Safety At Sea: What To Do When Sinking Like Titanic

After a lesson at a gym I got talking, as usual to a retired policeman I shall call 'Ed'.

Ed watched a Youtube video of a wealthy couple sailing the world on their two-person yacht. At night the husband sleeps and the wife wanders on deck filming herself, for the entertainment of all, but, Ed says, tutting, without a life jacket, helmet, or the two lines of ropes tied to herself.

'An ancient waiting to happen,' says Ed. I frown, 'But why is it dangerous? Surely a lot of people would do that?'

'Yes, but they shouldn't.' Ed shakes his head. 'She looks over the side, or she's hit by a swinging sail, the boat lurches and she falls off. He wakes up three hours later, miles away. He takes three hours to sail back to where she was - assuming he knows what time she fell and where. How will he find her?

'Look at the ceiling. Imagine falling from their into water, even perfectly calm water. How will she survive? Even falling from more than six feet flat into flat calm, water, it hits you so hard, it knocks you out, so you can hardly breathe, or float, or swim.

'It also depends on the water temperature. In some places you'd only survive half an hour. In others less than ten minutes.'

We ponder. 'So what should she, or you or I, do on a boat?'

'I've told you why you need a life jacket. You need the helmet in case worthing swings and hits you. Of you fall against something. Then you need two ropes. The small one when you are near something like a steering wheel. The bigger one when you want to go to the far side of the boat. The bigger one is longer and stronger, thicker. If you fall overboard, not only does it keep you near the boat so others can help you, you use it to pull yourself back up. It has knots at intervals all the wall up so you can pull yourself up it.'

I object, 'But if the boat is sinking, the rope attaching you to it will pull you down with the boat.'

Ed laughs. "You shouldn't be sinking. You should be on the boat baling out and stopping up any hole.'

'How do you stop up the hole?'

'Anything - even a blanket.'

'But the flow of water pushes it into the boat."

'You get a piece of wood or a couple of pieces like a cross bar to hold it in place?'

'Where do you find the wood. Say, you're on a cruise ship, like the Titanic. You don't have any tools to hack at the wood.'

'You take whatever wood you can find. A deckchair. A dining chair. Anything to hold a piece of canvas or blanket over the hole. The water rises up to the level of the hole and then the pressure of water keeps the blanket in place so no more water can flow in. Meanwhile you are baling out. On a cruise ship you have a thousand passengers. And dozens of crew. Get them all to help you.'

'The ship might still sink.'

'Yes, but, that gives you another three of four or five hours. Meanwhile you can be building lifeboats, floats, anything to throw into the water. You might not save everybody. But you can save some people. It's better than nothing.'

'How do you know all this?'

'When you are on police duty in London, for a big event, you have time off to eat and rest at a central police eatery - eating place. Around the walls are safety instructions. I look at them. Especially the ones about boats and boating because I sail.'

'Thank you for telling me. Now I know what to do.'

Please pass this post on to anybody who might need it or be interested.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, teacher, speaker.