9 ms·

How a baker survived the Titanic by getting drunk (2022)

143 points by b0ner_t0ner 3y ago

abhaynayar 3y ago
Mind over matter.
rpy 3y ago
Something to think about during the next us-east-1 outage
- Kye 3y ago
  Something to drink about.
  - revskill 3y ago
    Water ?
    - Kye 3y ago
      It's a play on words referencing the submission topic.
walterbell 3y ago
What did lifeboats of that period stock for emergency rations? > Immediately after hearing the collision with an iceberg, the chief baker leapt out of his bunk and began dispatching his staff to stock the lifeboats with bread and biscuits ... Not only did Joughin refuse his own place in a boat, but he and a few other men began forcibly chucking reluctant women into empty seats, likely saving their lives ... while scholars have obsessed about the boozy reputation of Charles Joughin, beneath it all might simply have been a man unwilling to die. “It’s impossible for scientists to predict who will perform and respond well to extreme situations,” noted Cheung. “Some people give up very quickly, others you just cannot seem to kill.”
- jvanderbot 3y ago
  I've heard that a strong reason to live can get you through tough situations. E.g. in prison camps. I've also been solo skydiving and first hand experienced the loss of agency that comes from a poor response to life threatening situations:) So, I'm not optimistic about my own chances in those situations.
  - ZetaH 3y ago
    This reminded me on the "Hope" experiment they did on rats: https://homedialysis.org/news-and-research/blog/528-lifesaving-value-of-hope#:~:text=They%20examined%20the%20predicament%20of,jars%20for%2040%2D60%20hours https://homedialysis.org/news-and-research/blog/528-lifesavi....
    - pants2 3y ago
      This is one of the more fascinating and cruel studies of the 1950's
- kalleboo 3y ago
  > What did lifeboats of that period stock for emergency rations Biscuits and water, but they were in locked boxes on the deck "for fear of theft" so that wasn't reliably transferred to the boats in the chaos
  - Throw84949 3y ago
    Nobody would bother to steal water. Rations would not survive on open decks. Scorching sun heat, corrosive salty air...
pipes 3y ago
I find it hard to believe he survived in the water for that long.
- ionwake 3y ago
  I read about a north fisherman whose boat sunk. everyone perished in the cold water but he was so large and wrapped in heavy clothing he eventually paddled to shore, walked a mile and knocked on a door, without dying. Fat and cloth layers really help. He was also said to have survived because he was incredibly drunk. Maybe the alcohol in the system reduces the effects of the cold?
  - detourdog 3y ago
    Sounds like anti-freeze keeping the oxygen circulating to the brain.
    - xeromal 3y ago
      If this ends up being anti-freeze...
  - rightbyte 3y ago
    In non freezing temperatures bad blood circulation probably is an advantage? There is probably no point in heating your fingers if in cold water for a long time. It will just cool more important organs.
    - saalweachter 3y ago
      Your body already has the reaction to cold temperatures of reducing circulation to your limbs. If you ever have to take a cold shower, and aren't the sort for them normally, hold your arm in for a good long while before jumping in. It's still going to be cold, but it's much less shocking than jumping in, between giving your brain time to get used to the idea and giving your body time to cut circulation to your skin and extremities.
  - meheleventyone 3y ago
brabel 3y ago
So the secret is to remain calm and keep hope (both of which are helped by drunkness) besides the obvious "be last to get into the water" and "put on more layers of clothing" (though I didn't know that more clothes help even when wet).
- Glawen 3y ago
  The first time I had a serious accident with my car, I saw my life going before me. I was fine but my body was trembling after the accident. I saw a pub, I went there and drank 2 whisky straight. It was just what i needed to stop my body from shaking, and get my ideas clearer again and be able to deal with the situation. Alcohol really is a miraculous substance
  - jon-wood 3y ago
    Somewhat unfortunate when the police do a routine breathalyser test an hour later though.
    - pgalvin 3y ago
      On the contrary, it can provide a defence. “You have a defence if you can convince the court that you drank the alcohol in question after you had driven and that you were not over the limit whilst you were driving.”[1] With that said, your BAC can be estimated from whatever you prove you drank after the accident, which would reveal a discrepancy. Not a reliable way to get away with a terrible crime. [1] https://www.pattersonlaw.co.uk/faqs/drink-driving-leaving-scene-accident/ https://www.pattersonlaw.co.uk/faqs/drink-driving-leaving-sc...
