Lost at sea... how long could you survive

Imagine managing NOT to drown for 10 hours… phew… I’d be a gonna…

In the English. Channel, even in the summer, you’d be lucky to last an hour before dying of hypothermia.

Oh yes, David… brrrrr … as for me, I would have sunk without trace after just a few minutes I reckon…

Even strong swimmers might well panic… in such circumstances…

How the hell does someone just "fall"from a cruise ship - or any ship for that matter.

You have to have been larking around to go overboard.

A decent swimmer would know, they were not going to swim very far Stella, so lie on their back, and ‘’‘hope’’’! someone had seen them go over the side, seems to have worked in this lucky Ladies case :slightly_smiling_face:

Perhaps the moral of this story is… only good swimmers should go on cruise ships… :wink::relaxed::relaxed:

I’d have to wear a lifebelt… permanently… :hushed::fearful:

:+1: :wink:

My dad was in the Atlantic after his convoy ship was bombed by the Germans, for quite a few hours, and he lived to tell the tale. He did have a life jacket on though and a whistle he blew in the hope he was found, which of course he was, On that day 36 out of 42 ships were lost.

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Glad to hear there was a happy outcome to his “dip” :relaxed:

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Brave men who manned the convoys Maureen, knowing what they were facing!

As someone once said to me a propos safety on ships. Only fools,firemen and first timers sit on rails.

Yes Bill, my dad and many like him were brave. Travelling with no ships’ name on his cap, never knowing where he was going, to join an unnamed ship, usually on trains in the dark, never knowing how long for. He couldn’t eat pork because of the smell of the burning bodies on the fuel ships that were torpedoed. His mother received a telegram advising he was lost at sea, presumed dead. It wasn’t until late in his life we found all this out because he never wanted to talk about it. When he finally did, he couldn’t stop crying. However, it was more than a “dip” as referred to by someone. Anyway, I digress. This is about the poor woman that fell off the back of a ship.

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Maureen, the crew of the ship are saying that she was drunk, had a row with her boyfriend and was a ‘jumper’.
Probably her self induced relaxed state helped in her survival.

oh not sure if I will go on a cruise ship and I do not drink …oh about 6 glasses a year of alcohol…so I will probably not be lost at sea.

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Ah! but how big are the glasses Barbara? :wink:

Could be worse: http://www.brettarchibald.com/brettsstory/page/16/lost-at-sea

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Anyone who has seen my previous posts about Drownproofing will be aware that it is possible to survive for hours and even days. But the limiting factor is often hypothermia, as David has pointed out.
Apart from that, there is the the possibility of sunstroke, dehydration, being run down by passing shipping and a relatively small risk of being attacked by sharks or other sea monsters.
In the old days, falling overboard was almost always fatal. Today, the chances aren’t good, but with the advent of GPS, if someone saw you fall in, there is a possibility of rescue and your best bet is to stay close to the scene of the accident. Otherwise it’s just a matter of luck. Big ships depend almost entirely on radar and don’t keep a lookout, so they won’t be any help. If it is your lucky day, you might be found by the local fishing fleet. Those guys spend a lot of time looking at the surface of the ocean.

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Luck, def’ Mike, I was water skiing in Saudi, fell off, the motor on the tow boat stalled and my mate couldn’d get it started, so the boat swiftly drifted away, faster than I could swim and rapidly disappeared, we were a long way offshore, cold was no problem, but the offshore drift created by the wind was and I was getting nowhere!
Luck, after an hour or two, a small catamaran ‘happened along’ saw me and hauled me aboard, yes a very 'lucky bunny :slightly_smiling_face:

image

I have one of these, when activated it sends an SOS via satellite and emits two different frequencies to pinpoint your position from a distance and close to. The only thing is remembering to have it in my pocket just before I fall overboard!

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