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RIP to everyone who died. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but when you're standing on the mast, how can you not tell that you're about to collide with the bri
by 55555 1y ago
RIP to everyone who died. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but when you're standing on the mast, how can you not tell that you're about to collide with the bridge?
- ceejayoz 1y agoYou can. You just can’t get down in time.
- brador 1y agoWhy not just jump into the water?
- prmoustache 1y agoThe boat being wider than the mast, you have a near 100% probability of just hitting the deck even when propelling yourself. Life is not a Super Hero action movie.
- newsclues 1y agoYou can jump away from the boat and land in water. And you can moved along the yards to get closer to the water. But the tallest mast is 158 feet and that’s a big jump. Source: was on a tall ship for a week, and done some cliff jumping
- squigz 1y agoI think the top yards are not much, if any, wider than the deck, are they? Depending how quickly this happens, you may not have enough time to get across the yard and prepare for a 50m jump into water
- newsclues 1y agoYou see it’s going to happen and move towards the edge of the yards. You then get a bit of horizontal momentum and jump away from the centre of the ship, giving you a few seconds to fall away and hopefully hit the water.
- lesuorac 1y agoHow many people are jumping? If only 2 died then you'd need a pretty high survival rate from jumping for it to be advantageous over sitting still.
- squigz 1y agoSo simple! I wonder why those experienced sailors didn't think of that!
- squigz 1y agoIn case anyone's curious, here's a picture of a couple sailors on a topyard [1] - I'm not sure you're easily getting any "horizontal momentum" on that thing while 50m in the air in choppy water. Nevermind the safety harnesses. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-detail-of-main-mast-of-tall-ship-with-two-seamen-on-top-yard-securing-20575964.html https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-detail-of-main-mast-of-tal...
- eCa 1y agoAn unprepared 40 meter jump onto water? Even if you manage to miss the boat, water is like concrete from that height.
- pmalynin 1y agoMy back of the envelope math says velocity of about 28 m/s — call it an even 100km/h. Yeah seems kinda tough.
- Spooky23 1y agoInto East River currents?id rather take my chances than risk certain death hitting the deck or falling into the river and getting dragged under.
- aetimmes 1y agoJumping into water from roughly the height of the Brooklyn Bridge is generally what people do when they _want_ to end their own lives.
- Polizeiposaune 1y agoIn addition to what others have mentioned, crewmembers up in the rigging are most likely wearing some sort of safety harness which would not be quick to remove/unhook to allow them to dive into the water.
- steveBK123 1y agoBoat was supposed to be going the other way, lost power and drifted in fast current. It's only 1/8th of a mile from port to the bridge so there was at most 2.5 minutes of drifting, but possibly quite less depending on where they lost power and how fast the current was at the time.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]