      - lolc 3y ago
        Interesting case but ingesting alcohol can only improve a defense when you start out with alcohol on board. Otherwise it will worsen it.
- pastrami_panda 3y ago
  I'm not sure how being fully submerged for long periods of time affects this, but in outdoor culture there are sayings like "warm when wet" - pertaining to certain fabrics such as wool and polyester. One famous strategy is the pile and pertex combination. Where you have a thin basically windproof but not waterproof shell made typically from Pertex, and then fake fur from polyster on the inside. These jackets are used to (might still be) be worn by law enforcement to old school rock climbers for it's ability to keep you warm and damp for hours. There are videos of people submerging in ice cold water and "walking it off" until they are damp but warm again. Another saying is "cotton kills", because it does not provide warmth when wet and also sucks up insane amounts of water for its weight, so it bascially never dries out.
hartator 3y ago
Come on. Getting drunk will lower your survival chances for sure. It counterintuitively doesn't warm you up, waste precious energy while the body fights intoxication, and you are more likely to injure yourself in anything requiring body coordination.
- speedgoose 3y ago
  I am not sure that drinking alcohol wastes energy. It contains a lot of calories, more than sugar. I also haven’t heard about people drinking alcohol to lose weight.
  - hartator 3y ago
    Vomiting won’t retain calories which happens when you are “spectacularly drunk”.
    - zemvpferreira 3y ago
      Someone is clearly not an experienced drunk (joke, joke)
  - CatWChainsaw 3y ago
    Alcohol is a vasodilator so maybe you'd lose more heat that way.
  - _yb2s 3y ago
    People lose a lot of weight on beer only fasts… there is also a long history of trappist monks doing beer only fasts for religious reasons, and presumably losing a lot of weight. My understanding is they are usually using high carb low alcohol beer, so it’s more of a liquid only low fat diet than an alcohol diet.
  - testless 3y ago
    Appoximately 7 kcal per gramm vs 4 kcal per gramm for sugar
- nerdponx 3y ago
speedgoose 3y ago
Could the many calories of the alcohol help in such situations? Eating fat during a ship sinking accident is probably better, but alcohol has more calories than sugar and having enough energy to survive in the cold is important.
- Kye 3y ago
  It would probably depend on how soon you're rescued. Days, and alcohol probably works against you since it makes you lose water faster.
- cbsmith 3y ago
  Fat is going to take a while to metabolize...
nightowl_games 3y ago
> cannot seem to kill I live in a cold Canadian city that has a substantial population with drug addictions. I was talking to a cop one night (he was off duty) and he was telling me about how you eventually learn some of the regular offenders names and stories. He told me how tough some of these guys are. How he'd pick one up for stealing and he's out in -30C with ganggreen on his leg. "Cockroach energy" he called it.
- jvanderbot 3y ago
  Similar to Crackhead Strength you might encounter in the states. There's videos of sketchy looking folks hauling away anything they can find while riding bikes that were probably stolen too. One guy hoisted a fridge into his shoulder and biked it away.
  - xeromal 3y ago
    I remember a video from long ago describing exactly what you mention. A tweaker riding a bike with a full sized fridge on his shoulder. Wild thing is that it wasn't even a full sized bike. lol. I think it was a BMX one.
    - kjqgqkejbfefn 3y ago
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA40QqNn-1U&t=3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA40QqNn-1U&t=3s
      - Gud 3y ago
        Faith in humanity, restored?
- wnevets 3y ago
  Real nice to see that it's not just America that dehumanizes the homeless.
  - 3y ago
dghughes 3y ago
I find it difficult to believe. It was April -2C air temp in the open ocean and water temp probably 0C or 1C. Even with clothes on or relaxed you'd be dead in 15 minutes. I live in Canada on the coast and there are many news articles of people drowning after falling into cold water. And those people were in modern cold weather clothing.
- tzs 3y ago
  Some people do have quite a bit more innate cold tolerance than normal. See for example Wim Hof. Hof claims his high cold tolerance is due to exercise and lifestyle, but his identical twin brother has similar cold tolerance without having done the things Wim attributes his to suggesting its genetic. That fits what scientists who have studied Hof found. They found that (1) he really does have very high cold tolerance, and (2) this are not attributable to the specific exercise and lifestyle choices he thinks it is.
