All the lifeboats have left-but you are determined to save yourself. You have a knife and some rope-can you build a raft that will keep you from getting wet (and freezing)?
Sppose you lashed some wooden deckchairs together-and stuffed some rugs on top-could you survive?
Would a 1st-Class mattress be a suitable float?
Would there be any way to make something that would keep you alive for 5-6 hours (till the rescue ships came)?
If you could stay dry. People who stayed dry were the ones that lasted.
I guess with time to think about it, but I believe the problem was that no one believed it would come to jumping into the water or falling into the water.
But there was enough stuff on board that someone who was convinced they’d be in the water in 30 mins would be able to get something together to keep them afloat.
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Turn ship around. Climb on Iceburg.
I’d think the main difficulty with a homemade raft would be launching it. Its quite a plunge from the deck to the water, and your flimsy tied togeather deck chairs probably wouldn’t survive the fall, and even if they did you’d still need a way to get yourself on it.
Of course, you could wait till the bow was low in the water, but my impression is that by that point the ship was sinking pretty quickly, so if you waited that long I think you’d have a trouble getting clear of the ship before it totally went under.
Have a really good answer for the 15 minute time travel thread!
Die.
Loot, then swim like hell towards a less-then-full lifeboat!
Rearrange the deck chairs.
I have actually thought about this before and the answer is the in film. Take off some doors. I figure 5 or 6 doors lashed together would make a pretty sturdy raft and would keep you out of the water. Launching it would still be an issue though and of course you would need a screw driver to get the doors off.
A rug most definitely will sink since it absorb water. Using wooden chairs table etc might sound good but don’t forget while you’re making the raft the ship is sinking sideway, that way… this way… What i would have probably done might be throwing a table off the ship and hope to find it later. But if i were on the titanic i would have just freak out
Dress in waterproof clothing if you have it. Wrap a set of warm dry clothes and a towel in an oilskin so they keep dry. Tie it in a bundle. Find a steamer trunk and take the lid off. Discard the lid. Find a guitar or something else that can be used as a paddle. Use the steamer trunk as a canoe and paddle to the iceberg. Once on the iceberg, turn the trunk over, change into dry clothes, and sit on it to await rescue. You sit on it to insulate you from the ice. Use your whistle once rescuers arrive.
Good luck doing all that in the panic!
Grab a musical instrument and play “Nearer My God to Thee.”
(This is tongue in cheek - please do not quote Snopes or such).
start ripping out doors or bathtubs. the truck idea up thread is good.
i would shoot the rocket flairs toward the california, not straight up, if possible. that should have gotten some radio contact from them.
Jump on the ship-to-shore radio and call Princhester (cite).
Drink lots and lots of apple cider vinegar.
I also agree with some of the suggestions here regarding makeshift flotation. Part of the problem is going to be that folks in the water are going to try to get into or on your McGyver raft and you’ll end up in the water too. So to survive you are going to have to get away from others crying for help and or actively beat them off to live, which is gonna kinda suck.
Stanley Lord is busy sucking up to the owners and not risking the California by going into the ice field.
Arthur Rostron, on the other hand, is pissing off the Carpithia’s passengers by turning off their hot water so he can travel faster through said ice field.
Note that the last lifeboat launched at 02:05. The stern lifted up out of the water at 02:15 and it sank entirely by 02:20. Even if you had all the raw materials for a decent raft/boat right in front of you, you’ve got 10 minutes, at most, to build and get it into the water.
As a man, I’d assist with the top starboard deck lifeboats. Avoid port side.
Mythbusters episode needed.
The trick is not to get wet, once you are wet Hypothermia sets in quickly even if you get out of the water you are toast unless you get dry quickly