Surviving a ship sinking?

Will Power

Will Power

Joined
Jan 18, 2007
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OK hope this is the right place to post this!

This is a nasty scenario, but quite possible.

Let's say you are travelling on a ferry, one of those long distance roll on-roll off ferries that carry up to 2000 passengers, cars,goods,lorries etc.These type of ships are common in Europe and you can spend from 2hours to 2 days on them.They are modern but if a problem happens they can capsize fast. The Estonia sank very rapidly, 20mins or so.

It's night, you are asleep in your cabin the alarm goes, abandon ship! let's say you had the presence of mind to pack one small rucksack/backpack. What would you have chosen to carry? Remember it's summer so no arctic conditions but shock and cold could be a factor, you need to get up many flights of stairs fast in a listing ship to get on deck to the lifeboats.You may have to spend up to a day in the lifeboat or raft. What to take?

SAK Alox Farmer
Bark River Woodland
Small torch(flashlight) say Skunklights
Mobile Phone that's charged
Chocolate 250g and some hard sweets
Litre of Water
Raincape
Compass
Tinned fish
Binoculars
 
I'm not fussy about which knife, but one is on my list for sure. If you end up in a life boat, anything you manage to bring with you in regards to food/water will be shared by all. A light is good, forget the phone unless you can keep it bone dry, probably not near a cell tower if at sea. I might grab some paracord if I had it, you never know.
 
H20
sunscreen
first aid
2 space blankets
signal mirror
more H20
couple of hand warmer heat packs

J.
 
Forget the Woodland it would rust no matter how well you tried to take care of it, most stainless steels will rust also when exposed to salt water so I'd go with a Spyderco Salt series knife and one of the new Salt fixed blades when they come out or the Benchmade dive knife in X15 I'd also go with a Leatherman type tool cause the pliers would come in handy in improvising other tools and making repairs. I'd pack a fanny pack with 2 nagalene 1 liter bottles full of water, sunscreen, a good first aid kit, a light weight poncho, a pen flare kit if it was legal, some granola bars, a small sewing kit, a good waterproof led flashlight and a good waterproof led headlamp that used the same size batteries, spare batteries and a good mirror. Your not probably going to be there long as these ships sound like they stay kinda close to land and I'm not sure about the laws there but the ones here say that passenger ships must carry a locater beacon in any life raft and that combined with the close proximity to land would almost guaranty that you'd be rescued in a matter of hours.
 
Personally I don't think there would be a specific problem having even a non-coated 1095 or O1 knife.

I grew up on the West Coast of Canada, and was given a Mora when I was about eight. It got dunked in the ocean a hundred times, and I never really took a lot of care with it. It didn't rust a whole lot.

My dad's boat knife is a mora that is probably thirty or forty years old. It has been in his tacklebox on his fishing boat longer than I have been alive, I think. He doesn't make the slightest effort to keep it oiled, he just touches up the edge when he goes to use it. It's also fine, although a bit rusty. It cuts perfectly well, of course.

Anyway, in this part of the world, there is a regular ferry that makes a 1.5-2 hour trip from the mainland to the island where I grew up. Not surprisingly I have taken it dozens of times and thought over this problem a fair bit.

I would be pretty relaxed with a bit of water, a knife and a firesteel. There would be plenty of people off looking for you, so if you have a nalgene container, etc, full of water, and a fire going, you have solved the big problems.

Honestly if you have a fire going you have solved the big problem. Odds of dehydrating before anyone finds you are probably slim. The big problem is cold, and the easiest way to address that is with a fire. Since the odds of getting wet are high, whatever fire method you use should be waterproof.

So I guess a $10 mora and a $10 firesteel would do me.
 
Wool or synthetic (nylon, coolmax, et al) clothing depending on time of year. Cotton and cold wet weather is a bad combination. Personal flotation gear would be on my list if I were truly concerned.

A small backpack with a quart of water and some snack bars will be nice to have but not critical. Any good stainless folder should be fine. A ferro rod will be very helpful in starting a fire, but if you get in a lifeboat straight from the deck (without getting wet first) a Bic lighter will work well too.

Odds are you won't get to a beach, another ship will be along shortly.
 
I think what I would want the most would be warm (wool?) clothing, and my own flotation device with knife, whistle, and strobe light attached to it.
 
In the orient it is common to have twice the rated number of passengers on a ferry .They do capsize on a regular basis with large loss of life ! A PFD might be handy there...I know a man whose ship was torpedoed on the Murmansk run in WWII. Another ship stopped to pick them up,but they refused ,saying you'll be torpedoed too , and they were. Survival there is very short in the water only a lifeboat would save you.
 
I'd say an inflatable life vest might be handy, that is, if they're commercially available. Easy to carry, but not conspicuous. If not available, then a regular life vest.

Since water temperature was mentioned, a wet suit might be necessary. If the water is freezing, then a dry suit would be more appropriate.

These two should take care of the immediate needs: keeping one's head above the water, and maintaing the body's core temperature.

A flashlight and whistle (remember Titanic)would be a good accessories, too.
 
m_calingo said:
I'd say an inflatable life vest might be handy, that is, if they're commercially available. Easy to carry, but not conspicuous. If not available, then a regular life vest.

Since water temperature was mentioned, a wet suit might be necessary. If the water is freezing, then a dry suit would be more appropriate.

These two should take care of the immediate needs: keeping one's head above the water, and maintaing the body's core temperature.

A flashlight and whistle (remember Titanic)would be a good accessories, too.
Click to expand...