  - wkjagt 3y ago
    There are some really wild stories about Wim Hof. I read that he would sometimes sit on a fountain in a park in Amsterdam, using it to flush his bowel. Then one day, the fountain nozzle was changed without him knowing, and next time he did this he had to go to hospital because of perforated intestines. I googled around a bit and did find some evidence that this actually happened but not that he did this regularly. I read it in an NRC or Volkskrant (Dutch papers) article if I remember correctly.
    - rhapsodic 3y ago
      [dead]
- portaouflop 3y ago
  As the article states: Even today, the myth persists that the human body cannot withstand more than a few minutes in the ocean. Thus, many people thrown into the sea assume that cold shock is the icy grip of death closing around them. In reality, the cold shock ends after 90 seconds. Even in the winter waters of the North Atlantic, an average-sized adult still has 10 minutes before going numb, and at least an hour before the heart stops.“The average adult is a big chunk of meat and it takes a lot of energy to cool it off” Apparently most people die because they panic due to the cold shock or just kinda give up.
aaron695 3y ago
> Then, he used the first rays of dawn to spot an overturned lifeboat set adrift in the Titanic’s chaotic final minutes. He paddled over, pulled himself out of the water This is wrong, it was worse, there was no room for him so he hung on the side in the water 2:20 Titanic sunk. Sunrise was around 5:10am and he found the lifeboat to hang onto, then half a hour later another life boat arrived. So three hours. You can read his account here - https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq06Joughin01.php https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq06Joughin01.php
zer00eyz 3y ago
https://archive.is/9qdtr https://archive.is/9qdtr
nobodyandproud 3y ago
Many, many years ago my friends and I were out in the East Village (NYC). We went out for drinks and then to recharge we walked to a pizzeria (I assume 24 hours) to get a few bites. While I don’t normally drink I found I can hold my own with whiskey and I must’ve had about 10 (expensive!!) double shots over the course of 2 hours. Needless to say I was pretty buzzed. Anyway, another group picked a fight with one of my friends; a hot pizza was thrown at the instigator’s face and a small brawl ensued. While I’m. it physical, when one of my friends tripped I weighed out how to help (mostly made them pause, so friend didn’t get stomped); then shortly after NYPD showed up. Held hand up to show that I wasn’t a threat; saw the pepper spray out and the officer’s panicked face; and I closed my eyes because I knew what would happen. After running away as a group—thankfully the witnesses pointed out the instigators and some sympathetic bouncers let us cut through another club—I also had the presence of mind to buy a quart of milk—reasoning the fat and cool liquid would help—to ready myself against the burn. The point: Some individuals can be pretty trashed but still retain planning skills, concerns of responsibility. The baker clearly fell into this category. Sidenote: I’m glad it didn’t get into my eyes, but wow did the spray burn…even with milk.
- nobodyandproud 3y ago
  Weird that I’m getting downvoted. I’m curious why that is.
1B05H1N 3y ago
""" The baker, in fact, had unwittingly become a textbook example of how to survive a shipwreck. First, he delayed immersion; among those who went into the water that night, Joughin was the absolute last to get wet. Second — and most important — he managed to stay calm and strategize a way out of the water. """ I'll consider this next time I'm in a shipwreck.
revskill 3y ago
The nice thing about being calm is, it prevents you from doing worse things from the worst. Yes, the worst could be worse if you got panic.
bloomingeek 3y ago
When I was about eight years old, I went to look for something I left near a motel swimming pool. I slipped into the deep end of the pool, I didn't know how to swim. At first I flailed as fast as I could, instinctively I suppose. This didn't help and I realized two things, I was still sinking and was getting tired. So I stopped and just stared ahead. I can't say I knew I was going to die, I just knew I was in trouble. Then my feet slowing hit the bottom of the pool, this startled me and it occurred to me I could jump and maybe catch the edge of the pool. For the first time I looked up and saw sky and leaped. I was very lucky and made it the first time. When I got my head above the water, I was so exhausted I stayed there for a few minutes before climbing out of the water. Over the years, I've thought about this many times and, after a many years, came to the conclusion that calming myself after the initial terror probably saved my life. The calming came, I believe, because I was tired and stopped moving.
