Titanic. The day common sense failed everyone

[Feralbreed]

I'm pretty sure people would have made some makeshift rafts if it would have been possible. You have to remember that it was an extremely hostile situation. Imagine yourself on board, you would have shat your pants if you heard that the ship was sinking.

And it's fucking cold everywhere, AND theres hundreds of idiots like you around who have no idea what they're doing. The movie showed the situation pretty well I think.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Em I really don't think you have thought this through. The floatation of the boats and the force of people coming down from such a drop wouldn't cut it. Also you know the ship was kinda sheered in half. The real lack of common sense was not having enough lifeboats per head because it didn't make the ship look pleasant. All I can say is even though it was a tragedy it serves as a permanent reminder to the world on why style should never come over function when it is safety in mind.

 

[Tsaba]

You forget, the water was 28 degrees that night. Even assuming they could get a raft like object, they would have had to hit the water first, unless they were very lucky, and due to the temperature of the water and the night air, hypothermia would have got them. From the time the Titanic sank at around 2:20 AM to the time the Carpathia arrived at around 4:00AM anyone in the water would have been dead. The only exception was Chief Baker Charles Joughin who had gone to his cabin twice to have a glass of brandy. Other than him, the only survivors were in lifeboats.

That's pretty impressive considering the brandy would've made him more likely to die. Alcohol brings blood and heat to the skin, diverting it from vital organs. It'll make you feel warmer, but actually makes you colder where it really matters.

OT: Other than finding an actual life raft, there really wasn't much hope for survival. They really shouldn't of let the whole "unsinkable ship" thing go to their heads and take unecessary risks. It also would have helped to prepare for such an event. The ship was originally designed to hold more life rafts, but they were removed because someone important thought it made the ship look kind of crowded.

More impressive the guy threw deck chairs into the water for swimmers to hold on to and when the ship did sink, he held on to one of the collapsible boats. Damn you Spice & Wolf, you got me interested and I googled the man.

 

[eyesonflux]

Topic creator stop this Embarrassment of a thread!

Honestly you would probably die if you would have tried to create a raft unless... you would have roped a lot of people and made them into a raft then you would have survived just because you were so awesome creative.

 

[Macgyvercas]

You forget, the water was 28 degrees that night. Even assuming they could get a raft like object, they would have had to hit the water first, unless they were very lucky, and due to the temperature of the water and the night air, hypothermia would have got them. From the time the Titanic sank at around 2:20 AM to the time the Carpathia arrived at around 4:00AM anyone in the water would have been dead. The only exception was Chief Baker Charles Joughin who had gone to his cabin twice to have a glass of brandy. Other than him, the only survivors were in lifeboats.

That's pretty impressive considering the brandy would've made him more likely to die. Alcohol brings blood and heat to the skin, diverting it from vital organs. It'll make you feel warmer, but actually makes you colder where it really matters.

OT: Other than finding an actual life raft, there really wasn't much hope for survival. They really shouldn't of let the whole "unsinkable ship" thing go to their heads and take unecessary risks. It also would have helped to prepare for such an event. The ship was originally designed to hold more life rafts, but they were removed because someone important thought it made the ship look kind of crowded.

More impressive the guy threw deck chairs into the water for swimmers to hold on to and when the ship did sink, he held on to one of the collapsible boats. Damn you Spice & Wolf, you got me interested and I googled the man.

Yeah, sorry about that. Titanic was one of my obessions as a kid, so I see a thread on it, and I sort go into autopilot.

 

[Tsaba]

Yeah, sorry about that. Titanic was one of my obessions as a kid, so I see a thread on it, and I sort go into autopilot.

I do the same thing, I go autopilot during WWII, I know a bit of the sinking, but, that's only because of my fascination with that time in history.

 

[gellert1984]

Dead bodies float...why are you all looking at me like that?

 

[Caveworm]

Maybe because my father was in the merchant and Royal Navy I tend to have a realistic idea on how boats sink and how the elements can kill you...

But yeah, a bath tub? Reeeeeally?

 

[therightanswer]

drowning wasn't the problem.

Try floating in the north atlantic on a door for 2 days with no food, water, or blankets.

sorry ruining your fun, but in 45 degree water you need to be completely out of the water at all times

 

[Caveworm]

Dead bodies float...why are you all looking at me like that?

Tasty snack too!

 

[paintman]

Life Boat 14 pulled 4 from the water. not all survived the exposure. However this was at 3:00am after 40 minutes in the water. Suffice to say getting wet didn't mean instant death to hypothermia

 

[Jegsimmons]

a bathtube would work if you could seal up the hole.

also that film sucked.

 

[Jegsimmons]

The ***** could have just budged up on the door for Jack >_>

That was my friend allens sentiment

Leo tends to die in a lot of his movies doesn't he?

 

[The Heik]

This is a discussion between a few friends and me that I thought was good enough to bring to the forums. We are currently watching Titanic, and are remembering how Rose only survives due to being on the door.

That said isn't it common sense? I know everyone panicked but you would figure a few people might have gone "look at all this stuff on the boat. I bet can make a raft."

So my friends and I started making a list of rafts or raft materials that could have saved hundreds. So far we have:

Bath Tubs
Dining Room Tables
Huge shipping crates (contested since cargo area first part to sink)
Doors (as in the movie)
Benches

So our questions to you is what haven't we thought of? And what do you think of this whole raft plan?

Oh boy, where do I start?

Ok first of all, many of those objects are either bolted down with metal, or are inside the cargo hold because they are heavy or cumbersome, so as such not very easy to work with.

