(RAR!) You are aboard the Poseidon

[Guardsman Bass]

Not sure whether this counts as science fiction or fantasy . . .

You are told that you will be placed aboard the Poseidon, in a scenario perfectly duplicating either the Poseidon Adventure movie from the 1970s or the Poseidon movie from 2006. If you haven't seen either movie, what happens is that a giant rogue wave hits a cruise ship, flipping it over so that it rests upside down in the water and is gradually sinking. You have the task of getting to the surface safely to wait for rescue.

You are not a crew member, so while you could run into crew areas (or choose to be placed there) you might have someone try to stop you (depends on how sneaky and quick you are). From the time you are placed on the boat at a location of your choice, 15 minutes will pass before the ship gets hit by the rogue wave. You can not warn anybody about it to avoid the wave - if you try to, you'll find yourself unable to talk or write it out before the impact. Don't worry about the water temperature once you make it outside to the surface - once you do that, you'll be rescued in about 10 minutes (and the water is tropical).

So where do you go?

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, I've only sen the 2006 film, but as I recall, the few survivors got out by making their way to the bottom of the ship's hull (which had become the top of the ship) and somehow getting to the outside (I don't recall how).

So I guess I'd try to be as far down inside the ship as possible (and wearing a helmet in case I get tossed around when the ship flips).

[Batman]

I call the Watchtower, have them teleport me out, and then arrange for whichever Leaguers are available to save the damned ship.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well yes, having Batman on board would open up a few more options.

[Guardsman Bass]

Well, I've only sen the 2006 film, but as I recall, the few survivors got out by making their way to the bottom of the ship's hull (which had become the top of the ship) and somehow getting to the outside (I don't recall how).

So I guess I'd try to be as far down inside the ship as possible (and wearing a helmet in case I get tossed around when the ship flips).

They made it to the engine room, and then somehow opened a door to the propeller screws. They then managed to reverse the screws so that the wind would pull people in, launched a tank full of something into it, and it basically destroyed the screws and let them get out.

That's something, although you'd have to move quick to be near the control room for the screws when the wave hits (or get teleported there by the god-like figure running this RAR!).

I found a clip of it on youtube from the 2006 movie. It looks like you'd either want to hunker down in the engine room near access to the screws, or be near the top in an area where you could hunker down and then allow water to flow in and equalize the pressure in a room, letting you swim out. You'd have to hold your breath for a long time, though. It briefly came back up on its side again before turning downward upside down for good.

[Eternal_Freedom]

It being a cruise ship, presumably it has facilities on board for entertaining the passengers. If this includes SCUBA gear, I chose to be placed as near as possible to wherever it is being kept and immediately start kitting myself out. Then, make my way as close to the outside as possible on the side of the ship that isn't getting hit by the wave. Once things stop shaking after the ship rolls over, swim out to the surface.

If no SCUBA gear is present, I'll go with being as close to the waterline as possible (but still above it) on the side of the ship that doesn't get hit by the wave. Use the fifteen minutes we get to find one a life-jacket or something else to help me float. Once the ship settles upside-down, find a window i can break or open, wait for the pressure to equalize, swim out of the ship and to the surface, using the life jacket or whatever to keep myself afloat.

[Isolder74]

I call the Watchtower, have them teleport me out, and then arrange for whichever Leaguers are available to save the damned ship.

Couldn't you just call Aquaman and save yourself half of the trouble, and a teleport I know you don't care much for.

[Batman]

Arthur's powers are heavily inconsistent across iterations and I wasn't Aware I had a Problem with theleporters?

[The Romulan Republic]

I'm not sure Aquaman (at least any version I've seen) could do that much. Rescue some individual people? Sure. Save the whole ship? I doubt it. That's more a Superman feat. Maybe a Green Lantern feat.

[Batman]

Depending on iteratiton Arthur could actually go toe-to-toe with Clark.

[Zaune]

I could probably save myself easily enough; if I couldn't figure out how to lower a lifeboat I could just strap on a lifejacket and jump.

But the difficult question is, how do I save anyone else?

[Borgholio]

Well, I've only sen the 2006 film, but as I recall, the few survivors got out by making their way to the bottom of the ship's hull (which had become the top of the ship) and somehow getting to the outside (I don't recall how).

So I guess I'd try to be as far down inside the ship as possible (and wearing a helmet in case I get tossed around when the ship flips).

They made it to the engine room, and then somehow opened a door to the propeller screws. They then managed to reverse the screws so that the wind would pull people in, launched a tank full of something into it, and it basically destroyed the screws and let them get out.

That's something, although you'd have to move quick to be near the control room for the screws when the wave hits (or get teleported there by the god-like figure running this RAR!).