- rightbyte 3y ago
  > Then my feet slowing hit the bottom of the pool, this startled me and it occurred to me I could jump and maybe catch the edge of the pool. A really startling story. That is one of my nightmares as a parent. I really need to learn my kids to swim soon. I wonder if you could actually stand on the bottom with your head over water if you tried? Like it is really hard to "jump" under water. And you don't really sink until your lungs are filled with water (I believe?).
  - DougN7 3y ago
    If you exhale you’ll probably find you sink quite well. And ‘jumping’, even just using your feet/ankles will be enough to move you up 5-8 feet. Give it a try (assuming you can swim!)
    - marcosdumay 3y ago
      > If you exhale you’ll probably find you sink quite well. That depends on how fat you are. And if there's any salt on the water.
gumby 3y ago
This story is crazy/funny but it's true that being calm is a huge lifesaver. It's why one of the elements of military training is not just learning "what to do" but also practicing those things in stressful conditions so that a habit can kick in. I have no military background but do have (and teach) a couple of outdoor hobbies that have on three occasions caused me to think that there was a high chance I would not survive. I still sporadically wake up with nightmares of them years later. Interestingly at each time my initial overwhelming thought was "I'm an idiot for letting this happen" while without really thinking I took action as I teach my students. In two cases I had a large dog with me and that was probably decisive. In all cases I was alone (not with other people, just the dog) which is also a massive risk factor. Obviously irrelevant to the Titanic case.
zubairq 3y ago
Pretty incredible story. So he really got drunk , stayed calm and survived the sinking of the titanic !
- Zickzack 3y ago
  I shall raise my glass to this fine gentleman.
karussell 3y ago
The title is a bit strange. Maybe the decision to get and cinch his lifebelt was more important than getting drunk?
hughdbrown 3y ago
> ... who survived history’s worst maritime disaster ... Not the worst maritime disaster by loss of life (90K in Second Punic War storm; 100K in Mongol naval invasion typhoon disaster). Not even the worst of peacetime maritime accidents in the 20th century (Dona Paz, 1987, in the Philippines -- 4386 deaths). [0] There are easily forty WWII sinkings with greater loss of life. [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_maritime_disasters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_maritime_disasters [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_maritime_disasters_in_World_War_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_maritime_disasters_in_...
peter_d_sherman 3y ago
>"Most Titanic victims understandably succumbed to mortal panic as soon as they hit the icy water, but [Charles] Joughin was so bombed out of his mind that he didn’t seem to care. Booze didn’t protect Joughin from the cold that night, but it did give him just enough false hope and inflated confidence to think that he could doggy paddle his way out of history’s worst maritime disaster. And in this one case, that turned out to be true." So, there's the Bear Grylls and Wim Hof and Les Stroud (etc.) survival methods -- do everything you can to survive -- but now there's also apparently the Charles Joughin survival method -- just get completely sh-tfaced drunk! Get completely hammered, get completely sloshed! And well, that's it! There's nothing more to do! Let nature (or in this case, the sinking Titanic!) take care of itself! All you gotta do is find some (well, technically a lot of) alcohol -- and imbibe it! And well, that's it! There's no survival techniques, no preparedness checks, no physical and mental strengthening beforehand, no grit, no training, no exercise, no survival will, no special survial equipment, no nothing required -- just booze! And the guy actually survived! :-) <g> :-) Amazing! (Reminds me of two things: Jackie Chan in "Drunken Master", and the Hitchhiker Guide To The Galaxy's "Don't Panic" advice... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080179/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080179/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Don't_Panic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27... ) Also, I vote that this is the funniest story that I've read on HN in a long time! <g> :-) <g>