Second, how are they supposed to build these rafts? The Titanic wasn't exactly covered with rope and construction tools, and despite what people have heard about extreme emotion making one stronger, it wouldn't have helped with combining two entirely separate objects with no materials to do it.

Third, the waters in the Atlanic Ocean are some of the coldest on Earth (heck there were icebergs where the titanic crashed! That means that the atmosphere there was below zero degrees!). Even the most well-designed makeshift raft would take on water because it isn't waterproofed (that process takes hours to do even today), and the wet would siphon the heat off the survivors so fast that they would have frozen to death within the hour.

And lastly, and probably most damningly, the passengers on board didn't know that they wouldn't be able get onto the lifeboats in time until a few minutes before the ship sank. That's minutes before all those passengers are in a watery grave. Nowhere near enough time to build a fleet of rafts even if the materials were laid out for them in nice neat piles and they were all master builders who wouldn't bat an eye if one of their number suddenly spontaneously combusted. Not to mention that the floor would be continuously listing, so those rafts would be sliding across the ground before long.

So yeah, there wasn't much chance for those who were stuck on the Titanic, no matter what they tried.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

I think the number one problem at the time of the Titanic sinking would be hypothermia from the freezing ocean water, flotation was more than likely a secondary concern once hypothermia set in.

 

[scar_47]

Even if you built a suitable raft which would be unlikely to work well you still a good 50 plus feet above the water and just waiting for the boat to sink would drag you down with it all the escaping air lower the waters density so you'd sink. Really unless your trained or drill yourself its extremely hard to remain call and rational especially in a situation where everyone else is panicking honestly I don't think there was that much your average person would have been able to do to increase their odds besides getting into one of the few lifeboats.

 

[paintman]

This is a discussion between a few friends and me that I thought was good enough to bring to the forums. We are currently watching Titanic, and are remembering how Rose only survives due to being on the door.

That said isn't it common sense? I know everyone panicked but you would figure a few people might have gone "look at all this stuff on the boat. I bet can make a raft."

So my friends and I started making a list of rafts or raft materials that could have saved hundreds. So far we have:

Bath Tubs
Dining Room Tables
Huge shipping crates (contested since cargo area first part to sink)
Doors (as in the movie)
Benches

So our questions to you is what haven't we thought of? And what do you think of this whole raft plan?

Oh boy, where do I start?

Ok first of all, many of those objects are either bolted down with metal, or are inside the cargo hold because they are heavy or cumbersome, so as such not very easy to work with.

Second, how are they supposed to build these rafts? The Titanic wasn't exactly covered with rope and construction tools, and despite what people have heard about extreme emotion making one stronger, it wouldn't have helped with combining two entirely separate objects with no materials to do it.

Third, the waters in the Atlanic Ocean are some of the coldest on Earth (heck there were icebergs where the titanic crashed! That means that the atmosphere there was below zero degrees!). Even the most well-designed makeshift raft would take on water because it isn't waterproofed (that process takes hours to do even today), and the wet would siphon the heat off the survivors so fast that they would have frozen to death within the hour.

And lastly, and probably most damningly, the passengers on board didn't know that they wouldn't be able get onto the lifeboats in time until a few minutes before the ship sank. That's minutes before all those passengers are in a watery grave. Nowhere near enough time to build a fleet of rafts even if the materials were laid out for them in nice neat piles and they were all master builders who wouldn't bat an eye if one of their number suddenly spontaneously combusted. Not to mention that the floor would be continuously listing, so those rafts would be sliding across the ground before long.

So yeah, there wasn't much chance for those who were stuck on the Titanic, no matter what they tried.

I'm going to go ahead and let you read earlier posts that have countered all but a few of your points.

The titanic was in fact covered in rope used for a variety of things including lowering the lifeboats

also most of Titanics upper floors were wood not iron. So prying things up or off wouldn't be all that hard with oh say... any one of the hundred of cast iron tools on every floor...

 

[synobal]

The only improvised life raft that might of worked was the freaking iceberg that hit the titanic and even them I'm pretty sure the waters were to chaotic to make it there, much less make it there and not freeze to death.

 

[The Heik]

I'm going to go ahead and let you read earlier posts that have countered all but a few of your points.

The titanic was in fact covered in rope used for a variety of things including lowering the lifeboats

also most of Titanics upper floors were wood not iron. So prying things up or off wouldn't be all that hard with oh say... any one of the hundred of cast iron tools on every floor...

You're out of luck with cast iron. It isn't a very strong metal, because the act of casting weakens the molecular bonds of the material. I've been able bend a cast iron poker with just my bare hands and a slight application of leverage, and I'm not even that athletic. So what do you think is going to happen when you try to lever up 50 pounds of wood (that's held on with dozen of iron nails), with 100+ pounds of human body? There's a reason why most working tools are steel, and that is reason is because it's simply more resistant to stress.

As for those ropes you mentioned, wouldn't it be more useful to, oh I don't know, use them for hauling down the life boats? And since the only other ropes that a ship usually has are mooring ropes, which are as thick as a person's arm and therefore hard as hell to bend, you don't have really have many options for lashings.

Though this is all rendered moot by the fact that there simply wasn't enough time to gather all the hundreds people spread out on a ship the size of a city block, organize these terrified individuals into effective work teams, gather the thousands of pounds of material need to ferry them, build the rafts (did I mention that most of these people don't know how to?) waterproof/seal them (or they leak and become floating frozen caskets) and somehow get them and their passengers down to the water without breaking either.

Face it man, it simply could not have been done. If they'd had enough time to do all that, they would have had enough time to get onto all the lifeboats (of which the Titanic had more than enough of to carry all the passengers).