If you are going to carry a life vest and a dry suit than you will need quite a big backpack!
 
Thanks for the replies:thumbup:

Reason I ask is that Ro-Roff ferries are massive things and modern but they are inherently unsafe.If water gets into the car deck then they turn turtle fast,you have the possibility of giant listing in minutes and lifeboat launching may be impossible.Then you'd be in life rafts which are just inflatables. The real problem would be getting up on deck in a panic situation. I've asked ferry companies what gear they keep in lifeboats or rafts and I've only had VERY VAGUE answers from all of them. Who knows if they have blankets or water or flares?

The 2 large scale disasters in Europe recently have been The Herald of Free Enterprise in 87 nearly 200 lost and the Estonia 1994 over 800 lost. Most of the survivors were on very flimsy life rafts, anybody in the Baltic water perished in minutes.Many others died in the rafts or boats too. I think the inclusion of some warm non cotton clothing as somebody posted would be vital, maybe one of those foil blankets emergency crews keep would be good, shock&cold are deadly. Anybody know where to get one of those foil blankets or similar? In addition to these sinkings there have been incidents on many other ferries, groundings, fires so being prepared is never wrong.So few people ever bother to READ the safety instructions on a ship, where to go and how to get out, that's crucial. a mobile phone is not a bad idea for being located as your are usually fairly close to coast. I'd also include a half litre of spirits...it's good for shock and nausea(sea sickness & ingesting sea water)
 
I know one guy who made it off Estonia, and a couple of the guys from the Border Guard who flew in surface rescue detail, trying to save the people from the sea with their helicopters. I can't think of many environments as hostile to human life than a ship sinking out in the open sea, in the way Estonia did. Did you guys know that many of the people that died on Estonia died because they never even got out of their passenger cabins? That's right - vending machines, table carts and all other kind of debris imaginable, including crushed and broken walls, blocked them in their rooms, because the ship tilted so heavily all this stuff just flew around. Survival was more about luck than anything else over there - it didn't much matter if you were a triathlonist in prime condition if you were caged in your cabin and couldn't get out while the ship was sinking.

I don't like ships very much. Surviving a sinking ship would be pretty much one of the nastiest survival scenarios I can think of. After Estonia sank, I spent a great deal of time thinking what the heck I would have done in that situation, and how I could have prepared myself for it. For me, the biggest problem would have been getting out of the damn ship and into the water, and after that staying warm enough not to die before the surface rescue guys pick me up. Some people can't stand cold water much at all, but you can practice that to an extent - I've done a lot of ice-swimming in my life, and can easily stay on the move in ice-cold water for several minutes. Assuming there are any lifeboats around (and if there aren't, then that's pretty much it), that should be enough time to find one if the waves aren't ridiculously nasty - and they were when Estonia went down. My survive a ship disaster pack would have at least the following:
- A warm change of clothes in water-proof packing. If I ever get on a lifeboat, I'm going to be soaking wet most likely, and this would help a lot.
- A towel, also in water-proof packing. Obviously for drying the skin, and possibly providing more warmth.
- A mobile phone, again with the water-proof packing
- Some handy Victorinox Swiss Army Knife, like Camper or Huntsman.
- Something to drink, preferably something warm, or perhaps spirits.
- A small emergency beacon light, so you can be better spotted by the rescue crews.
- A decent small flashlight, so you can actually see something once the ship blacks out.
- Rope or cord strong enough to hold your weight, and lots of it. You may need to do some climbing.

Oh, I forgot the most important part of all:
- Having a motherload of sheer luck or a deity on your side
 
From all of the stories I've read of people stranded at sea the three things that seem to be constants are WATER, followed closely by WATER, and then SIGNALS. I would want my Starflash mirror on a cord around my neck and some sort of waterproof light in my pocket. In a backpack I would want more than a liter of water. Maybe a 2 liter Platypus bag with a snap/valve cap to facilitate drinking. I don't ride giant car ferries or cruise ships.

I have thought about putting a kit together for use in coastal areas or an island here in the tropics. Water and signals would still be my priority. Mac
 
I don't believe I forgot the flashlight, but a 4xAA LED is always in my backpack. I also carry a Mission Wallet which holds a single AAA LED, an SAK Pioneer (thin) and a small Starflash mirror. A Photon Freedom is on my keyring.

My concern with a capsize is:
(1) getting out of the ship (flashlight)
(2) not drowning (PFD or lifeboat)
(3) not dying of hypothermia in the water (warm clothing and lifeboat/inflatable boat)
(4) being found by rescue personnel (starflash mirror, chemical lights, whistle and whatever other signal gear you happen to own).
 
Chemlights, now there's a use for them! I really like that idea as a constant emergency signal. Very good idea.

I have a bunch of them but other than giving them to kids who are afraid of the dark I've never really considered them as a viable light source. Mac
 
There's a link somewhere of a chem light being used in a signaling demo. Tie it to a line (550 paracord or whatever is available) and twirl it over your head. It becomes even more visible.
 
Jos said:
If you are going to carry a life vest and a dry suit than you will need quite a big backpack!
Click to expand...

I thought of suggesting an emergency life raft fully loaded with a satellite phone, emergency rations, 5 gallons of water and emergency radio--but I was trying to keep the cost down!
 
If you read Adrift (the guy who spend 72 days at sea) he had a junky little knock of SAK folder and it served him just fine.

I think just HAVING a knife in a lot of situations is the life saver.

TF
 
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