143 points by b0ner_t0ner 3y ago

abhaynayar 3y ago

Mind over matter.

rpy 3y ago

Something to think about during the next us-east-1 outage

Kye 3y ago
Something to drink about.
- revskill 3y ago
  Water ?
  - Kye 3y ago
    It's a play on words referencing the submission topic.

walterbell 3y ago

What did lifeboats of that period stock for emergency rations? > Immediately after hearing the collision with an iceberg, the chief baker leapt out of his bunk and began dispatching his staff to stock the lifeboats with bread and biscuits ... Not only did Joughin refuse his own place in a boat, but he and a few other men began forcibly chucking reluctant women into empty seats, likely saving their lives ... while scholars have obsessed about the boozy reputation of Charles Joughin, beneath it all might simply have been a man unwilling to die. “It’s impossible for scientists to predict who will perform and respond well to extreme situations,” noted Cheung. “Some people give up very quickly, others you just cannot seem to kill.”

jvanderbot 3y ago
I've heard that a strong reason to live can get you through tough situations. E.g. in prison camps. I've also been solo skydiving and first hand experienced the loss of agency that comes from a poor response to life threatening situations:) So, I'm not optimistic about my own chances in those situations.
- ZetaH 3y ago
  This reminded me on the "Hope" experiment they did on rats: https://homedialysis.org/news-and-research/blog/528-lifesaving-value-of-hope#:~:text=They%20examined%20the%20predicament%20of,jars%20for%2040%2D60%20hours https://homedialysis.org/news-and-research/blog/528-lifesavi....
  - pants2 3y ago
    This is one of the more fascinating and cruel studies of the 1950's
kalleboo 3y ago
> What did lifeboats of that period stock for emergency rations Biscuits and water, but they were in locked boxes on the deck "for fear of theft" so that wasn't reliably transferred to the boats in the chaos
- Throw84949 3y ago
  Nobody would bother to steal water. Rations would not survive on open decks. Scorching sun heat, corrosive salty air...

pipes 3y ago

I find it hard to believe he survived in the water for that long.

ionwake 3y ago
I read about a north fisherman whose boat sunk. everyone perished in the cold water but he was so large and wrapped in heavy clothing he eventually paddled to shore, walked a mile and knocked on a door, without dying. Fat and cloth layers really help. He was also said to have survived because he was incredibly drunk. Maybe the alcohol in the system reduces the effects of the cold?
- detourdog 3y ago
  Sounds like anti-freeze keeping the oxygen circulating to the brain.
  - xeromal 3y ago
    If this ends up being anti-freeze...
- rightbyte 3y ago
  In non freezing temperatures bad blood circulation probably is an advantage? There is probably no point in heating your fingers if in cold water for a long time. It will just cool more important organs.
  - saalweachter 3y ago
    Your body already has the reaction to cold temperatures of reducing circulation to your limbs. If you ever have to take a cold shower, and aren't the sort for them normally, hold your arm in for a good long while before jumping in. It's still going to be cold, but it's much less shocking than jumping in, between giving your brain time to get used to the idea and giving your body time to cut circulation to your skin and extremities.
- meheleventyone 3y ago

brabel 3y ago

So the secret is to remain calm and keep hope (both of which are helped by drunkness) besides the obvious "be last to get into the water" and "put on more layers of clothing" (though I didn't know that more clothes help even when wet).

