Okay, this is probably a dumb question, but a friend asked me this and I didn't know the answer, sooo, I will ask it anyway. When the ship was sinking, why were people throwing chairs overboard?? I don't understand, unless it was for later, for something to float on. But chairs don't seem like the best idea for that. Anybody know why??

-- Allison (allisonelizabeth@mb.sympatico.ca), March 02, 1998

Answers

Allison: I believe that this was pretty much desperation to have something to float on, even though most were wearing lifejackets. I really do not think they had time to be selective as to what they threw over and the deck chairs were close at hand and loose. The deaths, however were mainly caused by freezing and I don't think deck chairs would have helped that.

Regards, Peter

-- Peter Nivling (pcnivling@capecod.net), March 02, 1998.

From Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" - "Though all the boats were gone, (Chief Baker) Joughin was anything but discouraged. He went down to B Deck and began throwing deck chairs through the windows of the enclosed promenade. Others watched him, but they didn't help. Altogether he pitched about 50 chairs overboard."

I think that the Chief Baker here (who is the guy in the life best who "rides down the stern" with Jack-n-Rose) adds a little comedy to this whole tragedy in the manner in which he survives - which I comment in the thread about him. I believe it was like Peter said- there were no more boats at this point so he was just trying to throw stuff that would float and possibly save someone.

-- Jennifer from Pittsburgh (RozeT1tan@AOL.Com), March 03, 1998.

This goes along the lines of a question my dad had after his inital viewing of the movie. Why didn't they throw overboard the mattresses from the beds or cushions from the chairs to float on?

-- Karen Pressley (gemin555@aol.com), March 03, 1998.

Karen,

I was wondering about this too but I guess if they were throwing the chairs overboard the 'cushions from the chairs' pretty much went with the chairs don't you think :)

Mattresses back in these days were made with materials like horsehair et al. they were also incredibly heavy. Point is - they probably wouldn't have been terribly buoyant (especially when wet) even if you did manage to hoist one out and overboard.

-- Simon (ia501060@ntu.ac.uk), March 04, 1998.

What about ripping off a few doors? A couple of whacks with a fire axe and over the side. Just a suggestion.

-- Lianne (liannegraham@one.net.au), March 05, 1998.