# Soylent Green Raft? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140 "2005-10-13T23:37:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YPOD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e99b99/32.png) [@YPOD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YPOD)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140/1 "2005-10-13T23:37:49Z")
The other day I was watching Rome. Our two heroes escaped from the island by building a raft mostly from the corpses of their fellow legionairies. Could such a raft really work? If so, for how long? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140/2 "2005-10-14T03:49:57Z")
As long as the corpses were properly inflated by plutonic aether it’d work ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140/3 "2005-10-14T04:12:41Z")
How long had they been dead? Once decomposition has set in, a corpse will start to bloat from gases produced by decay such as CO2, methane, and hydrogen sulphide, which will enable it to float. This may take anywhere from several days to several weeks. I am not sure if the corpses would float high enough in the water to keep a rafter out of the water himself. The raft would no longer work once decomposition had proceeded far enough so that the gases begin to leak out and/or the bodies began to fall apart. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Gene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@Soylent\_Gene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Gene)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140/4 "2005-10-14T05:12:50Z")
what a senseless waste of edible corpses. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140/5 "2005-10-14T15:26:42Z")
Alan Moore used the same idea in Tales Of The Black Freighter, an invented comic book within the comic miniseries Watchmen. Avoiding spoilers, a man finds himself the only survivor of a shipwreck. He’s on a tiny island without food or water. When the corpses of his shipmates wash up, he buries them in a mass grave. When he finds that the trees on the island aren’t bouyant enough to make a raft, he digs up the bodies (which he notes are bloated with decomposition) and attaches them to the underside of the raft. He knows that his home town is only a few days sail and believes the raft will last that long. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140/6 "2005-10-14T15:48:34Z")
I can tell you for certain that the yacht club I belong to would frown upon such behaviour. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140/7 "2005-10-14T18:25:42Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > When he finds that the trees on the island aren’t bouyant enough to make a raft [hijack] Not bouyant enough to make a raft? What kind of wood doesn’t float? [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140/8 "2005-10-14T18:50:39Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > [hijack] > Not bouyant enough to make a raft? What kind of wood doesn’t float? > [/hijack] There are lots of trees with wood so dense it will not float in water, in particular various species known as “ironwood.” [Here](http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/Black_ironwood/blaciron.htm) is one example. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140/9 "2005-10-14T18:55:05Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > [hijack] > Not bouyant enough to make a raft? What kind of wood doesn’t float? > [/hijack] It floated, but only barely. I’d always assumed that various types of wood had different bouyancies (on preview **Colibri** backs me up). The sailor didn’t have the time, tools, or enough wood to make anything other than an open raft. The amount of wood available was no bouyant enough to lift his weight. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140/10 "2005-10-14T21:43:48Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > [hijack] > Not bouyant enough to make a raft? What kind of wood doesn’t float? > [/hijack] Natalie Wood ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-green-raft/326140/11 "2005-10-15T03:07:21Z")
Thank you. I was hoping that one wouldn’t hang for more than 24 hours.