Glawen 3y ago
The first time I had a serious accident with my car, I saw my life going before me. I was fine but my body was trembling after the accident. I saw a pub, I went there and drank 2 whisky straight. It was just what i needed to stop my body from shaking, and get my ideas clearer again and be able to deal with the situation. Alcohol really is a miraculous substance
- jon-wood 3y ago
  Somewhat unfortunate when the police do a routine breathalyser test an hour later though.
  - pgalvin 3y ago
    On the contrary, it can provide a defence. “You have a defence if you can convince the court that you drank the alcohol in question after you had driven and that you were not over the limit whilst you were driving.”[1] With that said, your BAC can be estimated from whatever you prove you drank after the accident, which would reveal a discrepancy. Not a reliable way to get away with a terrible crime. [1] https://www.pattersonlaw.co.uk/faqs/drink-driving-leaving-scene-accident/ https://www.pattersonlaw.co.uk/faqs/drink-driving-leaving-sc...
    - lolc 3y ago
      Interesting case but ingesting alcohol can only improve a defense when you start out with alcohol on board. Otherwise it will worsen it.
pastrami_panda 3y ago
I'm not sure how being fully submerged for long periods of time affects this, but in outdoor culture there are sayings like "warm when wet" - pertaining to certain fabrics such as wool and polyester. One famous strategy is the pile and pertex combination. Where you have a thin basically windproof but not waterproof shell made typically from Pertex, and then fake fur from polyster on the inside. These jackets are used to (might still be) be worn by law enforcement to old school rock climbers for it's ability to keep you warm and damp for hours. There are videos of people submerging in ice cold water and "walking it off" until they are damp but warm again. Another saying is "cotton kills", because it does not provide warmth when wet and also sucks up insane amounts of water for its weight, so it bascially never dries out.

hartator 3y ago

Come on. Getting drunk will lower your survival chances for sure. It counterintuitively doesn't warm you up, waste precious energy while the body fights intoxication, and you are more likely to injure yourself in anything requiring body coordination.

speedgoose 3y ago
I am not sure that drinking alcohol wastes energy. It contains a lot of calories, more than sugar. I also haven’t heard about people drinking alcohol to lose weight.
- hartator 3y ago
  Vomiting won’t retain calories which happens when you are “spectacularly drunk”.
  - zemvpferreira 3y ago
    Someone is clearly not an experienced drunk (joke, joke)
- CatWChainsaw 3y ago
  Alcohol is a vasodilator so maybe you'd lose more heat that way.
- _yb2s 3y ago
  People lose a lot of weight on beer only fasts… there is also a long history of trappist monks doing beer only fasts for religious reasons, and presumably losing a lot of weight. My understanding is they are usually using high carb low alcohol beer, so it’s more of a liquid only low fat diet than an alcohol diet.
- testless 3y ago
  Appoximately 7 kcal per gramm vs 4 kcal per gramm for sugar
nerdponx 3y ago

speedgoose 3y ago

Could the many calories of the alcohol help in such situations? Eating fat during a ship sinking accident is probably better, but alcohol has more calories than sugar and having enough energy to survive in the cold is important.

Kye 3y ago
It would probably depend on how soon you're rescued. Days, and alcohol probably works against you since it makes you lose water faster.
cbsmith 3y ago
Fat is going to take a while to metabolize...

nightowl_games 3y ago

> cannot seem to kill I live in a cold Canadian city that has a substantial population with drug addictions. I was talking to a cop one night (he was off duty) and he was telling me about how you eventually learn some of the regular offenders names and stories. He told me how tough some of these guys are. How he'd pick one up for stealing and he's out in -30C with ganggreen on his leg. "Cockroach energy" he called it.

jvanderbot 3y ago
Similar to Crackhead Strength you might encounter in the states. There's videos of sketchy looking folks hauling away anything they can find while riding bikes that were probably stolen too. One guy hoisted a fridge into his shoulder and biked it away.
- xeromal 3y ago
  I remember a video from long ago describing exactly what you mention. A tweaker riding a bike with a full sized fridge on his shoulder. Wild thing is that it wasn't even a full sized bike. lol. I think it was a BMX one.
  - kjqgqkejbfefn 3y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA40QqNn-1U&t=3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA40QqNn-1U&t=3s
    - Gud 3y ago
      Faith in humanity, restored?
wnevets 3y ago
Real nice to see that it's not just America that dehumanizes the homeless.
- 3y ago

dghughes 3y ago

I find it difficult to believe. It was April -2C air temp in the open ocean and water temp probably 0C or 1C. Even with clothes on or relaxed you'd be dead in 15 minutes. I live in Canada on the coast and there are many news articles of people drowning after falling into cold water. And those people were in modern cold weather clothing.

