Possible Captain Smith Suicide

[Ernie Luck]

Roy

There are numerous versions of what happened to Capt. Smith - take your pick.

I believe the survival instinct would have taken over and doubt whether he would have been too bothered about any subsequent inquiry. He married late in life and had a young wife and child at home - everything to live for.

The point I was making was that the water temperature was quickly disabling and that without a lifebelt he perished very quickly.

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

Hi, Matthew!

Speaking only for myself, if I knew I wasn't going to survive, I suppose I'd prefer going gently by hypothermia to being mangled and goodness knows what all by a disintegrating ship.

Roy

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

Hi, Ernie!

>>There are numerous versions of what happened to Capt. Smith - take your pick.

That's what I used to think until I started comparing survivor accounts. When you get 3, 4, 5 or more people saying much the same thing, it's best to start paying attention.

>>The point I was making was that the water temperature was quickly disabling and that without a lifebelt he perished very quickly.

You may be putting too much into those lifebelts' ability to keep anyone warm.

Roy

 

[Ernie Luck]

Hi Roy

In the Blunt collection of letters at Mystic Seaport there is one from Sarah Eleanor Smith sent two months after the sinking. In this she refers to her husband having swam with a child to a lifeboat. Not evidence of course, but perhaps it gave her comfort to believe that particular version of events.

I don't believe the lifebelts provided any warmth, Roy. Only that it saved them from drowning; hypothermia would have set in within minutes.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

This is the first time I've ever heard of hypothermia being called a "gentle" way to go. (It was...if I recall correctly...Jack Theyer who described plunging into the icy water as being like have a thousand knives stabbing into you.) Eventually, you go numb to all of it, shock sets in and everything slows down to a stop as your core temperature drops, but the trip is a pretty miserable one.

 

[Ernie Luck]

Michael

That swimming nut enthusiast who swam a kilometer in zero temperature water earlier this month, described it as a "screaming pain all over his body"; after three minutes he had lost all feeling in his hands and feet; after six minutes he could'nt feel his arms and legs.

He is considered to be a medical phenomenon - how many of them were on Titanic?

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>how many of them were on Titanic?<<

Not many. I suppose you might count the people who managed to get on to Collapsible B but then the key point here is that even though they were still cold and miserable, they were out of the water.

The ones who stayed in the water became statistics.

 

[Bill Wormstedt]

And those who claimed to be in the water for long periods - such as Joughin - became statistics in another way. Such as "How the heck could he do that?"

;-)

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

Hi, Michael!

>>This is the first time I've ever heard of hypothermia being called a "gentle" way to go.

I suppose no way of dying involuntarily is without its down side. I used "gentle" relatively, as contrasted to being ground up by jagged, twisting metal, or being sucked back into a ventilator shaft, or being trapped deep within the ship when it implodes from underwater pressure. Those alternatives aren't nearly as appealing to me as just numbing out, despite any initial pain.

A teacher once told us that it's impossible to differentiate between extreme cold and extreme heat. I think by "extreme" he meant really EXTREME. Any thoughts?

Roy

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>A teacher once told us that it's impossible to differentiate between extreme cold and extreme heat. I think by "extreme" he meant really EXTREME. Any thoughts? <<

Depends on what his idea of extreme is. If you're pitched into icy water or a bonfire, I think you'll notice a difference. If you're dropped into a vat of liquid nitrogen or a pit of molten steel, you'll be dead befor you even realized you had an accident.