I found a clip of it on youtube from the 2006 movie. It looks like you'd either want to hunker down in the engine room near access to the screws, or be near the top in an area where you could hunker down and then allow water to flow in and equalize the pressure in a room, letting you swim out. You'd have to hold your breath for a long time, though. It briefly came back up on its side again before turning downward upside down for good.

In the original movie, they made it to the stern where the hull is thinner than at the rest of the ship, then rescuers cut a hole and pulled them out.

[The Romulan Republic]

I could probably save myself easily enough; if I couldn't figure out how to lower a lifeboat I could just strap on a lifejacket and jump.

But the difficult question is, how do I save anyone else?

Well, you could try to send out a distress call (I'm presuming the ship didn't get a chance to before it tipped over).

[Zaune]

True, but while I haven't seen the original, the remake strongly implies that the five(?) people who managed to climb out through a bow thruster port at the climax are the only ones to make it off before the Poseidon went down. Out of probably five hundred.

[The Romulan Republic]

Yeah, but it took quite a while to go down. And as I recall, their were others alive inside after the initial capsizing who didn't make it. If a distress call was sent out right away, before the ship even flipped, then its possible that at least some of those people could have been rescued.

[Zaune]

It's been eight years since I saw the film, but I think I remember the captain saying the emergency beacon would have been triggered by the ship capsizing, and in any case the windows of the main ballroom -where the majority of the passengers were gathered for a New Year celebration- blew in from the water pressure about a third of the way through.

It was a pretty depressing film, really.

[Adam Reynolds]

It being a cruise ship, presumably it has facilities on board for entertaining the passengers. If this includes SCUBA gear, I chose to be placed as near as possible to wherever it is being kept and immediately start kitting myself out. Then, make my way as close to the outside as possible on the side of the ship that isn't getting hit by the wave. Once things stop shaking after the ship rolls over, swim out to the surface.

This is definitely among the best solutions anyone could come up with. I think you might be the winner.

[OmegaChief]

From what I remember, the heroes flooded the ballast tanks so they could swim through them, and it was only after that point that the main ballroom got flooded. I always took away from it that the heroes wound up inadvertently killing the rest of the survivors with their escape attempt.

Also don't we see some people on the upper decks as the boat gets flipped, whatever happened to them?

[Elheru Aran]

Either trapped underneath the ship as it rolls over, or straight-up drowned because now they can't reach any of the boats on the davits or top decks of the ship. There should have been some rafts set up to automatically eject or something like that, I suppose, but I don't know how that works. Not sure that's an option. I know on some smaller boats there are automatic inflatable life rafts that are supposed to pop off when submerged past a certain period or something like that.

[Isolder74]

Depending on iteration Arthur could actually go toe-to-toe with Clark.

There is the times he's summoned a giant octopus to hold up a bridge. I think he can flip a boat back over.

Sorry I think I mixed you up with Green Arrow when it comes to the Teleporters.

[Esquire]

Does he ever summon more than one? Because cruise ships are a lot heavier than bridges.

[Zixinus]

Well, the most probably strategy is to just hang almost on the outside of the ship, on the top deck and tie myself to something so the rouge wave won't wash me away and I won't bash myself against something. Find a nice, clear room free of furniture, maybe put myself in a locker with some pillows or something.

Failing that, what about securing welding equipment and hide myself on the bottom deck somewhere and use the equipment to cut myself out? Or are ship walls that thick?

[Sea Skimmer]

I think I'd grab a lifejacket and jump overboard myself. The odds of not being crushed to death by the wave are about zero, but the odds of surviving the Poseidon are also just zero if it were a real ship.

Does he ever summon more than one? Because cruise ships are a lot heavier than bridges.

That depends on the bridge. The superstructure of the Golden Gate bridge is something like 400,000 tons for example, while the displacement tonnage (GRT is volume) of no modern cruise ship is above just about 100,000 tons, about the same as a late model Nimitz at deep load.

[Sea Skimmer]

I think I'd grab a lifejacket and jump overboard myself. The odds of not being crushed to death by the wave are about zero, but the odds of surviving the Poseidon are also just zero if it were a real ship. Also since rouge waves are very short lived 15 minutes might be enough time for it to disperse, while if it was an earthquake tsunami wave as it was in the original movie then the earthquake was probably so big the planet cracked in half and everyone is gonna die anyway.

Does he ever summon more than one? Because cruise ships are a lot heavier than bridges.

That depends on the bridge. The superstructure of the Golden Gate bridge is something like 400,000 tons for example, while the displacement tonnage (GRT is volume) of no modern cruise ship is above just about 100,000 tons, about the same as a late model Nimitz at deep load.

[Zeropoint]

Well, since I can't really do anything to save the ship, not even warn anyone, I'll have myself placed near a lifeboat or life raft. If possible, I'll steal a lifeboat and get as far from the ship as possible before the wave hits. If I can't manage that, I'll grab a life jacket or whatever other flotation I can find, jump overboard, and start swimming.