tzs 3y ago
Some people do have quite a bit more innate cold tolerance than normal. See for example Wim Hof. Hof claims his high cold tolerance is due to exercise and lifestyle, but his identical twin brother has similar cold tolerance without having done the things Wim attributes his to suggesting its genetic. That fits what scientists who have studied Hof found. They found that (1) he really does have very high cold tolerance, and (2) this are not attributable to the specific exercise and lifestyle choices he thinks it is.
- wkjagt 3y ago
  There are some really wild stories about Wim Hof. I read that he would sometimes sit on a fountain in a park in Amsterdam, using it to flush his bowel. Then one day, the fountain nozzle was changed without him knowing, and next time he did this he had to go to hospital because of perforated intestines. I googled around a bit and did find some evidence that this actually happened but not that he did this regularly. I read it in an NRC or Volkskrant (Dutch papers) article if I remember correctly.
  - rhapsodic 3y ago
    [dead]
portaouflop 3y ago
As the article states: Even today, the myth persists that the human body cannot withstand more than a few minutes in the ocean. Thus, many people thrown into the sea assume that cold shock is the icy grip of death closing around them. In reality, the cold shock ends after 90 seconds. Even in the winter waters of the North Atlantic, an average-sized adult still has 10 minutes before going numb, and at least an hour before the heart stops.“The average adult is a big chunk of meat and it takes a lot of energy to cool it off” Apparently most people die because they panic due to the cold shock or just kinda give up.

aaron695 3y ago

> Then, he used the first rays of dawn to spot an overturned lifeboat set adrift in the Titanic’s chaotic final minutes. He paddled over, pulled himself out of the water This is wrong, it was worse, there was no room for him so he hung on the side in the water 2:20 Titanic sunk. Sunrise was around 5:10am and he found the lifeboat to hang onto, then half a hour later another life boat arrived. So three hours. You can read his account here - https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq06Joughin01.php https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq06Joughin01.php

zer00eyz 3y ago

https://archive.is/9qdtr https://archive.is/9qdtr

nobodyandproud 3y ago

Many, many years ago my friends and I were out in the East Village (NYC). We went out for drinks and then to recharge we walked to a pizzeria (I assume 24 hours) to get a few bites. While I don’t normally drink I found I can hold my own with whiskey and I must’ve had about 10 (expensive!!) double shots over the course of 2 hours. Needless to say I was pretty buzzed. Anyway, another group picked a fight with one of my friends; a hot pizza was thrown at the instigator’s face and a small brawl ensued. While I’m. it physical, when one of my friends tripped I weighed out how to help (mostly made them pause, so friend didn’t get stomped); then shortly after NYPD showed up. Held hand up to show that I wasn’t a threat; saw the pepper spray out and the officer’s panicked face; and I closed my eyes because I knew what would happen. After running away as a group—thankfully the witnesses pointed out the instigators and some sympathetic bouncers let us cut through another club—I also had the presence of mind to buy a quart of milk—reasoning the fat and cool liquid would help—to ready myself against the burn. The point: Some individuals can be pretty trashed but still retain planning skills, concerns of responsibility. The baker clearly fell into this category. Sidenote: I’m glad it didn’t get into my eyes, but wow did the spray burn…even with milk.

nobodyandproud 3y ago
Weird that I’m getting downvoted. I’m curious why that is.

1B05H1N 3y ago

""" The baker, in fact, had unwittingly become a textbook example of how to survive a shipwreck. First, he delayed immersion; among those who went into the water that night, Joughin was the absolute last to get wet. Second — and most important — he managed to stay calm and strategize a way out of the water. """ I'll consider this next time I'm in a shipwreck.

revskill 3y ago

The nice thing about being calm is, it prevents you from doing worse things from the worst. Yes, the worst could be worse if you got panic.

