How would you survive the titanic?

Louis XXIV said:

I have none of the advantages that would let me get off. I'm not wealthy, I'm not a woman, and I'm not a child. If I have any meaningful money on hand, I suppose I could bribe someone to let me on a lifeboat and I'd certainly hang out near them. If it were possible to sneak aboard and hide in one, I'd do that too, but I don't think it is. Really, I'd have limited options.

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For me it's pretty much the same, except I'd also be an ethnic minority, so that probably doesn't help matters a lot I'd assume.

I guess I'd just try to find some piece of floating wood or whatever and hope I survive.

Timsup2nothin said:

Follow up question: What would you do if you did survive?

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Given that I'm Asian I'd expect a lot of discrimination and maybe even deportation, though they might end up deporting me to the wrong place. If I'm lucky I might get them to deport me back to where my great-grandfather lived in Vietam and he'd somehow take my word that I'm a long lost relative. I guess things could be pretty swell for me then until the communists come along. Or, well, I guess I could try to butterfly that away; actually, I might convince my great-grandfather to help me get sponsored to study in Japan, that might work out. Of course, if he thinks I'm some crazy loony in the first place, I guess I'd end up a beggar in the streets of Hanoi or something.

If I don't end up getting deported, the only people who would be eager to help me, Vietnamese living in America, basically don't exist since before the 60s and 70s the population of Vietnamese living in America was less than several hundred, and most of these were foreign students. I guess I could try waiting a couple of years to see if Uncle Ho shows up, because I've heard he lived in NYC for a couple of years, whether true or not. Otherwise my best hope would be to try to connect with some second-generation Chinese or Japanese-Americans.

Given how low I'd be in society, I don't think I'd even have time to figure out how to influence future events.

Timsup2nothin said:

I have none of the lifeboat worthy attributes, but I do have a fair amount of experience in the engineering end of ships. With 24 hours lead time I could stop her.

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This. And especially since merely slowing her down would be sufficient. Though if I couldn't manage that, then there's always getting access to the bridge immediately prior and either taking it over or just swinging the helm over for a bit. The bridge officers are (mostly) going to die anyway, right?

IglooDude said:

This. And especially since merely slowing her down would be sufficient. Though if I couldn't manage that, then there's always getting access to the bridge immediately prior and either taking it over or just swinging the helm over for a bit. The bridge officers are (mostly) going to die anyway, right?

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Well, yeah...but I'm guessing that hijacking her is not going to lead to 'survival'. The if-I-had-not-we-would-have-hit-an-iceberg-and-died defense would go down in history though.

If it never hit the iceberg, that part would never go down in history. What iceberg?

timtofly said:

If it never hit the iceberg, that part would never go down in history. What iceberg?

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That's the point. The 'we-would-have-if-I-had-not' defense would go down in history...as in 'Remember that nut job that hijacked the Titanic? Said he knew they were about to hit an iceberg. They hanged him, right? Or did they send him to a nut farm somewhere?'

Why would I want to survive? There's no wifi.

shave, wear a wig, and talk in a falsetto.

As an American who would not have lived in New York, but instead on a Southern plantation, I would never have been on a boat built by the Irish.