(RAR!) You are aboard the Poseidon

[Raw Shark]

If I'm not allowed to pursue my first instinct, to save others in any direct way involving communication, I'll attempt to create a situation that will cause everybody to abandon ship, such as a fire, and then I'm going for the belt and suspenders approach: steal a set of scuba gear or, failing that, a life jacket and a lifeboat ASAP, gather up whomever is around at the time, and start rowing like a motherfucker.

[Me2005]

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.

Yeah, I think this and/or grabbing the SCUBA gear is about as good a plan as it gets. I'd probably start near the back of the ship by a lifeboat or runabout, pop the thing and any other floaty stuff off the Poseidon and throw whoever is nearby into it before leaving myself. If the water is tropical and rescue is 10 minutes away, there's no reason not to be in the water already instead of trapped inside a giant flooding steel box filled with electricity, flammable stuff, and pointy things.

[Zixinus]

The problem if you are hit with the wave is the sheer amount of force involved: this thing was powerful enough to overturn a ship. If you are in the water when it hits you'll be accelerated and thrown about with considerable force. You might be thrown away with considerable distance. Worse, you might hit something.

Would there be any good derived from sneaking/forcing your way into the control cabin and dropping anchor?

[Eternal_Freedom]

I may be slightly biased (it was my idea after all) but there is, I think, one critical advantage of using the SCUBA gear rather than simply jumping overboard. The SCUBA gear will means that when the giant wave hits you getting swamped underwater is less of an issue than if you were in a lifeboat or life-jacket or something.

Hell, if I am using the SCUBA gear and get off the ship before the wave hits, I'd go as deep as I can so as to avoid any potential floating crap the wave carries my way.

Of course, if you want a "cooler" solution, you could always see if the ship has a surfboard handy...

On the sneaking to the control cabin and dropping anchor idea, I doubt that will help. If the ship is out at sea the odds of the anchor actually hitting bottom is pretty slim. And if the wave has enough strength to roll the ship, it'd probably just snap the anchor chain anyway.

[Adam Reynolds]

I may be slightly biased (it was my idea after all) but there is, I think, one critical advantage of using the SCUBA gear rather than simply jumping overboard. The SCUBA gear will means that when the giant wave hits you getting swamped underwater is less of an issue than if you were in a lifeboat or life-jacket or something.

Just curious, do you actually know how to SCUBA dive? Because that is the only potential problem with that concept. Most people don't know how to do this. Not to mention that of abandoning everyone else, but its not like you have much choice in the matter.

On the sneaking to the control cabin and dropping anchor idea, I doubt that will help. If the ship is out at sea the odds of the anchor actually hitting bottom is pretty slim. And if the wave has enough strength to roll the ship, it'd probably just snap the anchor chain anyway.

Especially given that modern anchors are relatively lightweight and don't sink as quickly. Though the more modern materials likely would do better under stress.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah, I've been SCUBA diving before, it's why I thought of it before a lifeboat or anything. It's been a few years, but I can't imagine the gear will have changed much.

[JamesStaley]

To interject a bit of "reality" into a "fantasy/what-if" subject, history has shown that if you are anywhere below deck when a ship "turns turtle", you are probably going to drown. This is how most of the sailors aboard the USS Oklahoma were lost at Pearl Harbor after the ship rolled over and sank. The vast majority of sailors were trapped below deck and were drowned when the compartments they were in flooded and they could not be reached in time. So ,if you are on the Poseidon and you have time enough to get a warning out to people, what you would want to do is get as many people on deck and into life jackets as possible, and if you are lucky enough to make it into a life boat, the odds are pretty good that you will survive. This was also true aboard the Titanic: the vast majority of lives lost where those of the people who were trapped in the lower decks when they could not get topside to abandon ship.

[madd0ct0r]

magnificent. a four month old thread and you still managed to break one of the scenario rules set out in the first post.

[JamesStaley]

What does "(RAR!)" mean?

[Raw Shark]

Nothing. There was a whole thread years ago. I personally backronym it to Random Alternate Reality, though. And yeah, you missed a major rule there.

[madd0ct0r]

Rat comes from zor, who made a habit of starting his scenario posts with a rar!
A few people at my school did it to. It wàs like a verbal tic to say you were making an announcement.

[Eternal_Freedom]

"All great orators roar before commencing their speeches. It is the way of things." Blackadder the Third.

[Raw Shark]

BALDRICK: Which codpiece, Sir?

EDMUND: The Black Russian, I think. It always strikes terror into the heart of the clergy...

[LadyTevar]

Once again, Please check the Dates before posting in a Thread! Necros are Nasty.