bloomingeek 3y ago

When I was about eight years old, I went to look for something I left near a motel swimming pool. I slipped into the deep end of the pool, I didn't know how to swim. At first I flailed as fast as I could, instinctively I suppose. This didn't help and I realized two things, I was still sinking and was getting tired. So I stopped and just stared ahead. I can't say I knew I was going to die, I just knew I was in trouble. Then my feet slowing hit the bottom of the pool, this startled me and it occurred to me I could jump and maybe catch the edge of the pool. For the first time I looked up and saw sky and leaped. I was very lucky and made it the first time. When I got my head above the water, I was so exhausted I stayed there for a few minutes before climbing out of the water. Over the years, I've thought about this many times and, after a many years, came to the conclusion that calming myself after the initial terror probably saved my life. The calming came, I believe, because I was tired and stopped moving.

rightbyte 3y ago
> Then my feet slowing hit the bottom of the pool, this startled me and it occurred to me I could jump and maybe catch the edge of the pool. A really startling story. That is one of my nightmares as a parent. I really need to learn my kids to swim soon. I wonder if you could actually stand on the bottom with your head over water if you tried? Like it is really hard to "jump" under water. And you don't really sink until your lungs are filled with water (I believe?).
- DougN7 3y ago
  If you exhale you’ll probably find you sink quite well. And ‘jumping’, even just using your feet/ankles will be enough to move you up 5-8 feet. Give it a try (assuming you can swim!)
  - marcosdumay 3y ago
    > If you exhale you’ll probably find you sink quite well. That depends on how fat you are. And if there's any salt on the water.

gumby 3y ago

This story is crazy/funny but it's true that being calm is a huge lifesaver. It's why one of the elements of military training is not just learning "what to do" but also practicing those things in stressful conditions so that a habit can kick in. I have no military background but do have (and teach) a couple of outdoor hobbies that have on three occasions caused me to think that there was a high chance I would not survive. I still sporadically wake up with nightmares of them years later. Interestingly at each time my initial overwhelming thought was "I'm an idiot for letting this happen" while without really thinking I took action as I teach my students. In two cases I had a large dog with me and that was probably decisive. In all cases I was alone (not with other people, just the dog) which is also a massive risk factor. Obviously irrelevant to the Titanic case.

zubairq 3y ago

Pretty incredible story. So he really got drunk , stayed calm and survived the sinking of the titanic !

Zickzack 3y ago
I shall raise my glass to this fine gentleman.

karussell 3y ago

The title is a bit strange. Maybe the decision to get and cinch his lifebelt was more important than getting drunk?

hughdbrown 3y ago

> ... who survived history’s worst maritime disaster ... Not the worst maritime disaster by loss of life (90K in Second Punic War storm; 100K in Mongol naval invasion typhoon disaster). Not even the worst of peacetime maritime accidents in the 20th century (Dona Paz, 1987, in the Philippines -- 4386 deaths). [0] There are easily forty WWII sinkings with greater loss of life. [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_maritime_disasters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_maritime_disasters [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_maritime_disasters_in_World_War_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_maritime_disasters_in_...

peter_d_sherman 3y ago

>"Most Titanic victims understandably succumbed to mortal panic as soon as they hit the icy water, but [Charles] Joughin was so bombed out of his mind that he didn’t seem to care. Booze didn’t protect Joughin from the cold that night, but it did give him just enough false hope and inflated confidence to think that he could doggy paddle his way out of history’s worst maritime disaster. And in this one case, that turned out to be true." So, there's the Bear Grylls and Wim Hof and Les Stroud (etc.) survival methods -- do everything you can to survive -- but now there's also apparently the Charles Joughin survival method -- just get completely sh-tfaced drunk! Get completely hammered, get completely sloshed! And well, that's it! There's nothing more to do! Let nature (or in this case, the sinking Titanic!) take care of itself! All you gotta do is find some (well, technically a lot of) alcohol -- and imbibe it! And well, that's it! There's no survival techniques, no preparedness checks, no physical and mental strengthening beforehand, no grit, no training, no exercise, no survival will, no special survial equipment, no nothing required -- just booze! And the guy actually survived! :-) <g> :-) Amazing! (Reminds me of two things: Jackie Chan in "Drunken Master", and the Hitchhiker Guide To The Galaxy's "Don't Panic" advice... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080179/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080179/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Don't_Panic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27... ) Also, I vote that this is the funniest story that I've read on HN in a long time! <g> :-) <g>