboats that was not loaded but floated off when the ship sunk.
A lot of this (and more) is covered in
This is the baker’s biography. Interesting reading for an example of a crew member.
5th Officer Lowe’s biography
He was Asian, probably Japanese or Chinese; I don’t think they ever established which, since he couldn’t speak English. He commenced rowing immediately after he warmed up by doing some traditional exercises, and Lowe later admitted he was ashamed for having made some racist remarks about him.
Excellent points.
However, I will add that the crew was doing everything they could just to get the lifeboats launched which required 10 men to manually lower them and except for Lowe and Moody, none of the crew had ever deployed these lifeboats on this ship.
Also, the survivors in the water did go for the most obvious and largest pieces of debris, namely the 2 collapsible lifeboats that were not launched in time.
It only takes 15 seconds to point at 5 random people and tell them to form teams and start working to build floatable craft on the bow and stern decks.
Cooking fat is a terrible insulator and buoyant - it is much too dense (close to water’s density).
In the dark in the middle of the night, with no power tools (and limited hand tools), with the relief valves going off making communication difficult, with a mixture of languages spoken and in 0 degree weather
Then these have to be lowered 80 ft unless waiting until the ship is level with the water and then the timing has to be perfect
Easy for a keyboard warrior to speculate, a lot harder in reality:D
I can grow my own fat at home.
Not only is it cheaper and better, it’s both buoyant and insulating.
No, you would have to keep them on the deck, wait for the ship to sink, and hope that they stayed afloat.
In the last minutes, once people realized the ship was indeed sinking, all sorts of things were being tossed overboard—anything that would float. They had to break the windows that enclosed the First Class promenade to start chucking deck chairs, mattresses, steamer trunks, and so on into the ocean.
Also, the lights stayed on until the ship broke in two—the wiring was then sundered, and the generators tore loose from their mountings and fell forward through the bow. Until then, *Titanic *was brightly lit, inside and out.
The ship’s whistles were blowing continuously, though—both to vent off steam, and to act as a distress signal. Must have made it hard to hear the orchestra playing.
You want a bunch of people who have never ridden one before motoring around in the dark? At sea? They’ll all be running into each other, and floating people. And some hot dogger will be looking for wakes to jump.
Plus the fact they wouldn’t be available for 60 years.
Surely two people cuddling together would last longer before succumbing to hypothermia than one alone? If they could stay out of the water, of course, the extra weight may be too much, even if there was space.
Probably not, they dont exactly suddenly enhance the insulation or slow the heat loss in 28 degree water, they just freeze to death together.
If they had a dry sleeping bag maybe
I totally agree! Caution: Not for deep thinkers! Scary thing is I think they do more damage than good. Supposedly, they “proved” a lit cigarette and/or a running engine will not start a fire while pumping gasoline. As such, I see more and more people doing this at the pump. Truth is there is a higher and lower flammability limit, I believe it is called. The fumes of an organic will ignite if the air-fuel mixture is right. I don;t know what crap Mythbusters demonstrated. I wish I would have seen their concrete, air-tight “proof”…ha!
Sorry it took me awhile to circle back to this post, folks! Always good to read your thoughts!
I can believe it. A large wool overcoat might act like an impromptu wet suit. Wet suits don’t keep you dry (hence the name). What they do is trap a layer of water between you and the suit. The water is warmed by your body, and acts as an insulator. A woolen coat could easily do the same thing. If the soaking fur closest to your body warms up, it might protect you somewhat.
As for the whiskey - it won’t help keep you alive, but it might make the cold more bearable. (:
The big problem is that when people are dumped into freezing water, they very rapidly lose the ability to think clearly, and they quickly lose muscle strength and feeling. Panic often sets in fast. Once you are dumped in that kind of water, you aren’t going to be calmly swimming around collecting flotsam. You’ll be hyperventilating and shaking and your brain will be yammering at you until you finally just succumb.